The Empirical Empire : : Spanish Colonial Rule and the Politics of Knowledge / / Arndt Brendecke.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter DG Plus eBook-Package 2016
• VerfasserIn: Brendecke, Arndt,
• Place / Publishing House: München ;, Wien : : De Gruyter Oldenbourg, , [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (XI, 322 p.)

How was Spain able to govern its enormous colonial territories? In 1573 the king decreed that his councilors should acquire "complete knowledge" about the empire they were running from out of Madrid, and he initiated an impressive program for the systematic collection of empirical knowledge. Brendecke shows why this knowledge was created in the first place – but then hardly used. And he looks into the question of what political effects such a policy of knowledge had for Spain’s colonial rule.

Welche konkreten Funktionen hatte das Wissen im kolonialen Spanien der frühen Neuzeit? Brendecke analysiert die Beziehungen zwischen Empirie und Macht zur Zeit der spanischen Habsburger und stellt die Wichtigkeit des Wissens für den Prozess der Staatsbildung heraus. Auf einmalige Weise gelingt ihm dabei die Synthese von ideen-, wissenschafts- und kommunikationsgeschichtlichen Ansätzen sowie deren Einbettung in die Politikgeschichte.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Appreciations -- Content -- Illustrations -- Introduction -- I The king – all-seeing and blind -- II. Knowledge as the ruler’s postulate -- III. Strolls through the world. The epistemic setting of the court -- IV. The authorities of colonial rule -- V. Knowledge in the setting of colonial rule -- VI. Entera noticia: Ovando’s project of complete knowledge -- VII. Practices of knowledge acquisition -- VIII. Consulting: scenarios for the application of knowledge -- IX. Conclusions -- Appendix