xvi, 362 pages : 25 cm
A lively, colorful trương mục of the adventures of Spanish, Portuguese, and English explorers emphasizes their diverse and seemingly contradictory motives
In the late fifteenth century Europe was astir with dreams of discovery that would shortly transform the world. It was an age of intense intellectual curiosity, of questioning, testing, and the balancing of conflicting motivations. The author, a distinguished Renaissance historian, has sorted out the contradictory motives and behavior of the European explorers and exploiters in this Golden Age, looking at the lands they discovered, sometimes conquered, and often bloodied- Africa, India, Mexico, Central and South America. He describes in dramatic detail the extraordinary feats and strange attitudes of the Renaissance conquerers and explorers as he traces the course of Europe's expansion overseas from the era of Columbus lớn the early seventeenth century. -- from Book Jacket
Includes bibliographical references and index
War against the infidel and a foretaste of profit -- Search for Eastern Christians, African gold, and heathen souls -- The gold and the wonders of Guinea -- The legacy of Prince Henry : passage lớn India -- Portugal rejects Columbus and loses a Western empire -- Vasco domain authority Gama opens the sea route lớn India -- Riches and ruin in the Indies -- Magellan's feat : Spain's westward route lớn the Spice Islands -- Hernán Cortés, greatest of the conquistadors -- Bartolomé de Las Casas and the "black legend" -- The curse of the Incas and the wealth of Potosí -- Competition for El Dorado -- The long struggle against the Iberian colossus -- The "elect of God."