Stephanie Mawson, in the conclusion of her brilliant work, writes: “By reading colonial history through the prism of limitations—shifting the interrogation from how to if and where—it asks for a more specific delineation of what the colonization process actually involved and how successful it really was” (p. 183). This is precisely what the author achieves throughout the chapters of Incomplete Conquests. The work examines the Spanish empire in the Philippines through the lens of limitations. Mawson argues that these limitations stem from a combination of factors, including persisting indigenous values, and geographic and economic circumstances that undermined Spanish control. Mawson emphasizes that the limits of the Spanish Empire were not solely due to overextension but were also shaped by the actions of indigenous peoples, Europeans, and Chinese settlers in the Philippines. Mawson critiques recent works that, despite problematizing colonialism and foregrounding indigenous agency, still present the colonial state as the driver of change (p. 8). She argues that this focus “grants the colonial state a semblance of power, coverage, and scope that it simply did not have” (p. 9).