The Monarchy of Spain during the Habsburgs
Alfredo Alvar Ezquerra
Institute of History
Spanish National Research Council, Madrid
ORCID: 0000-0001-8658-5203
Published: 22/12/2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.31338/ahi.2023.2.10
ABSTRACT: This article exposes the functioning of the Spanish Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries, centuries of its peak. An Empire that knew how to solve management problems due to the enormous distances between Madrid and its vast domains simply by delegating the king’s powers to his officials. And of loyalty of these royal officers towards their superiors and that of all to one towards their king. Since religion played a fundamental role, the Monarchy of Spain, or the Catholic Monarchy of Spain, was always a dynamic aggregate of territories. There was no institutional unit except that of the king, the governing head of all that vast territory. This paper analyses the transition from the Trastámara dynasty to that of the Habsburgs and how they had to respond to the new needs that arose from the Monarchy regarding the expansion of its possessions in Europe and America. For this, a tour of the institutional functioning of this extensive Empire is made.
KEYWORDS: Spanish Empire, the Habsburgs, Spanish Monarchy, polisynodial regime, globalisation.
