This is the first book in any language to attempt a comprehensive discussion of the relations between government, technology and science in Philip II's Spain. In histories of early-modern European technology and science, Spain has consistently been overlooked; yet the assumption that Spain contributed little in these fields has hardly been tested against archival evidence. Dr Goodman redresses this misconception. Through extensive research of source material he offers a reconsideration of Philip's relations with technology and the sciences, showing the crown's considerable involvement in...

This is the first book to attempt a comprehensive analysis of the state of Spain's naval forces in the years following the defeat of the Great Armada in 1588 and during the seventeenth century. This was a period in which all of Europe's maritime powers were attaching increasing importance to naval warfare in their bid to topple Spain and to seize the rich pickings of her vast empire. The book's findings throw new light on the conservation of Spain's timber resources, naval funding, and the recruitment and status of the Spanish seaman, in a study of the political, social, economic and...