For nearly two centuries Spain was the world s most influential nation, dominant in Europe and with authority over immense territories in America and the Pacific. Because none of this was achieved by its own economic or military resources, Henry Kamen sets out to explain how it achieved the unexpected status of world power, and examines political events and foreign policy through the reigns of each of the nation s rulers, from Ferdinand and Isabella at the end of the fifteenth century to Philip V in the 1700s.

He explores the distinctive features that made up the Spanish experience,...