Iberian Crossroads

An open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licenceThis book invites readers to rediscover Spain in the modern era-not as a fading empire relegated to Europe's margins, but as an active and often surprising participant in global transformations. Far from confined to the Iberian Peninsula, Spain was embedded in dense transnational networks that spanned the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia. The emergence of citizenship and new constitutional cultures, the movement of slaves and political exiles across national borders, and shifting imperial dynamics are but a small sample of world phenomena in which Spain played a decisive yet still underexplored role. By focusing on Spain, the book provides a fresh look at Europe's dynamic interactions with the wider world that moves beyond traditional 'Great Powers' analyses. In doing so, Iberian Crossroads is both a bold reinterpretation of Spain's past and a powerful call to rethink how we write global history--amplifying the voices of Europe's so-called 'peripheral' powers. Historians of modern Europe and global history alike will find in this book a compelling invitation to rethink Spain's place in the modern world.