This book is the first single volume history of modern Spain to appear in over 30 years. It describes Spain's emergence in the nineteenth century as the first modern post-imperial power and examines the vast social and economic changes which Spain witnessed during this period. In lucid and accessibl[...]
For centuries Spain had been the most feared and predatory power in Europe - it had the largest empire and one of the world's great navies to defend it. Nothing could have prepared the Spanish for the devastating implosion of 1805-14. Trafalgar destroyed its navy and the country degenerated into a b[...]
No other soldier has provoked as much anger or as much fervour as Napoleon Bonaparte. Was he a monster, driven on by an endless, ruinous quest for military adventure - or was he a social and political visionary, brought down by petty reactionaries clinging to their privileges? Charles Esdaile's majo[...]
Napoleon's forces invaded Spain in 1808, but two years went by before they overran the southern region of Andalucia. Situated at the farthest frontier of Napoleon's "outer empire," Andalucia remained under French control only briefly--for two-and-a-half years--and never experienced the normal functi[...]