The Myth of Empire.(Spain's Road to Empire: The Making of a World Power 1492-1763)(Book Review)

At the end of the 16th century, a solitary Spanish galleon plowed the Pacific between Asia and Acapulco, risking a perilous crossing to bring silver back from the Americas to Manila, where East Asian traders gathered. For 200 years, Spanish ships traversed the same route, returning with loads of silk, spices, jewelry, gold and jade destined for the courts of Europe. But according to a lively new book by Henry Kamen, that image--of a lone, stoic ship spreading wealth in its wake-- is misleading. In "Spain's Road to Empire: The Making of a World Power 1492-1763," the Barcelona-based British historian delivers a sharp blow to Spain's sense of its grand imperial past--a memory that still permeates politics, religion and foreign policy today. The Spanish Empire, Kamen argues forcefully, was neither created by Spain, nor was it as powerful and entrenched as the myths surrounding it suggest. "We are accustomed to the idea that Spain created its empire," Kamen says. "[But] it is more useful to work with the idea that its empire created Spain."

The Manila galleon, as it was known, became the iconic image of the Spanish Empire during its 17th-century heyday, when it encompassed lands from California to Patagonia, the Philippines to North Africa. Court chroniclers sang of Spain's glory: "Never has a king or people ventured so far or conquered so much... as our people have done, nor have any others achieved... what we have done in feats of arms, in navigations, in the preaching of the holy gospel," wrote Lopez de Gomara in 1552. Modern historians followed suit, painting a dramatic picture of Spain's rise to world dominion that started in 1516, when the country was incorporated into the European empire ruled by Charles V.

But according to Kamen's book, the true story is quite different. When Spain became part of Charles V's empire, it was immediately sidelined-- not least because it was significantly poorer than some of the emperor's other territories, including what are now Austria, Hungary, most of Italy and the Netherlands. Charles rarely visited. Only when precious metals from the New World--courtesy of Christopher Columbus-- began to flood Spanish coffers under Charles V's son, Philip II, did Spain win a prominent place in the empire. In fact, ...