About this book:

Imperial Madrid traces how a modest Castilian town became the political heart of a global empire after Philip II fixed the court there in 1561. The book shows that the city’s growth was driven by the need to house royal palaces, bureaucratic councils, and religious institutions that transformed paper, silver, and stone into instruments of rule. From the Alcázar’s reconstruction and the Plaza Mayor’s ceremonial spaces to the Segovia Aqueduct and the Royal Tobacco Factory, urban form followed imperial function, while councils such as the State, Finance, and especially the Indies turned Madrid into a clearinghouse of petitions, reports, and legislation that bound the Americas, the Philippines, and Europe to the Castilian plain.

The work details how empire was sustained through fiscal networks—American silver moving overland to the royal treasury, foreign credit from Genoese and Fugger bankers, monopolies on tobacco and grain, and the royal mint’s coinage—while knowledge‑making projects (cosmographers, archives, Relaciones Geográficas) turned distant observations into maps, legal codes, and propaganda. Rituals of sovereignty—royal entries, autos‑da‑fé, and festivals—projected Habsburg and Bourbon power onto the streets, simultaneously policing belief and behavior through the Inquisition, sumptuary laws, and municipal ordinances. Madrid’s social world blended grandees, petitioners, foreign financiers, artisans, enslaved and free Afro‑Iberians, colonial visitors, and a burgeoning bureaucracy, all negotiating power in households, confraternities, markets, and the imperial court.

From the Bourbon administrative reforms and enlightened urbanism of the eighteenth century to the crises of Napoleonic occupation, the loss of mainland colonies, and the retention of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, the book charts Madrid’s struggle to redefine itself after 1898. It examines how the city remembered and forgot its imperial past through monuments, education, and political discourse, and how its legacies persisted in linguistic, cultural, and economic ties to Latin America, the persistence of imperial‑era institutions, and the continued flow of people, commodities, and ideas that kept Madrid a global city well into the twentieth century.

What You'll Find Inside:

• How Madrid's councils and secretariats transformed colonial reports, decrees, and petitions into imperial governance from the Alcázar's administrative chambers
• The fiscal foundations of empire: American silver flowing through credit networks, royal monopolies (tobacco, mint), and taxation that funded Madrid's court and bureaucracy
• Urban ceremonies as political theater: royal entries, autos-da-fé, and festivals that projected Habsburg and Bourbon power through choreographed spectacle in Madrid's streets
• The city's social worlds: interplay of grandees, petitioners, foreign financiers, Afro-Iberian communities, and colonial visitors negotiating power and patronage
• Infrastructure as imperial expression: from the Segovia Aqueduct to the Puerta de Alcalá, how water, lighting, and transport systems embodied and enabled Madrid's rule

Who's It For:

This book is ideal for scholars of early modern European history, imperial studies, and urban history seeking a deep analysis of how administrative mechanisms, economic systems, and cultural practices shaped a capital city's role in governing a global empire. It will also benefit graduate students working with primary sources, as the text incorporates archival documents like council records, petitions, and account books to illustrate imperial mechanics. Educated general readers interested in the concrete ways distant colonies influenced a European capital's daily life—from grain markets to religious confraternities—will find Madrid's story accessible and illuminating.