The Debate on the Decline of Spain

When, why and how did Spain fall from its pre-eminent position as a leading world power in the seventeenth century? These fundamental questions have exercised the minds of distinguished historians such as Prescott, Merriman, Hamilton, Braudel, Vilar, Vicens Vives, Elliott and Kamen and produced a prolific amount of writing. But while the subject of Spain’s decline has been subject to rigorous historical research, the debate between scholars underpinning it has not thus far been analyzed fr…