This page presents information related to the ninth 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.

You may return to the course main page or to the reading assignments and lecture topics page.

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." An overview of the economic, political, and information networks into which Iberian peoples and officials had inserted themselves and an analysis of the opportunities and difficulties inherent in such global activities. Special attention to the pull of its "periphery" on Portugal.

Reading: Payne, vol. I, ch. 14; Burkholder and Johnson, ch. 5.

  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?
  32. In what ways did the exchange of plants, animals, and peoples between the Americas and Afroeurasia in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries affect the social and cultural environments of Europeans, Asians, Africans, and American Indians?
  33. Why did an active silver trade develop between Mexico and Manila?
  34. Why were Roman Catholics generally more successful than Protestants in converting non-Europeans between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries?
  35. Why, despite intense missionary efforts by Christians, was Islam the most rapidly expanding religion in Afroeurasia between 1500 and 1800 (and in terms of numbers of converts, in the world during this period)?
  36. What was required to mine, process, and transport American silver?
  37. Why were the systems of mine labor different in Mexico and Peru?
  38. What were the environmental consequences of the tremendous expansion of silver production in Mexico and Peru?
  39. What accounts for the centrality of mining and sugar production in the economic importance of the Americas to Europe?
  40. What factors led to significant increases in European demand for sugar?
  41. If official corruption was so widespread, as is often claimed, how was it possible for the Castilian government to organize huge administrative enterprises like the Atlantic fleet system or the expulsion of the Moriscos?
  42. Why did the Castilian and Portuguese governments so often encourage monopoly practices in production and trade?
  43. What was the impact on Castilian and Portuguese territories of the taxes needed to maintain Habsburg political and military commitments?
  44. Why didn't the Castilian and Portuguese royal governments collect their taxes directly?
  45. Why didn't the Castilian and Portuguese royal governments pay more attention to the economic impact of their fiscal policies?
  46. Why did the government of the Portuguese ruler João (John) III give ever greater attention to Brazilian developments?
  47. Why did the English have to resort to the weak strategy of pirate attacks on the Habsburgs' American dominions?
  48. Why did so much of the defensive military organization in Castilian and Portuguese America have to be undertaken by local groups? Why didn't such fragmented military leadership lead to the loss by Castilian and Portugal of their American dominions?
  49. Why was the price of African slaves climbing in the seventeenth century when the cost of many of other products was stagnant or declining?
  50. What factors led to the financial crisis of the final years of the reign of king João III (r. 1521-1557) of Portugal?
  51. What impact did the developing Catholic Reformation have on the social and cultural environments of European Portugal? What impact did this religious reform movement have on Portuguese territories in East Africa and Asia?
  52. What impact did the activities of Inquisition tribunals have on the social and cultural environments of Portugal?
  53. Why did the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), one of the best-known products of the Catholic Reformation, develop a policy of toleration for Christians of Jewish origin, in the face of a good bit of Iberian official and popular hostility toward them?
  54. Why were political and military developments in Morocco of importance to the Portuguese Crown?
  55. The Portuguese Crown in the mid sixteenth century faced problems on three international fronts. Why did the Crown not have adequate resources to act on all these fronts at the same time?
  56. Why did the Portuguese Crown increasingly withdraw from direct trading activities?
  57. Why would the Portuguese in South India act in ways that would stimulate the hostility of Hindus and Mappila Muslims?
  58. Why did the viceroy Dom João de Castro fail in his mid sixteenth-century efforts at military reform in Portuguese India?
  59. Why was the Portuguese carreira system chronically short of ships?
  60. In light of the Ming government's prohibition of overseas trade, why were Portuguese merchants and officials interested in southeastern China?
  61. Why would Portuguese traders become involved with the Wako of the South China Sea?
  62. Why were Jesuit missionaries able to gain a relatively open entrance to Japan in the mid sixteenth century?
  63. Why did trade with Japan take on such a great importance within overall Portuguese activity in Asia in the second half of the sixteenth century?
  64. Why did expansion of Portuguese activity and territorial control virtually cease after 1570?
  65. What factors created opportunities for the Portuguese in Burma?
  66. Why would the Portuguese have been particularly concerned about the Sultanate of Aceh (Atjah)?
  67. Why was there such a great demand for Indian textiles as far away as West Africa and eastern Indonesia? How were Indian producers able to supply such a vast market?

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J. B. Owens
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Revised: 31 August 2002




URL:  http://www.isu.edu/~owenjack/spemp/readver5.09.html