History of Spain by Ulick Ralph Burke (1900) 2 PDF Volumes
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| History of Spain |
Ulick Ralph Burke’s two-volume A History of Spain (2nd ed., 1900) is a compact textbook written for the educated British public at the height of the Edwardian empire.
Its 46 chapters proceed chronologically from Roman Iberia to the Generation of ’98, yet the balance of attention is unmistakably political: dynastic marriages, ministerial intrigues, and battlefield set-pieces dominate, while social conditions and economic structures receive only passing mention.
Burke’s tone is that of measured Victorian liberalism. He condemns the Inquisition as an instrument of fanaticism and portrays the later Habsburg court as sunk in idleness and corruption, yet he praises the reforming zeal of Charles III’s ministers—above all Floridablanca—as harbingers of enlightened progress.
The 1900 revisions entrusted to Martin A. S. Hume quietly correct factual slips and append a brief epilogue on the aftermath of 1898, but leave the essential interpretive framework unchanged. Thus the work stands as both a lucid primer for its first readers and a revealing specimen of how late-Victorian Britain understood Spain’s long trajectory.
Contents
Vol. I (to 1516) – 22 chapters
1. The Land and Its Early Peoples
2. Roman Spain (Hispania)
3–5. Visigothic Kingdom and Conversion
6–8. Muslim Conquest and the Emirate of Córdoba
9–12. Caliphate of Córdoba; Taifa Kingdoms
13–15. Rise of the Christian States (Asturias, León, Castile, Aragon, Navarre)
16–18. El Cid, Almoravids, Almohads
19–20. Reconquista Climax: Las Navas de Tolosa to the Fall of Granada
21. Ferdinand & Isabella – Dynastic Union
22. Cultural & Economic Balance-Sheet of the Middle Ages
Vol. II (1516–1900) – 24 chapters
1–3. Charles V – Empire & Revolt of the Comuneros
4–6. Philip II – Armada, Netherlands, Moriscos
7–9. Philip III & IV – “Decline,” Thirty Years’ War, Catalan Revolt
10–12. Charles II – End of the Habsburgs
13–15. War of the Spanish Succession & Bourbon Settlement
16–18. Enlightenment under Philip V, Ferdinand VI, Charles III
19–21. Charles IV, Godoy, Peninsular War, Cádiz Cortes
22–23. Ferdinand VII – Absolutism vs. Liberalism; Carlist Wars
24. Epilogue: Spain in 1900 – “The Generation of ’98”
A History of Spain
by Ulick Ralph Burke
Second edition, revised by Martin A. S. Hume
2 vols., Longmans, Green & Co., London, 1900
Size 45 MB