Spanish History

This volume in a series of world history case studies analyzes Spanish colonialism in the early seventeenth century by examining the career of Diego Fernández de Córdoba. Fernández served as viceroy of both New Spain (Mexico) and Peru during a period that featured strained race relations, new socio-economic tensions, and bitter conflicts between Catholic religious orders. His measured responses to Jews, the Inquisition, women, and local rebellions reveal a man determined to hold a vast empire together through the power of compromise. What emerges is a new understanding of an often-...

Spain's position on Europe's southwestern corner has exposed it to cultural, political and actual winds blowing from all quadrants. Africa lies a mere nine miles to the south. The Mediterranean connects it to the civilisational currents of Phoenicians, Romans, Carthaginians and Byzantines as well as the Arabic lands of the Near East. Hordes from the Russian steppes were amongst the first to arrive. They would be followed by Visigoths, Arabs, Napoleonic armies and many more invaders and immigrants.

On February 15, 1898, the USS Maine exploded in Havana Harbor. Although there was no evidence that the Spanish were responsible, yellow newspapers such as William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal whipped Americans into frenzy by claiming that Spain's "secret infernal machine" had destroyed the battleship. Soon after, the blandly handsome and easily influenced President McKinley declared war, sending troops not only to Cuba but also to the Philippines.

In this gripping narrative history, Laura Spinney traces the overlooked pandemic to reveal how the virus traveled across the globe, exposing mankind’s vulnerability and putting our ingenuity to the test. Drawing on the latest research in history, virology, epidemiology, psychology, and economics, Pale Rider masterfully recounts the little-known catastrophe that forever changed humanity.

Using a wide array of sources, historian Matthew Restall highlights seven key myths, uncovering the source of the inaccuracies and exploding the fallacies and misconceptions behind each myth. This vividly written and authoritative book shows, for instance, that native Americans did not take the conquistadors for gods and that small numbers of vastly outnumbered Spaniards did not bring down great empires with stunning rapidity. We discover that Columbus was correctly seen in his lifetime - and for decades after - as a briefly fortunate but unexceptional participant in efforts.

From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain's early conquests in the Americas. Hugh Thomas shows Spain at the dawn of the sixteenth century as a world power on the brink of greatness. For Spain and for the world, the decision to send Christopher Columbus west was epochal—the dividing line between the medieval and the modern.

La casa blanca es la metáfora del patio trasero del Estado que nos adentra en las consecuencias de la tortura sexual en la voz de tres sobrevivientes. Es ese espacio fuera de la ley de un sistema que fabrica culpables y que queda expuesto en la investigación de una periodista y la rebelión frente al Estado del perito que las entrevistó.

The Spanish Empire was the first truly global empire and the first to be described as one on which “the sun never sets.” It rapidly grew to become one of the largest and most powerful empires in the history of the world and brought us goods such as potatoes, chocolate, and chewing gum.

Florida Lost and Gained: Spain’s Last Colony, America’s New Frontier (1800–1860) For centuries, Florida stood on the edge of empires—first a distant outpost of Spain, then a young American republic’s strategic prize. In Florida Lost and Gained, author Donald Elton uncovers the turbulent half-century that transformed Florida from a neglected Spanish possession into a key Southern state on the eve of the U.S. Civil War. This richly detailed narrative brings to life the final decades of Spanish rule, the diplomatic and military maneuvering behind the Adams–Onís Treaty, and the ...

The mass conversion of Iberian Jews to Christianity in the late 14th and 15th centuries was catastrophic for the Jewish community. Possibly up to a third of the Jewish community converted. There are many reasons why such large-scale conversions occurred. The widespread violence which spread across Castile and Aragon was unprecedented. Violence was the immediate cause for the mass conversions, and the debilitated state of Jewish communities following these attacks was also a factor in subsequent waves of conversion. The crisis, however, is also seen as the consequence of an absence of ...

Este audiolibro relata la historia de Alejandro Magno, rey de Macedonia, que soñó y luchó por conseguir un gran imperio que uniera Oriente y Occidente y fusionara la cultura helénica con la asiática. En ese sentido, Charles Mercer se detiene, primero, en narrar la forma en que Alejandro configuró su personalidad gracias a su sólida formación atlética y militar y, sobre todo, a su gran desarrollo intelectual debido, especialmente, a que estuvo bajo la tutela de Aristóteles.

This book is a history of early medieval Spain. The book begins with the early histories of Castile, Galicia, Leon, Navarre, Aragon, and Portugal. The history of both Spain and Portugal start in the early 800s. The ruling families' histories are interrelated through their marriages. There are also sections devoted to the early history of each of the major counties.

Amid the many catastrophes of the 20th century, the Spanish Civil War continues to exert a particular fascination among history buffs and the layperson alike. This Very Short Introduction integrates the political, social, and cultural history of the Spanish Civil War. It sets out the domestic and international context of the war for a general audience. In addition to tracing the course of war, the book locates the war's origins in the cumulative social and cultural anxieties provoked by a process of rapid, uneven, and accelerating modernism taking place all over Europe.

Por primera vez un volumen reúne la historia de España escrita por Arturo Pérez-Reverte durante más de cuatro años en su columna «Patente de corso» del XL Semanal. Un relato ameno, personal, a ratos irónico, pero siempre único, de nuestra accidentada historia a través de los siglos. Una obra concebida por el autor para, en palabras suyas, «divertirme, releer y disfrutar; un pretexto para mirar atrás desde los tiempos remotos hasta el presente, reflexionar un poco sobre ello y contarlo por escrito de una manera poco ortodoxa.»

Over the few short decades that followed Christopher Columbus' first landing in the Caribbean in 1492, Spain conquered the two most powerful civilizations of the Americas: the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, and the other explorers and soldiers who took part in these expeditions dedicated their lives to seeking political and religious glory, helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. But centuries later, these conquistadors have become the stuff of nightmares.

¡Rivales! Amienemigos que cambiaron al mundo es una exclusiva de audio, como si Monty Python enseñara dar clase de historia. Cada volumen de cuatro historias de 30 minutos profundizará en los mezquinos insultos y los rencores que llevaron a muchos de los mayores avances del mundo, llevados al audio con un descarado sentido del humor.

Después de sobrevivir a un atentado que estuvo a punto de acabar con sus planes megalómanos, Thomas Franklin ha llegado a la cúspide de su prestigio y reconocimiento mundial. Los gobiernos de todo el planeta y la Iglesia católica han terminado rindiéndose a su liderazgo político y moral. Ahora su poder va mucho más allá de la pequeña isla caribeña de Utopía, donde creó una sociedad ideal basada en los principios de la obra de Tomás Moro. En apenas dos años ha construido la Ciudad de la Luz, en el corazón de los Estados Unidos.

Leo Tolstoy's classic story of doomed love is one of the most admired novels in world literature. Generations of readers have been enthralled by his magnificent heroine, the unhappily married Anna Karenina, and her tragic affair with dashing Count Vronsky.

"Breve historia de Hispania" es un audiolibro que cuenta el proceso de cambio que vivieron los pueblos indígenas de la Península Ibérica con la llegada del Imperio romano. Se describen los episodios más apasionantes de la conquista romana como las guerras celtíberas, las guerras lusitanas hasta llegar a la total dominación romana. También se relata cómo esta dominación trajo consigo un proceso de aculturación lento pero permanente que dio pie a curiosos hechos como la esfuerzo por erradicar la costumbre de los lusitanos y bletonenses de realizar sacrificios humanos.

Her story is so much more than a tale of war, tremendous courage, and loss. It is one of the greatest love stories in history. Based upon a true Spanish heroine. Barcelona, Spain, 1803. Agustina Saragossa, the youngest daughter of a bladesmith, sneaks around the military barracks, yet not to snag a husband as everyone thinks. Stubborn, hot-tempered and fiercely devoted to her country, like her grandfather before her, she is far more interested in learning about the ensuing war between Britain and France than the lazy, arrogant Spanish soldiers at the compound. When Sergeant Juan Roca, a ...