The definitive history of a powerful family dynasty who dominated Europe for centuries -- from their rise to power to their eventual downfall. In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built -- and then lost -- over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the Habsburgs gained control of the Holy Roman Empire in the fifteenth century. Then, in just a few decades, their possessions rapidly expanded to take in a large part of Europe, stretching from Hungary to Spain, and parts of the New World and the Far East. The Habsburgs continued to dominate Central Europe through the First World War. Historians often depict the Habsburgs as leaders of a ramshackle empire. But Rady reveals their enduring power, driven by the belief that they were destined to rule the world as defenders of the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace, and patrons of learning. The Habsburgs is the definitive history of a remarkable dynasty that forever changed Europe and the world.

A EuropeNow Editor’s Pick A Choice Outstanding Academic Title of the Year “Pieter M. Judson’s book informs and stimulates. If his account of Habsburg achievements, especially in the 18th century, is rather starry-eyed, it is a welcome corrective to the black legend usually presented. Lucid, elegant, full of surprising and illuminating details, it can be warmly recommended to anyone with an interest in modern European history.” —Tim Blanning, Wall Street Journal “This is an engaging reappraisal of the empire whose legacy, a century after its collapse in 1918, still resonates across the nation-states that replaced it in central Europe. Judson rejects conventional depictions of the Habsburg empire as a hopelessly dysfunctional assemblage of squabbling nationalities and stresses its achievements in law, administration, science and the arts.” —Tony Barber, Financial Times “Spectacularly revisionist... Judson argues that...the empire was a force for progress and modernity... This is a bold and refreshing book... Judson does much to destroy the picture of an ossified regime and state.” —A. W. Purdue, Times Higher Education “Judson’s reflections on nations, states and institutions are of broader interest, not least in the current debate on the future of the European Union after Brexit.” —Annabelle Chapman, Prospect

In this comparative-historical analysis of Spanish America, Mahoney offers a new theory of colonialism and postcolonial development. He explores why certain kinds of societies are subject to certain kinds of colonialism and why these forms of colonialism give rise to countries with differing levels of economic prosperity and social well-being. Mahoney contends that differences in the extent of colonialism are best explained by the potentially evolving fit between the institutions of the colonizing nation and those of the colonized society. Moreover, he shows how institutions forged under colonialism bring countries to relative levels of development that may prove remarkably enduring in the postcolonial period. The argument is sure to stir discussion and debate, both among experts on Spanish America who believe that development is not tightly bound by the colonial past, and among scholars of colonialism who suggest that the institutional identity of the colonizing nation is of little consequence.

Uses a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the transcultural phenomenon of the devil in early modern Peru. This work demonstrates that the interaction between the Christian and the Andean worlds was far more complex than any interpretation that posits a clear dichotomy between conversion and resistance would suggest.

A study of how the coast and commerce of the Viceroyalty of Peru, from Chile to Ecuador, was defended against foreign intruders from the time of Francis Drake (1579) to the early 18th-c. The Armada del Mar del Sur carried silver to Panama, but also patrolled coastlines, offered protection to ports, and challenged interlopers. The dimensions, traits and guns of its vessels are studied, and its reliance on local expertise, manpower, and private investment in place of support from the Spanish crown. On land the book studies the construction and arming of fortifications at Callao, Guayaquil, Trujillo, and Valdivia, private initiatives at Arica, Pisco and Paita, the creation of the paid Callao presidio, and the formation and training of local militias in Lima. These processes are set against royal refusals to tolerate lower silver shipments from Peru to Spain caused by higher defence costs, and the strengthening of a local, Peruvian identity through military self-reliance in defence of local and royal interests.

"A feat of both scholarship and storytelling" (Wall Street Journal)--the definitive history of a powerful family dynasty who dominated Europe for centuries. In The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built--and then lost--over nearly a millennium. From modest origins, the Habsburgs gained control of the Holy Roman Empire in the fifteenth century. Then, in a few decades, their possessions rapidly expanded to take in a large part of Europe, stretching from Hungary to Spain, and parts of the New World and the Far East. The Habsburgs dominated Central Europe through the First World War. Historians often depict the Habsburgs as leaders of a ramshackle empire. But Rady reveals their enduring power, driven by the belief that they were destined to rule the world as defenders of the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace, and patrons of learning. This is the remarkable history of a dynasty that forever changed Europe and the world.

Contemporary natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina are quickly followed by disagreements about whether and how communities should be rebuilt, whether political leaders represent the community’s best interests, and whether the devastation could have been prevented. Shaky Colonialism demonstrates that many of the same issues animated the aftermath of disasters more than 250 years ago. On October 28, 1746, a massive earthquake ravaged Lima, a bustling city of 50,000, capital of the Peruvian Viceroyalty, and the heart of Spain’s territories in South America. Half an hour later, a tsunami destroyed the nearby port of Callao. The earthquake-tsunami demolished churches and major buildings, damaged food and water supplies, and suspended normal social codes, throwing people of different social classes together and prompting widespread chaos. In Shaky Colonialism, Charles F. Walker examines reactions to the catastrophe, the Viceroy’s plans to rebuild the city, and the opposition he encountered from the Church, the Spanish Crown, and Lima’s multiracial population. Through his ambitious rebuilding plan, the Viceroy sought to assert the power of the colonial state over the Church, the upper classes, and other groups. Agreeing with most inhabitants of the fervently Catholic city that the earthquake-tsunami was a manifestation of God’s wrath for Lima’s decadent ways, he hoped to reign in the city’s baroque excesses and to tame the city’s notoriously independent women. To his great surprise, almost everyone objected to his plan, sparking widespread debate about political power and urbanism. Illuminating the shaky foundations of Spanish control in Lima, Walker describes the latent conflicts—about class, race, gender, religion, and the very definition of an ordered society—brought to the fore by the earthquake-tsunami of 1746.

Combining social and political history, The Plebeian Republic challenges well-established interpretations of state making, rural society, and caudillo politics during the early years of Peru’s republic. Cecilia Méndez presents the first in-depth reconstruction and analysis of the Huanta rebellion of 1825–28, an uprising of peasants, muleteers, landowners, and Spanish officers from the Huanta province in the department of Ayacucho against the new Peruvian republic. By situating the rebellion within the broader context of early-nineteenth-century Peruvian politics and tracing Huanta peasants’ transformation from monarchist rebels to liberal guerrillas, Méndez complicates understandings of what it meant to be a patriot, a citizen, a monarchist, a liberal, and a Peruvian during a foundational moment in the history of South American nation-states. In addition to official sources such as trial dossiers, census records, tax rolls, wills, and notary and military records, Méndez uses a wide variety of previously unexplored sources produced by the mostly Quechua-speaking rebels. She reveals the Huanta rebellion as a complex interaction of social, linguistic, economic, and political forces. Rejecting ideas of the Andean rebels as passive and reactionary, she depicts the barely literate insurgents as having had a clear idea of national political struggles and contends that most local leaders of the uprising invoked the monarchy as a source of legitimacy but did not espouse it as a political system. She argues that despite their pronouncements of loyalty to the Spanish crown, the rebels’ behavior evinced a political vision that was different from both the colonial regime and the republic that followed it. Eventually, their political practices were subsumed into those of the republican state.

I: Antecedents and General Parameters; 1. The Historical Challenges of 1848-1849 in the Habsburg Empire; 2. The Governmental Response to the Challenges. Neo-Absolutism and Constitutional Centralization; 3. The Shaping of a Policy for Hungary; 4. Punishment and Reward; 5. The Population of Hungary in the Mid-Nineteenth Century; II: The Government of Hungary in the Era of Neo-Absolutism; 1. Economic Policy: Caught between Liberalization and Restriction; 2. Creating a New World. The Construction of the State Apparatus; 3. "Obedient Rebels" or Passive Resistors? The Civil Servants in Hungary; 4. Rational Mediation or Germanization? Official Language Use; 5. Discontented Supporters and Defiant Opponents, The Churches and the Government; 6. Modernization and/or "Germanization"? Public Education; 7. Culture and Civic Organizing; 8. Political Programs in Hungary. The Alternatives to Nee-Absolutism; Ill: The Paths to Political Consolidation; 1. The Hesitant Search for a Solution, 1859-1860; 2. The Hungarian Political Elite at the Crossroads: The October Diploma and What Came Next; 3. "We Can Wait": The Years of the Schmerling Provisorium; 4. The Compromise Takes Shape.

This detailed volume offers an unprecedented exploration of incendiary conditions that stoked The Great Rebellion of 1780-1782 in Upper Peru (Bolivia). That revolt claimed tens of thousands of lives and traumatized imperial psyches for decades to come. It was, in effect, one of the most de vastating political and human disasters in Latin American colonial history. Using extensive archival research, Nicholas Robins delves into the fractious relations between Indian communities and their clergy and the role that such tensions played as a major causal factor of the rebellion. Among the grievous economic and social issues were the use of forced Indian labor, land encroachment, colonial relations with native leaders, and collection of Indian tithes and first fruits. Powerful case histories offer rare insights into the daily exercise of power in colonial Andean villages. Compelling archival evidence provides a riveting portrait of clerical abuse in rural villages and reveals how Indian peoples challenged and resisted ruling powers with varying degrees of success. Robins’ substantial documentation is enriched by a wealth of often colorful detail, making it an excellent choice for studies in Colonial Latin America n history and indigenous Latin American communities.