Before there was a British empire that spanned the globe, there was a Spanish one, with holdings from the European continent all the way to the Pacific Ocean. What were the political, cultural, and religious underpinnings of this “golden age” of Spanish dominance? Beginning with an examination of the late medieval legacy of convivencia and divided kingdoms, this course will move to an analysis of the politics and society of sixteenth and seventeenth-century Spain. It will include a close look at institutions like the Inquisition and great works of literature like Don Quixote. It will include considerations of the tensions and darker side of global expansion. It will conclude with a discussion of Spain’s decline and fall from the world stage.
This course is a part of the Senior Scholars Program