Conclusion

Abstract

This chapter explains that in the study of empire in the Old World, the Spanish political thought on just war, conquest, and the treatment of newly subject people developed a crucible in which Mediterranean dynastic rivalries were paramount. It assesses the circumstances of conquests in geographies ranging from the wooded Pyrenees to the bustling port of Naples to the arid hinterlands of Tripoli, where the legal and moral arguments undergirding the rise of the early modern empires were forged. It also analyzes different circumstances of the Atlantic world that shows the inevitable continuities linking Mediterranean imperium to its Atlantic successor and demonstrates the incommensurability of Mediterranean dynamics with those of the Gentile-inhabited Atlantic. The chapter sheds light on aspects of Spanish history that have been neglected for centuries. It is not intended only to signify merely a “recovery” of Spain's Mediterranean interests and aspirations during the early sixteenth century, but as stimulant for research and dialogue on the legal and moral arguments surrounding just war, conquest, and empire in a variety of settings.