Henry Kamen has written 512 page of text to debunk the opinion that Spain had become a great empire by its own strength. It is not clear where he perceived such belief since there are abundant studies on the reliance of Spain on foreigners. It is his merit to assemble all that information to draw an extensive picture of the crucial role in building up the empire of Italian and German bankers, Italian and Portuguese mariners, soldiers, religious missionaries, scientists, generals, and political leaders from many nationalities. Some of the more original parts, although not always convincing, describe how the enemies of the empire also sustained the empire, either in an indirect manner like for example through smuggling activities that also benefited the colonies, or even through direct sale of ships or armament. The book becomes difficult because of the unrelenting and repetitive bashing of Spain and anything Spanish. What could have been a great contribution to historiography was wasted by the unwavering critique of an (imagined) nation and by missing the chance to generalize on how empires function. The thematic approach is very appropriate, even though it becomes repetitive since similar information is brought up in various chapters.
J.M. (Philipines, 2017)