Universidade Santiago de Compostela

Master's Degree in Modern History: Monarchy of Spain 16th-18th Centuries

The "Monarchy of Spain" constituted the most formidable organization of power in Europe in the 16th and 18th centuries. This interuniversity master's degree aims to delve, with a revisionist approach, into the singularity of the power structure that was the "Monarchy of Spain", through the analysis of the political culture that fed that monarchical notion, of the policy of dynastic aggrandizement and its conflicts, and religion informing culture.

The "Monarchy of Spain" constituted the most formidable organization of power in Europe in the 16th and 18th centuries. Admired and fought at the same time from the moment of its gestation, the monarchy would mark the European political agenda between 1500 and 1660.

The Master in Modern History "Monarchy of Spain" 16th-18th centuries organized and taught by the Autonomous University of Madrid, the University of Santiago de Compostela and the University of Cantabria, through a revisionist and multidisciplinary approach, aims to delve into the singularity of that power structure that was the "Monarchy of Spain", taking into account several lines:

• The analysis of the background political culture that fed that monarchical notion, with its aspiration for universal power and its ability to make possible an extraordinary territorial and organizational diversity.
• The policy of dynastic aggrandizement, with its sequel of conflicts, represented a permanent challenge in relation to the search for the necessary resources, which led to the decline of the Empire.
• The institutionalization of religion and the singular condition of the Monarchy of Spain as "monarchia in ecclesia" or Catholic monarchy. Likewise, the analysis of popular culture constitutes an obligatory contrast that will allow us to offer a reading from below.