Spice : the 16th-century contest that shaped the modern world / Roger Crowley

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Crowley, Roger, 1951- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Spice trade--History.

Spice trade.

Spice trade--History--16th century.

Europe--Commerce--History--16th century.

Europe.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (329 pages)

Edition:

1st edition.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2024.

Summary:

"The story of the sixteenth-century's epic contest for the spice trade, which propelled European maritime exploration and conquest across Asia and the Pacific. Spices drove the early modern world economy, and for Europeans they represented riches on an unprecedented scale. Cloves and nutmeg could reach Europe only via a complex web of trade routes, and for decades Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find their elusive source. But when the Portuguese finally reached the Spice Islands of the Moluccas in 1511, they set in motion a fierce competition for control. Roger Crowley shows how this struggle shaped the modern world. From 1511 to 1571, European powers linked up the oceans, established vast maritime empires, and gave birth to global trade, all in the attempt to control the supply of spices. Taking us on voyages from the dockyards of Seville to the vastness of the Pacific, the volcanic Spice Islands of Indonesia, the Arctic Circle, and the coasts of China, this is a narrative history rich in vivid eyewitness accounts of the adventures, shipwrecks, and sieges that formed the first colonial encounters -- and remade the world economy for centuries to follow."-- Publisher's website.

Contents:

PART I. LANDFALLS: THE RACE TO THE EAST. The Heaven of Francisco Serrão ; Maps and Speculations ; The Molucca Fleet ; To the Spice Islands ; Circumnavigators ; Cannon Fire on the Pearl River

PART II. COMPETITORS: THE BATTLE FOR THE MOLUCCAS. The Spanish Reply ; Microwars ; The Voyage of the Florida ; ‘End the Suffering ; ‘The Infernal Labyrinth’

PART III. CONNECTIONS: LINKING THE WORLD. The Haven of Death ; ‘Fear Our Greatness, Respect Our Virtue’ ; Cracking the Code ; Galleons of Desire ; Going Global ; Damage.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780300277210

0300277210

OCLC:

1429725056