Roger Crowley Poradie kníh

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.

A thrilling history of the dramatic siege of Acre in 1291, the bloody climax to the two hundred years of the Holy Land Crusades

Im Frühjahr 1291 wird die Hafenstadt Akkon von der größten Armee belagert, die die Muslime je gegen die Franken geführt haben. Mitreißend erzählt Roger Crowley die Geschichte des epischen Kampfs um die Stadt vor dem Hintergrund der Kreuzzüge im Heiligen Land und nimmt dabei die Perspektive der Muslime wie die der Kreuzfahrer ein.

Její pád zpečetil osud křižáků. Město Akkon bylo poslední velkou pevností křižáků ve Svaté zemi a symbolem jejich moci. Když roku 1291 po šestitýdenním obléhání muslimskými vojsky padlo, dvě staletí trvající historie křížových výprav se uzavřela. Britský historik Roger Crowley se svou obvyklou hlubokou znalostí regionu a jeho dějin a s bezprostředností velkého vypravěče popisuje přípravy i dramatický útok na město. Prokletá věž byla středobodem obléhání – a stala se symbolem pádu starého světa.

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. This title tells 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.

"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. This is 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, it 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." --Publisher description.

The narrative chronicles the rise of Portugal, a small, impoverished nation that achieved a century of maritime dominance through the audacity and navigational prowess of its explorers, unmatched by any other nation. Portugal's discovery of a sea route to India, its imperial conquests over Muslim rulers, and control of the spice trade disrupted the Mediterranean and established the first global economy. The author draws on letters and eyewitness accounts to illustrate Portugal's swift ascent to power. The story highlights the grandeur and brutality of the Império Português, featuring influential figures like King Manuel "the Fortunate," João II "the Perfect Prince," governor Afonso de Albuquerque, and explorer Vasco da Gama, who balanced personal ambitions with the empire's objectives in pursuit of wealth. A crucial element of the narrative is Portugal's mission to eradicate Islamic culture and forge a Christian empire in the Indian Ocean. Explorers ventured deep into Africa and aggressively besieged Indian port cities. The discovery of the route to India around Africa was a remarkable navigational achievement that disrupted the global order. For a century, no European empire was as ambitious or ruthless, creating the first long-range maritime empire and initiating the forces of globalization that continue to influence our world today.

Constantinople is narrative history at its very best: an intense, extraordinary tale of courage and cruelty, technological ingenuity, endurance and luck.

One of the most gripping and exciting stories ever told of an epic period of international warfare, now beautifully repackaged.

A magisterial work of gripping history, City of Fortune tells the story of the Venetian ascent from lagoon dwellers to the greatest power in the Mediterranean - an epic five hundred year voyage that encompassed crusade and trade, plague, sea battles and colonial adventure.