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The Spanish empire in America was the first of the great seaborne empires of western Europe; it was for long the richest and the most formidable, the focus of envy, fear, and hatred. Its haphazard beginning dates from 1492; it was to last more than three hundred years before breaking up in the early nineteenth century in civil wars between rival generals and "liberators."
Available now for the first time in paperback is J. H. Parry's classic assessment of the impact of Spain on the Americas. Parry presents a broad picture of the conquests of Cortes and Pizarro and of the economic and social consequences in Spain of the effort to maintain control of vast holdings. He probes the complex administration of the empire, its economy, social structure, the influence of the Church, the destruction of the Indian cultures and the effect of their decline on Spanish policy. As we approach the quincentenary of Columbus's arrival in the Americas, Parry provides the historical basis for a new consideration of the former Spanish colonies of Latin America and the transformation of pre-Columbian cultures to colonial states.
List of contents
Introduction by ].H. Plumb
PROLOGUE The tradition of conquest
PART I THE ESTABLISHMENT OF EMPIRE
I Islands and mainland in the Ocean Sea
2 Seville and the Caribbean
3 The kingdoms of the sun
4 The conquerors
5 The society of conquest
6 The maritime life-line
PART II THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF EMPIRE
7 Rights and duties
8 The spreading of the Faith
9 The ordering of society
10 The enforcement of law
PART III THE COST OF EMPIRE
11 Demographic catastrophe
12 Economic dependence
13 Peril by sea
PART IV THE ENDURANCE OF EMPIRE
14 Decline and recovery
15 Caribbean conflicts
16 Growth and reorganisation
PART V THE DISINTEGRATION OF EMPIRE
17 Spaniards and Americans
18 The Creole revolt
CONCLUSION The aftermath of empire
Bibliographical notes
Index
About the author
J. H. Parry (1914-1984) was educated at Cambridge and Harvard, taught at the University of the West Indies, the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and the University of Wales. He was appointed Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University in 1965. Among his many books are The Age of Reconnaissance and The Age of Discovery (California).
Summary
An assessment of the impact of Spain on the Americas. It presents a picture of the conquests of Cortes and Pizarro and of the economic and social consequences in Spain of the effort to maintain control of vast holdings. It probes the complex administration of the empire, its economy, social structure, the influence of the Church, and more.
