Disclosure : This site contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

World Without End: The Global Empire of Philip II

Following Rivers of Gold and The Golden Age, World Without End is the conclusion of a magisterial three-volume history of the Spanish Empire by Hugh Thomas, its foremost worldwide authority World Without End is the climax of Hugh Thomas`s great history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. It describes the conquest of Paraguay and the River Plate, of the Yucatan in Mexico, the only partial conquest of Chile, and battles with the French over Florida, and then, in the 1580s, the extraordinary projection of Spanish power across the Pacific to conquer the Philippines. More significantly, it describes how the Spanish ran the greatest empire the world had seen since Rome – as well as conquistadores, the book is people with viceroys, judges, nobles, bishops, inquisitors and administrators of many different kinds, often in conflict with one another, seeking to organise the native populations into towns, to build cathedrals, hospitals and universities.Behind them – sometimes ahead of them – came the religious orders, the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and finally the Jesuits, builders of convents and monasteries, many of them of astonishing beauty, and reminders of the pervasiveness of religion and the self-confidence of the age. Towering above them all, though moving rarely from the palace of the Escorial outside Madrid, is the figure of King Philip II, the central figure in the book. The Venetian ambassador thought him `the arbiter of the world`. Once the Philippines had been consolidated, Philip`s advisors contemplated an invasion of China: the Jesuit Father Sanchez called it `the greatest enterprise which has ever been proposed to any monarch in the world`. It was an enterprise never undertaken, but never explicitly abandoned. Was it a great or a terrible empire? In contrast to other empire builders, the Spaniards entered upon arguments with each other about their right to rule other peoples, and their ruthlessness was often tempered by humanity.Hugh Thomas`s conclusion is unequivocal: `The speed with which the sixteenth-century conquistadores conquered such large territories on two vast continents, and the comparable success of missionaries with large populations of Indians, stands as one of the supreme epics of both valour and imagination by Europeans.`

Related Products:

Rivers of Gold – The Rise of the Spanish Empire In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire The Stealth Empire – Why the world is not Chinese yet Ancient Rome: A Complete History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chronicling the Story of the Most Important and Influential Civilization the World Has Ever Known Empire of the Deep Agents of Empire: Knights, Corsairs, Jesuits and Spies in the Late Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean World Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire Unfinished Empire: The Global Expansion of Britain Philip`s RGS Complete World Atlas A Brief History of the Roman Empire World Philip`s RGS Wall Map with Flags PAPER World Philip`s RGS Wall Map with Flags LAMINATED How to Hide an Empire: A Short History of the Greater United States Charmed Life: The Phenomenal World of Philip Sassoon Restless Empire: China and the World Since 1750 Empire – What Ruling the World did for the British Fifty Things You Need to Know About World History The Hungry Empire: How Britain`s Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World Philip`s RGS World Atlas: 10th Edition PAPERBACK Edge of Empire The Rise & Fall of the British Empire Philip`s RGS World Atlas: 23rd Edition HARDBACK Scotland`s Empire: The Origins of the Global Diaspora Philip`s World Atlas PAPERBACK The Indian Empire At War: From Jihad to Victory, The Untold Story of the Indian Army in the First World War The Roman Empire A Thirst for Empire: How Tea Shaped the Modern World Empire of Booze The Bases of Empire: The Global Struggle Against U.S. Military Posts Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane Cold Steel: Lakshmi Mittal and the Multi-Billion-Dollar Battle for a Global Empire Empire of the Mind – A History of Iran Ottoman Empire The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World Churchill and Empire: Portrait of an Imperialist Clockwork or All Wound Up ‘“ Philip Pullman Philip`s RGS Atlas of the World The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe`s History The Lost World of Byzantium