Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

Advanced

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of four semesters (or six quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

OBJECTIVES
While keeping in mind the duration of the Course, its key objective is to ensure an awareness of the structural problems affecting Spain’s Modern History, the making of the Monarchy, and the Spanish Empire, together with its decadence and downfall during a period of three and a half centuries. What likewise needs to be kept in mind is that the Course is not exhaustive in its aims, acting rather as an introduction for students from abroad, adapting itself to conditioning factors regarding their needs, providing them, therefore, with an overview which will serve as the basis for further study, while avoiding becoming a patchwork of easily forgotten facts. At the same time, another of the Course’s objectives is to develop students’ interest in Modern History, while, both individually speaking, as well as within the context of group interaction, increasing their capacity for reflexion and critical thought.

METHODOLOGY
The focus will be geared toward the exploration of structures of an economic, social, political, ideological, and cultural nature, thereby avoiding the linear explanation of both specific historical facts and political and military events. Time allowing within the evolution of the Course, and so as to reinforce mainstream theoretical explanations, complementary practical sessions will be held involving the commentary of historical texts, an activity which will be regarded as fundamental. There is no doubt that the Course will evolve along dynamic and participitative lines as largely as possible. Students will be encouraged to play an active role in class debates so as to ensure a deeper understanding of the syllabus units being explored. In order to stimulate students’ interest in the period, efforts will be made to set issues raised by the exploration of this historical period against current issues affecting Spain and world reality.

SYLLABUS
Introduction: Spain in Modern Times.
I. THE MAKING OF SPAIN’S MONARCHY

1. An Introduction to the Reign of the Catholic Monarchs.
2. The Struggle for Territorial Unity.
3. Religious Unity.
4. The Restoration and Structuring of Government by Monarchy.
5. Foreign Policy: Atlantic and Mediterranean Expansion.
6. The Crisis of Succession: the Period of Regencies.

II. THE CENTURY OF EXPANSIONISM.

7. An Introduction to the Century of Imperial Spain.
8. Population, Economy, and Revenue Collection in the Sixteenth-Century.
9. The Society of Sixteenth-Century Spain.
10. Renaissance, Reformation and Cultural Tensions.
11. Charles V and the Political Crises at the Start of his Reign: Communities and Guilds.
12. The Imperial Monarchy of Charles V and Philip II. Structure and Political-Administrative Organization.
13. Charles V and Philip II’s Imperial Policy.
14. Philip II’s Hispanic Monarchy: Religion and Dynasty.

III. CRISIS AND DECADENCE IN THE SPAIN OF THE AUSTRIAS.

15. Concerning Spain’s Decadence: the Crisis of the Seventeenth Century.
16. Demographic and Economic Crisis: Ruin and Recovery.
17. Crisis and Social Tensions.
18. Baroque Culture and the Golden Age.
19. The Spain of Philip III.
20. Philip IV and Olivares. Reform and the Fall of the Monarchy.
21. The Spain of Charles II.

IV. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. RECOVERY, REFORM, AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT.

22. Introdcing the New Times.
23. The Bourbon Era. Toward New Times.
24. Population, Economy, and Finance in Eighteenth-Century Spain.
25. Spanish Society in the Eighteenth Century.
26. The Spanish Enlightenment: Ideology and Culture.
27. The War of Succession and its Consequences.
28. Philip V and Ferdinand VI: Two Models of Absolutist Reform.
29. The Spain of Charles III.
30. Charles IV and Pre-Revolution.
31. The Monarchy as Power: Toward a Downfall.

ASSESSMENT
Syllabus content will form part of an exam mid-way through the Course and another at its close wherein questions regarding broad-based subject-matter will require development in written form. Both regular attendance and active participation in class sessions will be highly valued. Optional assignments, which will contribute to final grading, may also be carried out.

BASIC BIBLIOGRAPHY
EDWARDS, J. y LYNCH, J. Historia de España, 4. Edad Moderna. El auge del Imperio 1474-1598. Barcelona: Crítica, 2005.
FLORISTÁN, A., coord. Historia de España en la Edad Moderna. Barcelona: Ariel, 2004.
GARCÍA CÁRCEL, R., coord. Historia de España. Siglos XVI y XVII. La España de los Austrias. Madrid: Cátedra, 2003.
-----., coord. Historia de España. Siglo XVIII. La España de los Borbones. Madrid: Cátedra, 2002.
GARCÍA DE CORTÁZAR, F. Atlas de Historia de España. Barcelona: Planeta, 2005.
LYNCH, J. Historia de España, 5. Edad Moderna. Crisis y recuperación, 1598-1808. Barcelona: Crítica, 2005.

COMPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES
Endeavors will be made to organize cultural visits to exhibitions revolving around the Modern period, as well as to museums.