This epic history compares the empires built by Spain and Britain in the Americas, from Columbus's arrival in the New World to the end of Spanish colonial rule in the early nineteenth century. J. H. Elliott, one of the most distinguished and versatile historians working today, offers us history on a grand scale, contrasting the worlds built by Britain and by Spain on the ruins of the civilizations they encountered and destroyed in North and South America. Elliott identifies and explains both the similarities and differences in the two empires' processes of colonization, the character of their colonial societies, their distinctive styles of imperial government, and the independence movements mounted against them. Based on wide reading in the history of the two great Atlantic civilizations, the book sets the Spanish and British colonial empires in the context of their own times and offers us insights into aspects of this dual history that still influence the Americas.

Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America 1492-1830

A companion to late Antiquity

We explore the association between climate change and warfare in eastern China over the past millennium from a macro-historic perspective. High-resolution palaeo-temperature reconstructions and the complete record of warfare incidence in eastern China were compared. Results show that warfare frequency in eastern China (its southern portion in particular) significantly correlated with the Northern Hemisphere temperature oscillations. Almost all peaks of warfare frequency and dynastic changes occurred in cooling phases. We suggest that in historic China, the reduction of thermal energy during cooling phases significantly shrank agricultural production. Such ecological stress interacted with population pressure and China’s unique historic and geographic setting to bring about the high frequencies of warfare over the last millennium. We recommend scholars take climate change into account as they consider the anthropology of warfare in the historic past.

Climate Change and War Frequency in Eastern China over the Last Millennium

This article examines the hypothesis that longterm changes in middle latitude climate had a significant impact on population size variations in preindustrial societies. Warm periods are assumed to be associated with above average population levels while cool periods are correlated with subnormal levels. A model is presented that suggests longterm fluctuations in middle latitude temperature cause longterm fluctuations in food supply per capita and in vital rates; the effects of food supply and temperature on vital rates are independent however. Empirical analysis of data from various European countries China and archaelogical sites in North America and Europe provide support for such a model. Data from England show declines in grain yield fertility life expectancy and population growth and increases in average age at 1st marriage and net outmigration during the cooling period that extended from 1590 to 1670. The reverse trends were noted during the period of warming from 1670 to 1800. Analysis of data from China and western Europe indicate that a 10% increase in solar activity (a proxy for temperature) was associated with a 4% increase in population. In contrast to Malthusian theory which cannot account for the timing of longterm observed fluctuations in population a climate-population model effectively predicts the turning points observed in preindustrial societies. The striking synchrony in the longterm movements of temperature agricultural yield and population series across the middle latitudes in the period before the year 1800 suggest that this approach is worthy of more attention.

Long-term fluctuations in climate and population in the preindustrial era.

Urban and rural markets, weekly markets and fairs, multiplied in Europe or intensified their activity, assisting the penetration of the local economy by money and credit in many forms. The difficulties which the local economy encountered with the easing of the circulation of money were not confined to problems of debasement or revaluation of its own coinage, or of the diversity of the systems of moneys of account. However, important metallic money might be in the local economy of the modern age, it in no way hampered the development of credit. The international flows of specie throughout the modern age were doubtless strongly influenced by movements of capital and in particular by government transfers. Control of public finance and taxation were not the exclusive domain of the central governments during the modern age. Western Europe especially was characterized by a bewildering gap between the growing power of state authority and its inability to substantiate this power financially and fiscally.

Monetary, Credit and Banking Systems

One of the most fierce and wide-ranging debates in historical circles during the last twenty years has concerned the theory that throughout Europe, the seventeenth century was a period of crisis so pervasive, significant and intense that it could be labelled a 'General Crisis'. A number of articles stimulated by the debate were collected and published in a book entitled Crisis in Europe, edited by Trevor Aston. This volume takes the still acrimonious debate up to the present day. The editors have collected together ten important subsequent essays concerning the social, economic and political crises which affected not only Europe but also Asia in the mid-seventeenth century. All the pieces are essential reading for a clear understanding of the period. This new edition of The General Crisis of the Seventeenth Century contains fresh research, new perspectives and completely updated bibliographies and index.

The general crisis of the seventeenth century

Preface. Abbreviations and short titles. PART THREE - THE STRUGGLES OF SCHOLARS IN THE SCHOOLS. Introduction. 1 Rupert of Deutz: A Voice of the Past. I The Two Worlds in Western Europe. II Rupert's Life, Work, and World. III Rupert's Conflicts with the Schools. IV The Final Grandeur of Events. V Ceremonies and Symbols versus Definitions and System. 2 Master Anselm of Laon: The Master of Future Masters. I The Grounds of His Scholastic Fame. II The Master, the City, and the School. III The Development of His Teaching. IV Master Anselm's Contribution to the Study of the Bible: The Origin of the Glossa Ordinaria. V The Completion of the Glossa by Master Anselm's Successors. 3 Master Anselm and the Origins of Systematic Theology. I The Scholastic Routine: From Glosses to sententiae. II A Student's Collection of sententiae. III Master Anselm's Questions and Answers. IV The Bridge Between the Monastic Past. and the Scholastic Future. V Summing Up. 4 Stumbling Towards System, c. 1100-1160. I From sentences to System. II Early Collections of sententiae. III The Years Between 1130 and 1160. 5 Hugh of St. Victor: A Systematic Genius Before His Time. I His Origin and Scholarly Beginnings. II Towards a Systematic World-View. III Master Hugh in His Classroom. IV Hugh's Projected Lectures on God in Human History. V Hugh's Ambiguous Position in Scholastic Development. 6 Scholars at the Frontiers of Knowledge: William of Conches and Thierry of Chartres. I William of Conches. II Thierry of Chartres. III Conclusion. 7 Abelard at the Frontier of Logic and Theology. I Introduction. II Abelard's New Beginning. III Logic and the Holy Trinity. IV An Unexpected Source of Opposition (Walter of Mortagne). V The Enlargement of Theology. 8 The Decisive Battles of the 1140s. I The Road to Conflict. II The First. Battle: St. Bernard and Abelard. III The Background to the First. Battle: William of St. Thierry and St. Bernard. IV The Second Battle: St. Bernard and Gilbert De La Porree. V The Significance of 1148. 9 Peter Lombard: the Great Achiever. I Introduction. II The Continuing Problem of Organization. III Peter Lombard Comes to Paris. IV Peter Lombard's Patron: Odo (Or Otto), Bishop of Lucca. V Peter Lombard's Career and Work in Paris, c. 1138-1160. VI A Comparison Between His Work and That of Bishop Odo of Lucca. VII Summing-Up. PART FOUR - THE STRUGGLE OF THE SCHOLARS IN THE WORLD. Introduction. 10 Master Vacarius: A Roman Lawyer in English Government, c. 1145 to c. 1200. I The Legend and the Reality. II Why, and When, Did Archbishop Theobald Bring Vacarius to England? III The Liber pauperum. IV Vacarius in the Archiepiscopal Province of York. V Vacarius' Later Writings. 11 John of Salisbury: A Scholar at Large in Government. I The End of His School-Years. II His Transference to the World of Government. 12 The Two Peters of Blois in the Schools and in Government. I Introduction. II Their Relationship and Personalities. III The Two Peters of Blois in the Schools, c. 1140-1165. IV The Younger Peter's Search for Employment, 1165-1174. V Stability then Uncertainty for the Younger Peter. VI Peter and the Third Crusade. VII Peter in the Service of Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1184-1190. VIII Peter and the Call for a Crusade. IX Peter Writes a Last Letter to His Namesake. X The Two Peters of Blois as Poets. XI The Letters and the World of Peter's Old Age. XII Epilogue: The Letter-Collection Marches On. Index.

The heroic age

The variety of experience available to medieval scholars and the vitality of medieval thought are both reflected in this collection of original essays by distinguished historians. Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages is presented to Margaret Gibson, whose own work has ranged from Boethius to Lanfranc and to the study of the Bible in the middle ages.

Lesley M. Smith

Papers

The general crisis of the seventeenth century

The heroic age

Intellectual Life in the Middle Ages: Essays Presented to Margaret Gibson

The seventeenth-century crisis

The Age of Expansion