Un imperio de ingenieros

There is an ambiguous figure, halfway between the military and the civil, which was not fully defined until recently: the engineer. This book is a fascinating exploration of his central role in the forging of the Spanish Empire. It is also a celebration of human curiosity, ingenuity and the surprising capacity for adaptation of professionals who did not limit themselves to transferring European postulates, but soaked up the new spaces found overseas and admired them. The formation of an empire requires a restructuring of the landscape for administrative purposes as well as the linking of disparate communities into a single political entity through infrastructure. In the Spanish Empire, which looked to the Roman Empire as a model, engineers directed key public works to achieve economic efficiency and social and cultural integration, since they facilitated communications and health and provided what was necessary for defense. In addition, they had to work in an extraordinarily large territory, with indefensible borders and vulnerable routes, or with widely distributed resources. In addition, they did so in a context of financial scarcity due to economic crises and imperial dynastic wars, within a process of expansion that was as exhausting as it was amazing.