americas

Thomas' journey through the early history of the Spanish Empire is fascinating and it is much more than the simple tale of the adventurers and sailors that first set the feet in the New World: Thomas' provides and impressive amount of information on the society of the Reinassance Spain: not only about the dinastic combinations and wars that unified the kigdoms of Spain and linked them to the Burgundian and Austrian royal families but also on the peoples that co-existed in Spain at the time, from poor moorish peasants to Italian traders, from Catholic bishops of Jewish origin to slaves from Africa, from empoverished hidalgos to soldiers of fortune. Thomas analyses the evolution of the State and the birth of the modern bureaucrathy. Only from this economic, social and ideological background can be understood the visionary trips of Columbus, the unfortunate and violent first settlements in the Caribbean and the heroic adventures of the conquest of Mexico and the circumnavigation of the Earth.
The approach of Thomas is honest and scientific. He analyses the historical facts according to the perspective of the time and supporting his views with an impressive amount of material not only from other historians but from documents of the Xv and XVI centuries.
Moreover, the book is rich (at least the Spanish edition, El Imperio Espanol) in extra materials such as maps, documents (3 annexes including the story of the first free African in America, a companion of Cortes that introduced the wheet in the continent) and notes.

To summ up: a great book