Conquerors
How Portugal seized the Indian Ocean and forged the First Global Empire
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- £7.49
Publisher Description
'A rare gift . . . The story he has to tell may be a thrilling one but not every historian could tell it so thrillingly.' Financial Times
'Magnificently rip-roaring history . . . Bursting with colour and excitement.' Dominic Sandbrook
As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire. In an astonishing blitz of thirty years, a handful of visionary and utterly ruthless empire builders, with few resources but breathtaking ambition, attempted to seize the Indian Ocean, destroy Islam and take control of world trade.
Conquerors is narrative history at its most vivid - an epic tale of navigation, trade and technology, money and religious zealotry, political diplomacy and espionage, sea battles and shipwrecks, endurance, courage and terrifying brutality. Drawing on extensive first-hand accounts, Crowley brings to life the exploits of an extraordinary band of conquerors - men such as Afonso de Albuquerque, the first European since Alexander the Great to found an Asian empire - who set in motion five hundred years of European colonisation and unleashed the forces of globalisation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Crowley (Empires of the Sea) charts how, beginning in 1415, Portugal diligently explored sea routes around Africa and India, intent on creating a new non-Mediterranean course for trade, which resulted in a complete upheaval of the multireligious and multicultural governance of the Indian Ocean's trade routes. In a flowing narrative, he demonstrates kings Jo o's and Manuel's high expectations of regional dominance, and brings to life the Portuguese explorers Vasco da Gama, Afonso de Albuquerque, and Francisco de Almeida. Detailed descriptions address the high mortality of seafaring, and Crowley documents the turmoil inflicted upon native cultures as the Portuguese refused to compromise or give credence to local customs or the rank of non-Christians, even as they indulged in a side quest for a near-mythical Ethiopian Christian king. Surprisingly, there's no discussion of the Portuguese sailors' attitude toward Muslims after centuries of Moorish invasions and war on the Iberian Peninsula. Perfect for anyone who likes a high seas tale, these "Portuguese pirates" prove that resilience and superior firepower as well as "banning the construction of globes and the reproduction of charts" to keep knowledge from their trading rivals in Venice established Portuguese dominance in a high-stakes, high-rewards game for power that permanently changed global relations and trade, all in 30 short years.
