A History of Disasters: Spanish Colonialism in the Age of Empire

Historians have long relegated colonialism to the margins of modern Spanish history. Spain lost the majority of its overseas empire in the Spanish American revolutions of the early nineteenth century. It was a late, reluctant, and small‐scale participant in the partition of Africa. Recent scholarship, however, is bringing colonialism back to the center of Spain's nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article examines these findings and considers their consequences for narratives of Spanish marginality and modernity. Special attention is given to two recent works: John Tone's War and Genocide in Cuba and Sebastian Balfour's Deadly Embrace .