Golden Age Spain: An Empirical Odyssey of Spain

Who created the impressive Spanish Empire? How was it created? How was life during the Golden Age of Spain? All these boundless queries are answered in an interesting way by HENRY KAMEN in his book GOLDEN AGE SPAIN. Henry Kamen made a notable study and adverted that Spain alone neither created nor maintained the Grand Spanish Empire, which at its peak covered a third of the world, from the Netherlands to New Mexico. Spain didn’t even exist as a political entity until the eighteenth century rather just a mere association of states showcased itself as a grand empire.

The Empire was not only a conglomeration of political states but also religious entities and this had influenced their literature over the years:

“The coexistence of three major religions – Islam, Christianity and Judaism – in the peninsula for some seven centuries had a formative influence on the character of Spain and has coloured its literature and history.”

Spain's empire-building started in 1492, when Isabella and Ferdinand, the "Catholic Monarchs", defeated the Muslim kingdom of Granada. The foundation of this Golden Era of Spain was commenced by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella, the queen of Castile. Their marriage became the basis of the political unification of Spain, which saw its greatest under command of The Habsburg rulers chiefly Charles V and Philip II.

Kamen covered all tit bits of this Golden Era and his description was so vivid that it seemed like I can visualize the glory of the Golden Empire. Even he illustrated even the disputes that occurred among the Spanish states during this period “stretching from the events in Aragon in 1591 to the Portuguese and Catalan revolts of 1640, the Naples revolt of 1647–48 and the Palermo rebellion of 1674,” and explained why the “use of the word ‘revolt’ can be highly misleading”.

Kamen claimed “Spain’s empire was almost unique, because it was not founded on expansion and did not seek further expansion.” Though it may be difficult to believe this fact but Kamen had given quite a lot of explanations behind his assertion.

As a whole, the book is contemporaneous with gallery of records which not only excavates the past glory of Spain but it does also fabricate a transcendental view of the cultural and the imperial beauty of that Glorious time of Spain.