by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra lived through two distinct periods in Spanish history. The first was a "golden age" of military success, national pride, and intellectual freedom; the second, a time of economic and military weakness and religious and intellectual repression. Don Quixote (pronounced "kee-hotay") was written at the end of his life and in the midst of the second of these periods. Spain at that time was in a state of desengano (a word meaning both "disillusion" and "disappointment"); the Spanish people realized by 1605 that the powerful empire of the previous century had been built on a shaky foundation-and that the foundation was crumbling.

Events in History at the Time of the Novel

Decline of the Spanish empire. In 1547, the year Cervantes was born, Spain was ruled by King Charles I, who was also the...