J. H. Elliott

A landmark account that reveals the long history behind the current Catalan and Scottish independence movements A distinguished historian of Spain and Europe provides an enlightening account of the development of nationalist and separatist movements in contemporary Catalonia and Scotland. This first sustained comparative study uncovers the similarities and the contrasts between the Scottish and Catalan experiences across a five-hundred-year period, beginning with the royal marriages that brought about union with their more powerful neighbors, England and Castile respectively, and following the story through the centuries from the end of the Middle Ages until today’s dramatic events. J. H. Elliott examines the political, economic, social, cultural, and emotional factors that divide Scots and Catalans from the larger nations to which their fortunes were joined. He offers new insights into the highly topical subject of the character and development of European nationalism, the nature of separatism, and the sense of grievance underlying the secessionist aspirations that led to the Scottish referendum of 2014, the illegal Catalan referendum of October 2017, and the resulting proclamation of an independent Catalan republic.

Union and Disunion

Scots and Catalans

Compares the empires built by Spain and Britain in the Americas, from Columbus's arrival in the New World to the end of Spanish colonial rule in the early nineteenth century.

Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830

Empires of the Atlantic World

The revolution of Catalonia in 1640 was a signal event in seventeenth-century Europe. Its causes and antecedents - essential for an understanding of the revolution itelf - form the basis of Professor Elliott's study of the Spanish monarchy at this time. They throw remarkable light on the whole question of the decline of Spain in the seventeenth century from its position of pre-eminence in Europe. From the fierce suppression of Catalan bandits by their Castilian overlords during the second decade of the century, Professor Elliott traces the gradual deterioration of relations between the principality of Catalonia and the government in Madrid. He shows how Olivares, the favourite and chief minister of Philip IV, attempted to use Catalan resources to fight Spain's foreign wars, and how the growing tension led ultimately to a revolution, which he suggests played a crucial part in Spain's decline. Professor Elliott's story is almost entirely based on previously unknown documents found in the Spanish national and local archives. These sources enabled him to write the first full-scale treatment of Olivares and his policies. While exciting as a story in its own right, it also stands as a case-history of the perennial struggle between regional liberties and the claims of central governments.

The Revolt of the Catalans

Cardinal Richelieu is one of the best known and most studied statesmen in European history; his Spanish contemporary and rival, the Count-Duke of Olivares, one of the least known. The contrasting historical fortunes of the two men reflect the outcome of the great struggle in seventeenth-century Europe between France and Spain: the triumph of France assured the fame of Richelieu, while Spain's failure condemned Olivares to historical neglect. This fascinating book by the distinguished historian J. H. Elliott argues that contemporaries, for whom Olivares was at least as important as Richelieu, shared none of posterity's certainty about the inevitability of that outcome. His absorbing comparative portrait of the two men, as personalities and as statesmen, through their policies and their mutual struggle, offers unique insights into seventeenth-century Europe and the nature of power and statesmanship.

Richelieu and Olivares

Being a Defence of the British Merchant Against the Unjust and Demoralizing Tendency of the Recent Alterations in the Laws of Debtor and Creditor; with an Outline of Remedial Measures

Credit, the Life of Commerce

Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830

Imperial Spain, 1469-1716

Miguel León-Portilla

Martin Kemp

National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

Jonathan Brown

Michael D. Coe

Stuart Cary Welch

Richard Kagan

Giulio Carlo Argan

David Woodward

Craig Morris

Irving Rouse

Luís de Albuquerque

Martin Collcutt

Jean Michel Massing

J. J. Martín González

Ezio Bassani

J. Michael Rogers

Julian Raby

Francis Maddison

Sherman E. Lee

Gari Ledyard

F. W. Mote

José Juan Arrom

James E. Brown

Warwick Bray

Surveys the art of the Age of Exploration in Europe, the Far East, and the Americas

Art in the Age of Exploration

Circa 1492

This 1992 book shows how the discovery of the new world affected Europe intellectually, economically, and politically.

1492-1650

The Old World and the New

J. H. Elliott

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