The formation of the Hispanic monarchy as a composite monarchy

The goal of this investigation consists mainly in four parts. In the first one the concept of composite monarchies will be briefly defined and characterized. It will be shown that this kind of union was very typical in the early modern times. The second part describes the evolution of the Spanish kingdoms, its beginnings, the formation of the three Iberian crowns by conquer and unions, and finally the union of these three crowns which build the Spanish monarchy approximately from the 16th century on. In the third part there will be analyzed the problems of this kind of composite structure, especially the royal absenteeism from which were suffering most of the Iberian territories. Finally will be characterized the centralization affords by the monarchy and the so called protonationalism, two tendencies that weakened the composite structure of the monarchy.