The story of Spain's rise to greatness from its humble beginnings as one of the poorest and most marginal of European countries is a remarkable and dramatic one. With the marriage of Ferdinand & Isabella, the final expulsion of the Moslems and the discovery of America, Spain took on a seemingly unstoppable dynamism that made it into the world's first global power. This amazing success however created many powerful enemies and Elliott's famous book charts the dramatic fall of Habsburg Spain with the same elan as it charts the rise.

Table of Contents:
Imperial Spain 1469-1716Acknowledgments Foreword Prologue 1. The Union of the Crowns 1. Origins of the union 2. The two Crowns 3. The decline of the Crown of Aragon 4. Unequal partners 2. Reconquest and Conquest 1. The Reconquista completed 2. The advance into Africa 3. Medieval antecedents 4. Conquest 5. Settlement 3. The Ordering of Spain 1. The "new monarchy" 2. The assertion of royal authority in Castile 3. The Church and the Faith 4. The economic and social foundations of the New Spain 5. The open society 4. The Imperial Destiny 1. The foreign policy of Ferdinand 2. The Habsburg succession 3. Nationalism and revolt 4. The imperial destiny 5. The Government and the Economy in the Reign of Charles V 1. The theory and practice of empire 2. The organization of empire 3. The Castilian economy 4. The problems of imperial finance 5. The liquidation of Charles's imperialism 6. Race and Religion 1. The advance of heresy 2. The imposition of orthodoxy 3. The Spain of the Counter-Reformation 4. The crisis of the 1560s 5. The second rebellion of the Alpujarras (1568-70) 6. The Faith militant and the Faith triumphant 7. "One Monarch, One Empire, and One Sword" 1. King and Court 2. The faction struggles 3. The annexation of Portugal 4. The revolt of Aragon (1591-2) 8. Splendour and Misery 1. The crisis of the 1590s 2. The failure of leadership 3. The pattern of society 9. Revival and Disaster 1. The reform programme 2. The strain of war 3. 1640 4. Defeat and survival 10. Epitaph on an Empire 1. The centre and the periphery 2. The change of dynasty 3. The failure 4. The achievement Notes on Further Reading Index Maps Iberian Expansion in the 16th and 17th Centuries 1. The Iberian Peninsula. Physical Features 2. Habsburg Spain 3. The Conquest of Grenada 4. The Four Inheritances of Charles V 5. The Collapse of Spanish Power Tables 1. The Union of the Crowns of Castile and Aragon 2. The Spanish Habsburgs 3. The Conciliat System 4. Imports of Treasure 5. The Portuguese Succession