Read more
"The untold story of the engineering behind the empire, showing how imperial Spain built upon existing infrastructure and hierarchies of the Inca, Aztec, and more, to further its growth. Sixteenth-century Spain was small, poor, disunited, and sparsely populated. Yet the Spaniards and their allies built the largest empire the world had ever seen. How did they achieve this? Felipe Fernâandez-Armesto and Manuel Lucena Giraldo argue that Spain's engineers were critical to this venture. The Spanish invested in infrastructure to the advantage of local power brokers, enhancing the abilities of incumbent elites to grow wealthy on trade, and widening the arc of Spanish influence. Bringing to life stories of engineers, prospectors, soldiers, and priests, the authors paint a vivid portrait of Spanish America in the age of conquest. This is a dazzling new history of the Spanish Empire, and a new understanding of empire itself, as a venture marked as much by collaboration as oppression"--
About the author
Felipe Fernández-Armesto is the William P. Reynolds Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and an award-winning scholar and historian. His books include
Straits.
Manuel Lucena Giraldo is a research scientist at the Spanish National Research Council and an adjunct professor at IE University and ESCP Business School Europe. His books include
Firsting in the Early Modern Atlantic World.
Summary
A lucid, entertaining and story-filled romp through 400 years of Latin American and Spanish history.
