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.The Empirical Empire: Spanish Colonial Rule and the Politics of Knowledge 1st Edition is written by Arndt Brendecke and published by De Gruyter Oldenbourg. ISBNs for The Empirical Empire are 9783110395815, 3110395819 and the print ISBNs are 9783110375046, 3110375044. Additional ISBNs include 9783110369847.

