Download or read book The Empirical Empire written by Arndt Brendecke and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2016-10-10 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.