Conflicts of Empires Spain, the Low Countries and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585-1713

by Israel, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9781852851613
• ISBN10: 1852851619
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The period between the late sixteenth and the early eighteenth centuries was one of tremendous, and ultimately decisive, shifts in the balance of political, military and economic power in both Europe and the wider world. Spain's overwhelming dominance in the 1580s seemed unassailable, yet by the Peace of Utrecht in 1713 its greatness had been eclipsed, leaving supremacy to Britain, France and, in the commercial sphere, the Dutch. In these essays (five of which are previously unpublished) Jonathan Israel argues that Spain's efforts to maintain her hegemony continued to be centred on the Low Countries. One should not readily assume that Spain's order of priorities was misconceived: at times she appeared to be close to succeeding. Both France and Britain were deeply riven by religious, political and social divisions during a large part of the seventeenth century. While it is true that after Spain's final defeat, at the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659), French preponderance within, and British supremacy outside, Europe seemed increasingly probable, the overthrow of James II in 1688 might well have been the prelude to political chaos and civil war in Britain. While long-term economic and social trends played a large part in shaping the outcome of events, it is also true that the impact of personalities and short-term contingencies could often be decisive.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	vii	(2)
Acknowledgements	ix	(2)
Foreword	xi	(2)
Abbreviations	xiii	(1)
Introduction	xiv
1 The Court of Albert and Isabella, 1598-1621	1	(22)
2 Garrisons and Empire: Spain's Strongholds in North-West Germany, 1589-1659	23	(22)
3 A Spanish Project to Defeat the Dutch without Fighting: The Rhine-Maas Canal, 1624-9	45	(18)
4 Olivares, the Cardinal-Infante and Spain's Strategy in the Low Countries: The Road to Rocroi, 1635-43	63	(30)
5 Art and Diplomacy: Gerard Ter Borch and the Munster Peace Negotiations, 1646-8	93	(12)
6 Spain and Europe from the Peace of Munster to the Peace of the Pyrenees, 1648-59	105	(40)
7 Dutch Sephardi Jewry, Millenarian Politics and the Struggle for Brazil, 1640-54	145	(26)
8 The Diplomatic Career of Jeronimo Nunes da Costa: An Episode in Dutch-Portuguese Relations of the Seventeenth Century	171	(26)
9 Lopo Ramirez (David Curiel) and the Attempt to Establish a Sephardi Community in Antwerp in 1653-4	197	(22)
10 The Jews of Spanish Oran and their Expulsion in 1669	219	(22)
11 Toleration in Seventeenth-Century Dutch and English Thought	241	(22)
12 William III and Toleration	263	(42)
13 England's Mercantilist Response to Dutch World Trade Primacy, 1647-74	305	(14)
14 The Amsterdam Stock Exchange and the English Revolution of 1688	319	(30)
15 England, the Dutch and the Struggle for Mastery of World Trade in the Age of the Glorious Revolution, 1682-1702	349	(12)
16 Propaganda in the Making of the Glorious Revolution	361	(14)
17 Gregorio Leti (1631-1701) and the Dutch Sephardi Elite at the Close of the Seventeenth Century	375	(16)
18 The Dutch Republic and its Jews during the Conflict over the Spanish Succession, 1699-1715	391	(20)
Index	411