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Roots of Empire is the first monograph to connect forest management and state-building in the early modern Spanish global monarchy. The Spanish crown's control over valuable sources of shipbuilding timber in Spain, Latin America, and the Philippines was critical for developing and sustaining its maritime empire. Roots of Empire examines Spain's forest management policies from the sixteenth century through the middle of the eighteenth century, connecting the global imperial level with local lived experiences in forest communities impacted by this manifestation of expanded state power. As home to the early modern world's most extensive forestry bureaucracy, Spain met serious political, technological, and financial limitations while still managing to address most of its timber needs without upending the social balance.
Introducing Spanish State Forestry
1: A New State Forestry for the First Global Age
2: Forests of the Ultramar
3: The Struggle to Stay Afloat in the Seventeenth Century
4: Bottoming Out and Revival under the First Bourbon, 1700-1746
5: The Triumph of State Forestry: 1748-1754
General Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
John T. Wing, Ph.D. (2009), University of Minnesota, is Assistant Professor of History at the College of Staten Island, The City University of New York. He has published articles on Spanish forest history in Environmental History and the Journal of Early Modern History.
"[...] This book provides a rich, well-presented raw narrative for anyone interested in learning about processes of central state formation in early modern Europe, the military in mercantile empires, environmental history in the early modern world economy, and of course for specialists in Spanish history."
– Eva-Maria Swidler, Goddard College and The Curtis Institute of Music in Environmental History, Volume 21, no 4, October 2016
" [...] The author states several times his affinity for the area, which comes across in this engagingly written, entertaining, and informative work. Maritime historians and anyone with an interest in human interactions along the world's waterways will find it useful reading."
– Robert S. Shelton, Cleveland State University in The International Journal of Maritime History 2016, Volume 28(3)
" [...] Forests were not only strategic resources for state navies, but also commons for local groups. John Wing's Roots of Empire explores the process through which the Spanish monarchy gained increasing legal and effective control over littoral forests first and inland forest later. [...] Wing studies the history of forest management in relationship to the geopolitics of imperial naval expansion (or lack thereof ) during three distinct historical periods."
– Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra, University of Texas at Austin in Renaissance Quarterly, Volume LXIX no. 4
