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Defining policy in a troubled age: Whose interests? What place?

Because much of the Iberian overseas enterprise depended on military defense of resources and communications links, the networks were extraordinarily vulnerable to assault by others. As royal financial resources became increasingly inadequate for the task of meeting all Habsburg commitments on a global basis, difficult choices had to be made about where emphasis was to be placed. At the core of many of the problems was the revolt in the Netherlands and the establishment of Dutch financial, mercantile, industrial, and maritime capacities. Nowhere were the choices more severe than in Portugal where leaders had to try to balance the needs of the Crown's Atlantic and Indian Ocean "estates."

Reading: Elliott, chs. VI, VII, and VIII.

  1. What factors contributed to the tendency toward price inflation in the European economy of the sixteenth century?
  2. Why did production increase in the European economy without a corresponding increase in productivity?
  3. In what ways did the population increases and urbanization in the sixteenth century affect the social and cultural environments of the Iberian Peninsula?
  4. What was the impact of the increasing development of systems of wage labor in the Iberian Peninsula on the social and cultural environments of the region?
  5. How did the growing importance of wage laborers shape the markets for various commodities of African, American, Asian, and European origin?
  6. What impact did the growing divisions among European Christians over matters of doctrine, devotional practices, and institutions have on the ability of Habsburg rulers to exercise authority in their various domains?
  7. How did the Dutch, English, and French emerge as naval, commercial, and political powers in the Atlantic basin in the late-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?
  8. How did the Dutch East India Company get monopoly control of the world's supply of cloves, nutmeg, and mace? What difference did this monopoly make?
  9. Why did king Philip II allow political factionalism to divide his government in the early decades of his reign?
  10. Why did king Philip II increasingly withdraw important decisions from his major councils in favor of discussions with a small clique of close collaborators?
  11. Why were levels of conflict in the Mediterranean between the realms of Philip II and those of the Ottoman empire reduced in the last two decades of the sixteenth century?
  12. Why did Philip II decide to attempt a direct invasion of England?
  13. Why was Philip II so intent on the defeat of the rebels in the Low Countries (Netherlands)?
  14. Why did Philip II believe that he had to intervene in French affairs in 1589?
  15. Why were Philip II's troops in the Netherlands able to mutiny so frequently?
  16. Why was banditry such a serious problem throughout Philip II's Mediterranean realms?
  17. Why did Philip II face a revolt in 1591 in the kingdom of Aragón?
  18. On what factors did the successful exercise of Philip II's authority depend? On what factors did the autonomy and capacity of Philip II's Crown government depend?
  19. If "Spain" were as poor a region as often claimed, how was the kingdom of Castile, independently of its American income, able to provide such a substantial proportion of Habsburg military resources for so long?
  20. What were the political implications of increasing investment by Castilian elites in juros (government bonds)?
  21. What were the political implications of the Castilian Crown's sale of self-government to a large number of municipalities in the Habsburg era?
  22. Why were Habsburg rulers willing to tolerate the Morisco presence in their Iberian domains throughout the sixteenth century?
  23. On what factors did the activities of Inquisition tribunals depend?
  24. How do you account for the innovative cultural developments of late sixteenth-century Iberia?
  25. In what ways was there a reorientation of the development of Portuguese Asia between 1570 and 1610?
  26. Why did Portuguese authorities show a much greater interest in territorial acquisition after 1570, in places like East Africa and Sri Lanka? Why were some of the projects more successful than others?
  27. In the early sixteenth century, why did the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal have such different conceptions of their overseas enterprises?
  28. What evidence is there of Castilian influence, prior to the accession of Philip II of Castile as Philip III of Portugal, on Portuguese Crown decisions about the degree of royal participation in trade?
  29. Why did Portuguese administration increasingly stress the interests of Brazilian development over those of the Indian Ocean? Why did the Portuguese Crown increasingly regionalize commercial administration after the kingdom became a Habsburg realm?
  30. Why did king Sebastião of Portugal decide in 1578 to become embroiled in the troubled affairs of Morocco and to lead an expeditionary army himself even though he had not yet sired an heir to the throne?
  31. How did Iberian New Christians of Jewish origin become such a force in global trade in the period 1580 and 1630?

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J. B. Owens
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Revised:  28 July 1999


URL:  http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/spemp/reading.20.html