Europe and the Decline of Spain : A Study of the Spanish System, 1580–1720

First published in 1981, Europe and the Decline of Spain deals with the slow ebbing of Spanish power, its ‘melancholy, long, withdrawing roar’ during the ‘long seventeenth century’ of pre-industrial Europe. The author looks at the fortunes of Spanish European hegemony from its apogee late in the reign of Philip II to its ultimate failure and dissolution about a century later.

The author examines the dynamic spiritual and material resources of Spain as a politico-military system of continental dominance and control. He places the system in a context of continuous general European war, and structures and events in Spain and its provinces are set in this context.

A feature of the book is the description of changing approaches to the Spanish system by its major adversaries. This, along with a fresh look at the events themselves, has conditioned a reinterpretation of Spain’s ‘political’ decline which stresses its centrality to an overview of the whole period.