‘There is but one world’: Globalisation and connections in the overseas territories of the Spanish Habsburgs (1581-1640)

Abstract

The study of the overseas empire of the Spanish Habsburgs during the period when the Crown of Portugal was incorporated to this politico-economic structure and the study of their encounters, exchanges and contributions at all levels are increasingly being perceived as a plausible and original alternative within the current historiographical debate evolving around the configuration of the new European political order produced during the Early Modern period and characterised by the so-called ‘crisis of the State’ and the economic ‘decadence’ of the territories of southern Europe. This article offers some observations concerning this interesting subject, as well as some insight into the implications that this process carried in the Spanish and Portuguese cases.

Keywords

• spanish monarchy
• portuguese crown
• early modern period
• global history