Imperial Ambition in the Early Modern Mediterranean: Genoese Merchants and the Spanish Crown

Description

This book examines the alliance between the Spanish Crown and Genoese merchant bankers in southern Italy throughout the early modern era, when Spain and Genoa developed a symbiotic economic relationship, undergirded by a cultural and spiritual alliance. Analyzing early modern imperialism, migration, and trade, this book shows that the spiritual entente between the two nations was mainly informed by the religious division of the Mediterranean Sea. The Turkish threat in the Mediterranean reinforced the commitment of both the Spanish Crown and the Genoese merchants to Christianity. Spain's imperial strategy was reinforced by its willingness to acculturate to southern Italy through organized beneficence, representation at civic ceremonies, and spiritual guidance during religious holidays.

Celine Dauverd is Assistant Professor of History and a board member of the Mediterranean Studies Group at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research focuses on sociocultural relations between Spain and Italy during the early modern era (1450-1650). She has published articles in the Sixteenth Century Journal, the Journal of World History, Mediterranean Studies, and the Journal of Levantine Studies.

'This book's greatest strength is its call for further examination of the importance of the Genoese diaspora in southern Italy and its insistence on a re-evaluation of both the governance of the Kingdom of Naples and the pivotal role of that kingdom in the Spanish Empire.' Thomas Kirk, The Journal of Modern History 'The book shows convincingly that the symbiosis between the mercantile empire and the dynastic one 'was not just a matter of economics, as the current historiography suggests, but was also underpinned and strengthened by powerful sociocultural ties'.' Rolf Petri, European History Quarterly