Rivers of gold
Subtitle: the rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan
By: Hugh Thomas.
Edition: 1st U.S. ed.
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2003
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 696
Subjects: America -- Discovery and exploration -- Spanish.; Spain -- Colonies -- America -- History -- 16th century.; Spain -- History -- Ferdinand and Isabella, 1479-1516.; Spain -- History -- Charles I, 1516-1556.; Spain -- Colonies -- America -- History -- 16th century.
Description: "Hugh Thomas shows Spain at the dawn of the sixteenth century as a world power on the brink of greatness. Her monarchs, Fernando and Isabel, had retaken Granada from Islam, thereby completing restoration of the entire Iberian peninsula to Catholic rule. Flush with success, they agreed to sponsor an obscure Genoese sailor's plan to sail west to the Indies, where, legend purported, gold and spices flowed as if they were rivers. For Spain and for the world, this decision to send Christopher Columbus west was epochal - the dividing line between the medieval and the modern." "Spain's colonial adventures began inauspiciously: Columbus's meagerly funded expedition cost less than a Spanish princess's recent wedding. In spite of its small scale, it was a mission of astounding scope: to claim for Spain all the wealth of the Indies. The gold alone, thought Columbus, would fund a grand Crusade to reunite Christendom with its holy city, Jerusalem." "The lofty aspirations of the first explorers died hard, as the pursuit of wealth and glory competed with the pursuit of pious impulses. The adventurers from Spain were also, of course, curious about geographical mysteries, and they had a remarkable loyalty to their country. But rather than bridging earth and heaven, Spain's many conquests bore bitter fruit. In their search for gold, Spaniards enslaved "Indians" from the Bahamas and the South American mainland. The eloquent protests of Bartolome de las Casas, here much discussed, began almost immediately. Columbus and other Spanish explorers - Cortes, Ponce de Leon, and Magellan among them - created an empire for Spain of unsurpassed size and scope. But the door was soon open for other powers, enemies of Spain, to stake their claims."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [555]-574) and index.