World Without End: The Global Empire of Philip II

About this book

Following Rivers of Gold and The Golden Age World Without End is the conclusion of a magisterial three-volume history of the Spanish Empire by Hugh Thomas its foremost worldwide authority. World Without End tells the story of life in a conquered territory that stretched from Cuba to Peru and of the final conquests of the greatest empire that the world had then seen since the fall of Rome 1 000 years before. By the time of Philip IIs death - and after his startling decision made in his final years not to invade China - the attentions of the colonists clergymen sailors soldiers and officials of the Spanish Empire were no longer turned to its expansion: their focus instead became its management. These were the decades in which modern history began.