This page presents information related to the seventh class session of J. B. Owens's fall 2002 upper-division undergraduate and graduate course, History 360/560, The Spanish Empire. This course is part of the core curriculum in comparative and world history of the Department of History, Idaho State University. The sole purpose of this page is to provide an orientation to the reading assignments and class session for those students enrolled in History 360/560. See the source page for the complete Dublin Core standard metadata.

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European territorial expansion: the Habsburg connection

It is of great significance for world history that the Habsburg dynasty came to rule all of the monarchies of the Iberian Peninsula. I will discuss the nature of Habsburg dynastic expansion, with particular attention to the social and cultural environments of seigniorial administration. Both as a point of comparison and as a partial explanation of Habsburg policy, I also want to say something about the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. A consideration of the role of coerced labor and the development of territorial empires. Special attention will be given to the "Indian Question" and the development of Castilian and Portuguese American administration.

Reading: Payne, chapters 9 (pp. 178-187), 11, and 13; Burkholder and Johnson, ch. 3 and pp. 116-125.

  1. What is the proper unit of analysis for an examination of the interactive networks that characterized the exercise of political authority?
  2. What differences do you notice between the behavior of leaders of sixteenth-century polities and those of twentieth-century ones? How do you account for the differences you find?
  3. Why were the attempts of the Aviz and Trastámara rulers to pursue a marriage alliance that would produce a common ruler for all their kingdoms frustrated?
  4. Why did Ferdinand and Isabella marry their daughter Joanna to Philip of Habsburg, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I?
  5. Why did Ferdinand and Isabella marry their daughter Catherine to the heir to the English Tudor dynasty, the future Henry VIII?
  6. Why were there major rebellions in the kingdoms of Castile and Valencia when Charles of Habsburg was brought into the Iberian Peninsula as joint ruler with his mother Joanna of Trastámara?
  7. What impact did the development of gunpowder weapons have on the social and cultural environments of the Iberian Peninsula and of Europe as a whole?
  8. What was the social and intellectual significance of the technological innovation of printing with movable type?
  9. What was the impact of Renaissance humanism on the social and cultural environments of the sixteenth century?
  10. What effects did the knowledge of the peoples, geography, and natural environment of the Americas have on European religious and intellectual life?
  11. What was the impact of the growing divisions among European Christians over matters of doctrine, devotional practices, and institutions on the ability of Habsburg rulers to exercise their authority in their various domains?
  12. What were the major factors that shaped the policies of Charles of Habsburg (the Emperor Charles V) in each of the European territories he ruled?
  13. Why was the Ottoman empire such a dangerous and successful rival to the Habsburgs?
  14. What role did the artillery fortress have in stabilizing the boundaries between Habsburg and Ottoman territories?
  15. Why did military discipline become such an increasingly important factor in European and Mediterranean warfare?
  16. Why did Charles V maintain the Inquisition in his Iberian lands once the covert Judaism of the Converso community had been crushed?
  17. Why didn't the Iberian governments of Charles V pursue the forced conversion of their practicing Muslim subjects?
  18. Why wasn't the Iberian Peninsula the scene of the terrible witch persecutions that periodically convulsed other regions of western and central Europe?
  19. Why did the Iberian Peninsula emerge in the sixteenth century as one of Europe's leading areas for the development of political and ethical philosophy?
  20. Why were Iberian intellectuals among the first Europeans to articulate theories of human rights?
  21. Why did Iberian intellectuals emerge in the sixteenth century as major proponents of constitutional theories about limitations on the exercise of political authority? Why did law and judicial administration have primacy of place in sixteenth-century political thought?
  22. What impact did the establishment of administrative control over overseas territories have on government and political thought?
  23. What roles did monks and priests have in overseas administration and policies regarding American Indian populations?
  24. Why did the introduction of new disease microorganisms in the Americas after 1492 have such devastating demographic and social effects on American Indian populations?
  25. Why were European economic benefits from the Americas so long dependent on the use of coerced labor?
  26. What factors enhanced the authority of Castilian and Portuguese royal authorities in the Americas?
  27. Why didn't Castilian monarchs prescribe strict limitations on the jurisdictions of their various officials?
  28. What were the effects of granting creoles access to American judicial posts through the sale of offices beginning in 1687?
  29. Why were provincial offices, like those of the corregidor and alcalde mayor, the only American posts harder for creoles to obtain after the sale of such offices began?
  30. Why didn't Portuguese American administration develop as rapidly and elaborately as Castilian administration?
  31. Why was the Brazilian donatary system only successful in São Vicente and Pernambuco?
  32. How did the social position of royal officials in Brazil compare to that of those in Asia and East Africa?
  33. Why were officials associated with judicial administration so prominent in the Crown administrations of Castilian and Portuguese America?
  34. Why were Castilian and Portuguese churchmen so much more successful in their efforts to integrate the American indigenous population into the new monarchical regimes than they were in much of Africa and Asia?
  35. Why was the status of the American Indian a central policy issue in Castile and Portugal?
  36. What impact did Christian missionaries have on cultural and linguistic patterns in Brazil, Mexico, and Peru?
  37. Why were missionary efforts so much more troubled in Peru than in the Valley of Mexico?
  38. Why did Jesuits (members of the Society of Jesus) become so much more prominent in Church affairs in South America than in Mexico?
  39. How would you characterize the economic position of Church institutions in Castilian and Portuguese America?
  40. Why did serious disputes between officials from different administrative bodies so often begin over seemingly trivial matters?

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J. B. Owens
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Revised: 31 August 2002




URL:  http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/spemp/readver5.07.html