Book Review - Spain's Road to Empire

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A further criticism of this book is the idea put forward by Kamen that the number of Spanish people in the Spanish Imperial army was not sufficient enough for Spain to achieve its maximum potential in creating a great World Empire. There are many examples which contradict this for example in the XVI century in Europe, the French army had a very small amount of French soldiers. This could suggest that the amount of Spanish people in the army shouldn’t have had such an impact on Spain building their empire or decreased their power in any way, therefore the point that Kamen is trying to make can be questionable.

Another criticism includes the insignificant importance that Kamen gives to the management and organisation of the Spanish in leading the empire, which concerns things like controlling resources or property of land etc. Kamen could support his arguments when talking about various different events but when he starts talking about how Phillip II instigated a programme designed to increase bureaucracy and slowly centralise power and government, the argument that Kamen provided started to collapse and was slightly weak. Even though Spain was extremely powerful in the empire, when Phillip II was in charge, the existence of administration in order to resolve any problems which arose was so great that it generated huge issues of coordination.

In conclusion, the argument that Kamen brings is different and I found interesting how he differed from other historians. However, from analysing his book as a whole, there is evidence of more criticisms than strengths, for example the issue that Kamen has about consistency in his book and only uses or leaves out certain aspects to support his argument. This also links in with the criticism that he uses past events to illustrate sone of his ideas which in reality, doesn’t support his argument fully. His book can also be criticised as having his own subjective theories about how Spain became a World Empire. He also doesn’t give importance to certain aspects which sometimes made his argument weak when he was trying to put forward an argument. Overall, the arguments that Kamen presents in this book is ground-breaking and revolutionary as it brings a different aspect and idea about the growth of the Spanish Empire that most other historians haven’t considered; however, it is not entirely convincing.