"Europe—or rather Spain and Portugal—started building empires in the 1500s. ...[T]hey had interlocking systems—religious, political, administrative and commercial—that together reinforced the reasons to seek power in the form of political conquest. Empire building made political-military, ideological-religious, and economic sense. Spain's s set out to serve the king, to spread the word of God, and to get rich. Other adventurers and wannabe imperialists from elsewhere... did not have such a strong set of interlocking incentives and capabilities. ...The Portuguese—and the Spanish, and later the Dutch, French, and British—had it all, gold, guns, God, and kings, working together. ...1500 to 1770 was an Imperial-Commercial Age, with imperialism and globalization advancing along all their dimensions ...for great good and great ill."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
J. Bradford DeLong, Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century (2022)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Spain
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Spain
30 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Spain →
Related Quotes
"If maps were shaded like balance sheets, the bottom part of mainland Europe would be deepest red. Italy, Spain and Po…"
"The French are wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem wiser than they are."
"I remember vividly in 1974 being in the mass of people, descending the streets in my native Lisbon, in Portugal, cele…"
"At one time Spain was one of the world's great powers, although under the leadership of General Francisco Franco (157…"
"And towering above each town, generally built on a height commanding it, stood the church, its finger pointed to heav…"
"The Spaniard is inherently nationalistic; but no more so than other national groups. Most people, trained from birth …"
"There was always, therefore, a certain amount of friction between the Americans and the Spanish, which would seem to …"
"Spain, since the loss of its Catholic faith, has been above everything else a country in search of an ideology."
"Cervantes smil'd Spain's chivalry away."
"Wee may say of him, as of the Spaniard, Hee is a bad Servant, but a worse Maister."