Enlightened Reform In Southern Europe And Its Atlantic Colonies C 1750 1830

Enlightened Reform in Southern Europe and Its Atlantic Colonies, C. 1750-1830

This volume broadens and reinvigorates the debate about the connections which link enlightenment thought and government reform in the eighteenth century. In order to complement, expand and rejuvenate the debate which has so far concentrated largely on Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, this volume brings together historians of Southern Europe and its ultramarine empires to reappraise a specific aspect of 'enlightened absolutism' and 'enlightened reform'. In so doing it engages creatively with pressing issues in the current historical literature and suggests new directions for future research. This well-conceived, balanced volume, drawing on the expertise of a small, carefully-chosen cohort offers an exciting investigation of this pressing historical debate.

Enlightened Reform In Southern Europe And Its Atlantic Colonies, C. 1750-1830

The Diplomatic Enlightenment

This book reconfigures the study of the origins of the Enlightenment in the Spanish Empire. Challenging dominant interpretations of the period, this book shows that early eighteenth-century Spanish authors turned to Enlightenment ideas to reinvent Spain’s role in the European balance of power. And while international law grew to provide a legal framework that could safeguard peace, Spanish officials, diplomats, and authors, hardened by the failure of Spanish diplomacy, sought instead to regulate international relations by drawing on investment, profit, and self-interest. The book shows, on the basis of new archival research, that the Diplomatic Enlightenment sought to turn the Spanish Empire into a space for closer political cooperation with other European and non-European states and empires.