Endless Empire: Spain's Retreat, Europe's Eclipse, America's Decline

Acknowledgments

Sensing the current world order at the cusp of major change, a global network of  historians gathered from four continents for an intense dialogue at a succession of conferences in Madison (), Sydney (), Manila (), and Barcelona (). The purpose of these meetings was to gain a comparative perspective on the subject of modern imperial transitions, which would have been impossible had we limited ourselves to specific area specialties or established academic traditions. The first two gatherings resulted in the publication of Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State (), edited by Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano. The present volume, Endless Empire, is the fruit of a symposium held at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, in June , which probed the processes of imperial decline within six modern maritime empires. In the context of this wide-ranging inquiry into imperial history, Colonial Crucible explored the rise of the U.S. global power while this current volume examines the dynamics of its decline. In sum, these two books represent nothing less than an assessment of history’s most powerful empire, both its rise and possible demise. In that vast void between the enormity of American power and the paucity of its critical study, it is our hope these publications will serve as both contribution and corrective, placing current debates about the changing world order in a broader historical context. Three institutions have been responsible for putting these conferences together —the Harvey Goldberg Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (http://history.wisc.edu/goldberg/goldberg.htm); the World University’s Network in collaboration with the University of Sydney; and the Research Group on Empires, Metropolises, and Extra-European Societies (GRIMSE) organized acknowledgments xi within the Humanities Department at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (http:// www.upf.edu/grimse). In convening the Barcelona symposium, we are indebted to the administrative staff, which coordinated the sensitive business of grant applications, translation services, program scheduling, airline tickets, and hotel bookings. In particular, Ms. Cinta Campos and Ms. Yolanda Pueyo undertook the logistical and organizational work for the well-organized Barcelona conference. To carry out this ambitious project, the question of funding was paramount. The principal backing for the Barcelona symposium came from Spain’s Ministry of Science and Innovation, which provided support through the Imperial Transitions Research Group (HAR--CO-) and a supplementary grant for the conference itself (HAR--E). Other contributors included the Department d’Humanitats, the Institut Jaume Vicens Vives d’Història, the UNESCO Chair for Iberian Cultures, the UNESCO Chair for Intercultural Studies, and the Statebuilding in Latin America Research Project, sponsored by the European Research Council (Seventh Framework Program, no. ). We thank the respective directors, coordinators, administrative staffs, and the anonymous judges and peer referees who gave our proposal a high priority. Given the global financial climate, which grew ever more difficult in the months of planning that preceded this conference, we are particularly grateful for being entrusted with these scarce resources. Various colleagues from multiple academic institutions lent their expertise by attending and chairing panels at the Barcelona conference, contributing the insights , comments, and criticisms reflected in these pages. To this end, we would like to express our gratitude to professors Albert Carreras, Alex Coello, Robert Fishman, Juan Carlos Garavaglia, Jordi Ibañez, Vina Lanzona, Eloy Martín, Juan Pan-Montojo, Martín Rodrigo, Florentino Rodao, Mauricio Tenorio, and Enric Ucelay-Da Cal. The University of Wisconsin–Madison was equally generous in its support for the research and editorial work needed to transform a lively symposium into a publishable volume. The International Institute provided, through Dean Gilles Bousquet and his associate Guido Podesta, funding for the Empires in Transition Research Circle, which helped convene these scholarly symposia. At the University of Wisconsin Press, the volume benefited greatly from the rigorous editing of Dr. Gwen Walker, the careful supervision of Adam Mehring, and the support of their director Shelia Leary. The Press also solicited reviews from three external readers—Anne Foster, Franklin Knight, and John Sidel–whose close reading and thoughtful comments inspired significant revisions to almost all the essays in this volume. More broadly, this volume owes multiple debts, personal and professional, to the earlier generations of gifted scholars who have tracked the course of modern empires. We feel a particularly strong sense of gratitude to historians David K. xii Acknowledgments Fieldhouse and Stanley J. Stein who, as scholars and mentors, nurtured this...