The Limits of Empire: European Imperial Formations in Early Modern World History

William Reger, Tonio Andrade

Published in honor of historian Geoffrey Parker, this volume explores the working of European empires in a global perspective, focusing on one of the most important themes of Parker's work: the limits of empire, which is to say, the centrifugal forces - sacral, dynastic, military, diplomatic, geographical, informational - that plagued imperial formations in the early modern period (1500-1800). Whilst the thirteen chapters in this book focus on a number of geographic regions and adopt different approaches, each shares a focus on, and interest in, the working of empires and the ways that imperial formations dealt with - or failed to deal with - the challenges that beset them. Taken together, they reflect a new phase in the evolving historiography of empire.

Contents: Geoffrey Parker and early modern history, Tonio Andrade and William Reger; The limits of empire: an introduction, Tonio Andrade and William Reger; 'Por Dios, por patria': the sacral limits of empire as seen in Catalan political sermons, 1630-1641, Andrew Mitchell; Enlightened absolutism and new frontiers for political authority: building towards a state religion in 18th-century Spain, Andrea J. Smidt; The limits of faith in a maritime empire: Mennonites, trade and politics in the Dutch Golden Age, Mary S. Sprunger; Information, gossip and rumor: the limits of intelligence at the early modern court, 1558-1585, Denice Fett; Philip II, information overload, and the early modern moment, Paul M. Dover; Italy and the limits of the Spanish empire, Michael J. Levin; The limits of dynastic power: Poland-Lithuania, Sweden and the problem of composite monarchy in the age of the Vasas, 1562-1668, Robert I. Frost; The artillery fortress was an engine of European expansion: evidence from East Asia, Tonio Andrade; The limits of empire: the case of Britain, Jeremy Black; The faÃ
ade of order: claiming imperial space in early modern Russia, Matthew P. Romaniello; Renaissance diplomacy and the limits of empire: Eustace Chapuys, Habsburg imperialisms, and dissimulation as method, Richard Lundell; Distance and misinformation in the conquest of America, Bethany Aram; Brawling behaviors in the Dutch colonial empire: changing norms of fairness?, Pamela McVay; Isabel Clara Eugenia: daughter of the Spanish empire, Cristina Borreguero Beltrán; Messianic imperialism or traditional dynasticism? The grand strategy of Philip II and the Spanish failure in the wars of the 1590s, Edward Shannon Tenace; 'A man's gotta know his limitations': reflections on a misspent past, Geoffrey Parker; Index.