The End of the Imperial Dream: War and Power in Castile after 1635

Abstract

Within a vast chronological period, the wars from the decade of 1630 to that of 1710 can be considered to be in an historical acceleration, in sharp contrast to prior periods: that of 1525 to 1625 and 1720 to 1800, when Iberian conflicts, though extremely violent, were geographically localized and limited in time. The arrival of war in the Iberian peninsula, especially in the most difficult period comprised between 1635 and 1660, implied deep transformations in the definition of regal authority and its limits, on the subject’s obligations and the role that the social elite and institutions had; the changes were, in many cases, not produced or wanted by the people involved, but they had to adapt to them by urgent need. In these brutal years of the 17th century, the crisis in the perception of leadership and the international projection of the Monarchy set the bases of a new definition of what meant to be Castilian and Spanish.

Keywords

• monarquía
• fiscalidad
• reclutamiento
• siglo xvii
• identidad