On the fateful night of June 8, 1708, a mighty Spanish galleon sunk beneath the sea after a clash with superior British forces near the entrance to the port of Cartagena; but her saga did not end there. The San José, because of the stories which swirled after its demise, became a matter of historical legend and mystery. Carla Rahn Phillips’s newest historical offering is not just the history of a ship but rather an account of the waning years (and consequences) of Spanish Habsburg rule and the transition to the Spanish Bourbons. In particular, it deals with the era of the War of the Spanish Succession and successfully adds insights into its context in terms of a world conflict.
We find in the lucid prose of this book that by the late seventeenth century the Spanish monarchy was terribly in debt and hence very dependent on the treasure...
