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Spanish History: From Age of Conquest and Empire to
Present
COURSE OVERVIEW
Title: Spanish History: From the Age of Conquest and Empire to the Present
Prerequisites: None
Hours: 50
Number of Credits: 5
Type of Course: HIST
Term: Winter, Spring, Summer
Language: English
Instructor: Dr. Stephen Jacobson
Email: [email protected]
Course Description
This course will cover the history of Spain from its emergence as a “composite monarchy” in the
fifteenth century to the present day. We will begin with the age of exploration and the creation of
the world’s largest empire since the time of Alexander the Great under the Habsburgs. We will
continue with the decline of Spain during Europe’s Thirty Years’ War and then move to the
reconstruction of the state under the Bourbon monarchy in the eighteenth century. The latter third
of the course will cover the modern period focusing on liberalism, economic development, social
change, civil war, Francoism, and the transition to democracy. Along the way, we will touch upon a
variety of themes, including religion, the Inquisition (and its abolition), backwardness, the “Black
Legend,” regional differentiation, and women in society. The last part of the class will touch on the
last 40 years in Spanish history.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of the course, the student:
- Will have acquired survey knowledge of the history of Spain from the colonial era to the present.
- Will have become versed in the theoretical skills necessary for analyzing modern historical
problems.
- Will have developed strategies for understanding contemporary Spain within its historical context.
Assessment Criteria
The class meets during 10 sessions, nine of which will be dedicated to content while the last will
consist of class presentations and an exam. During each 3 hour session, the class will be divided
into two lectures (each of 50 minutes), two ten minute breaks, and a seminar discussing the
seminar reading (1 hour).
Final Paper and Presentation:
The final paper should run between six and eight pages (double spaces; standard margins). During
the initial weeks of class, the professor will hand out a series of paper topics. Student may choose
their own paper topic with instructor approval. The brief presentation (10 to 15 minutes) will cover
the paper topic.
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Evaluation
Class Participation:
Final Paper
Final Exam
Presentation
25 percent
25 percent
40 percent
10 percent
Attendance
Attendance to ALBA classes is mandatory. A maximum of two class will be tolerated. For every
additional absence three points will be deducted from the final grade.
Sessions
Session 1
Lecture: Introduction to the History of Spain
Lecture: The Creation of the Composite Monarchy
Background Reading: Simon Barton, A History of Spain (London: Palgrave MacMillan,
2004), 89-133.
Session 2
Lecture: The Age of Exploration.
Lecture: The Creation of an American Empire.
Background Reading: Felipe Fernández Armesto, “The Improbable Empire,” in Spain: A History,
ed. Raymond Carr (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 116-151.
Seminar Reading: J.H. Elliott, “Britain and Spain in America: Colonists and Colonized,” in Spain,
Europe, and the Wider World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 149-172.
Session 3
Lecture: Spain During the Counter-Reformation.
Lecture: Spain in the Age of the Europe’s Thirty Years’ War.
Background Reading: Henry Kamen, “Vicissitudes of a World Power, 1500-1700,” in Spain a
History, 152-172.
Seminar Reading: Richard L. Kagan and Abigail Dyer, “The Price of Conversion: Francisco de San
Antonio and Mariana de los Reyes,” in Inquisitorial Inquiries: Brief Lives of Secret Jews and Other
Heretics (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 2004), 88-118.
Session 4
Lecture: Spain in the Eighteenth Century.
Lecture: The Enlightenment in Spain.
Background Reading: Richard Herr, “Flow and Ebb, 1700-1833,” in Spain: A History, 173-204.
Seminar Reading: J.H. Elliott, “Starting Afresh: The Eclipse of Empire in British and Spanish
America,” Spain, Europe, and the Wider World, 193-210.
Session 5
Lecture: Liberal Spain.
Lecture: Society and Economy in the Nineteenth Century.
Background Reading: Raymond Carr, “Liberalism and Reaction,” in Spain: A History, 205-242 .
Seminar Reading: Adrian Shubert, “A Century of Dynamism” in A Social History of Modern Spain
(London: Routledge, 1990), 10-56.
Session 6
Lecture: The Spanish American War of 1898.
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Lecture: New Political Ideologies: Anarchism, Socialism,
Republicanism, Basque and Catalan Nationalism, and Fascism.
Background Reading: José Varela Ortega, “Aftermath of Splendid Disaster: Spanish Politics
Before and After the Spanish-American War of 1898,” Journal of Contemporary History 15, no. 2
(1980): 317-44.
Seminar Reading: Stephen Jacobson, “Spain: An Iberian Mosaic,” in What is a Nation? Europe,
1789-1914, ed.s Timothy Baycroft and Mark Hewitson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006),
210-30.
Session 7
Lecture: The Spanish Civil War .
Lecture: The Francoist Repression.
Lecture: Francoism: The Desarrollo Years
Background Reading: Sebastian Balfour, “Spain from 1931 to the Present,” in Spanish History
since 1808, 243-82.
Seminar Reading: Julius Ruiz, “A Spanish Genocide?: Reflection on the Postwar Francoist
Repression,” Contemporary European History 14 (May 2005):
Session 8
Lecture: Francoism: The Desarrollo Years.
Lecture: The Transition to Democracy.
Background Reading: Sebastian Balfour, “The Desarrollo years, 1955-1975,” and Paloma Aguilar,
“The Opposition to Franco, the Transition to Democracy and the New Political System,” in Spanish
History since 1808 (London: Edward Arnold, 2000), 277-89, 303-15.
Seminar Reading: Omar Encarnación, “The Primacy of Democratic Crafting,” in Spanish Politics:
Democracy after Dictatorship (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008), 31-50.
Session 9
Lecture: Spain from the Transition to Today.
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Lecture: Spain in the 21 century
Background Reading: Stanley Black, “Felipismo” and “The Return of the Right,” in Spain since
1939 (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010).
Seminar Reading: Omar Encarnación, “Zapatero’s Spain: A Second Transition,” Spanish Politics:
Democracy after Dictatorship, 150-64.
Session 10
Presentations and Final Exam.
Texts
For each week, students will be responsible for two reading assignments. “Background reading”
will not be discussed in class, but students must have this read in advance of the lecture. The
“seminar reading” will be discussed in class. The professor will hand out questionnaires to advance
to aid students in preparing the seminar readings.
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