The Empirical Empire
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Arndt Brendecke
About this book
How was Spain able to govern its enormous colonial territories? In 1573 the king decreed that his councilors should acquire "complete knowledge" about the empire they were running from out of Madrid, and he initiated an impressive program for the systematic collection of empirical knowledge. Brendecke shows why this knowledge was created in the first place – but then hardly used. And he looks into the question of what political effects such a policy of knowledge had for Spain’s colonial rule.
- 2012: Preis Geisteswissenschaften International
- 2010: Habilitationspreis des Verbandes der Historiker und Historikerinnen Deutschlands
Author / Editor information
Arndt Brendecke, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München.
Reviews
"Brendecke has written an incisive and very readable history of imperial knowledge management. The scholar has delved deeply into Spanish archives to add substantially to current debates on empire, visitas, and corruption. [...] Students, generalists, and specialists alike will find this outstanding book a very rewarding read."
Christop Rosenmüller in: Hispanic American Historial Review, 98 (2018), 2; 302-304
"Meticulously argued and well documented, Brendecke’s book is a comprehensive, insightful analysis of the relationship between information and governance in the early modern Spanish imperial context. He brings to this question a critical eye trained to scrutinize any narrative for embedded politics and hidden intentions."
María M. Portundo, Hispanic Review
"... a remarkable book. It shatters many a preconception about the alleged relationship between empiricism, objectivity, and early modern imperial expansions. More importantly, it opens significant new perspectives on the links between knowledge and power."
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, Journal of Early Modern American History
"Brendecke bridges the gap between European and Latin American history to arrive at new interpretations of the function of knowledge in the constitution of authority and power."
Nino Vallen and Marcela Suárez Estrada, Critical Reviews on Latin American Research
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