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Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan, by Hugh Thomas
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From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain’s early conquests in the Americas. Hugh Thomas’s magisterial narrative of Spain in the New World has all the characteristics of great historical literature: amazing discoveries, ambition, greed, religious fanaticism, court intrigue, and a battle for the soul of humankind.
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 a bitter fruit. In their search for gold, Spaniards enslaved “Indians” from the Bahamas and the South American mainland. The eloquent protests of Bartolomé de las Casas, here much discussed, began almost immediately. Columbus and other Spanish explorers—Cortés, Ponce de León, 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.
Great men and women dominate these pages: cardinals and bishops, priors and sailors, landowners and warriors, princes and priests, noblemen and their determined wives.
Rivers of Gold is a great story brilliantly told. More significant, it is an engrossing history with many profound—often disturbing—echoes in the present.
- Sales Rank: #555380 in Books
- Published on: 2004-06-01
- Released on: 2004-06-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.35" h x 1.73" w x 6.28" l, 2.50 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 720 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Thomas has long belonged to the elite of Spanish studies. His popular reputation was made in 1961 by a sweeping history of the Spanish Civil War, strongly sympathetic to the Second Republic and smuggled across the Pyrenees during Franco's dictatorship. But by the '80s he was an adviser to Margaret Thatcher (who made him a lord), and over time unfolded an increasingly conservative vision of the Spanish past. In his new book, Thomas returns to the conquest of the Caribbean islands and Mexico in the first two generations after Columbus, relating a sequence of events he has described as the most important phase of world history. He does so with narrative vigor, informed by personal familiarity with two continents. In his insistence on accidental imperialism and on the multinational dimensions of the enterprise of conquest, his interpretation bears some similarity to recent work by Henry Kamen (Empire). However, the ideological underpinnings will be controversial. Indigenous cultures less concerned with street-cleaning than the Aztecs are described as "savages" who would have destroyed each other had the Spanish not shown up. The demographic catastrophes resulting from conquest are treated as minor details in the chivalric adventure that helped ensure Spanish greatness, a tale in which the "savages" are mere backdrop. Indeed, readers free from colonial prejudice will be surprised to find themselves also written out of history: "Who can doubt now," Thomas asks rhetorically, "that [the Spanish] were right to denounce the idea of religion based on human sacrifice or the simple worship of the sun or the rain?"). 32 pages of illus., maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Bookmarks Magazine
“Lord” Thomas’s old school style privileges grand themes and rich descriptions over theory. It all adds up to a sweeping history of a brief but crucial period of the Spanish Empire. While Thomas doesn’t say anything new (and writes from an outdated Eurocentric perspective), he recounts the story of Spain’s rise—and the subversion of imperial ventures by private interests—with great panache. Household names (remember Balboa, Columbus, and Ferdinand and Isabel?) as well as lesser-known figures come alive. A family tree, glossary, and fascinating endnotes supplement his narrative. But, Thomas skims over some key themes (such as the conquest of the Aztecs and the Native Americans), and his arcane language, myriad details, and breezy narrative may sidetrack some readers.
Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
From Booklist
The early exploration of the New World is inextricable from the brief and intense rise of the Spanish Empire, shows Thomas in this account, which differs from his several earlier studies of Spain and the colonization of the New World (Conquest [1994] and The Slave Trade [1997], to name two), primarily in its focus on the relationship between exploration and empire building. Biographical accounts of key figures are key components of Thomas' narrative--Columbus, Ferdinand, and Isabel are, of course, major foci--but at least as interesting is his more subtle description of the rise of bureaucratic institutions in Spain's colonies. In addition, Thomas includes significant moments of empire not directly related to exploration, such as Charles V being elected Holy Roman Emperor. Engagingly presented, this book clearly shows the author's passion for his subject; his preface also reminds us that he has visited nearly all of the places referred to in this book. Includes a family tree, a glossary, and a reading list. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Espagna spinola!
By Kindle Customer
Wat a great read being a huge Spanish empire history buff I found it quite unique and different than all other Spanish history books, I learned many new things that I did not know so 5 star for a different spin in Spanish history
49 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
Not the Best Choice on the Subject
By J. Parent
If there ever was doubt as to the negative effect of too powerful authors and "underweening" editors, this book resolves that once and for all. You might think that a book that consumes over 500 pages of text to cover the development of the Spanish Empire in the New World from Columbus to Magellan, a period of less than 30 years (1492 to 1521), would contain a wealth of information on the European setting, Spanish and Portuguese precedents, the nature and role of Spain's Mediterranean interests and the reasons for and effects of Charles V' Hapsburg connections.
You might think that, but unfortunately, in this case, you would be wrong. Mr. Thomas clearly enjoys his material. We are treated to detailed, even overwhelming, information on the personalities, personal histories, family background and actions of virtually everyone involved at virtually every level in the exploration and exploitation of the "Indies" during the period. The only exception is the conquest of Mexico under Cortes, which Mr. Thomas has covered in another work. When the author comments that Cortes' memoirs of the conquest are the only memoirs out of over 300 surviving accounts that are worth reading, he is entirely to be believed.
On the other hand, it is not readily apparent that Mr. Thomas' deep erudition has a point or purpose. 500 pages of this kind of detail without significant context does not appear tailored to the average reader, yet the pictures and maps seem to indicate a wider target audience than the specialist or expert. For example, does even the specialist really need to know the full name and family origin of each banker that loaned money to fund not just Columbus' voyages, but every voyage undertaken in the Caribbean? And what kind of audience would need or want an appendix listing the bribes spent on each Elector to secure Charles' election as Holy Roman Emperor, but which yields no information on how much of the total was funded by New World gold? As other reviewers have commented, where was the editor?
For a much better discussion of Spain' Empire in the New World, that does address the wider European setting, Spanish and Portuguese precedents, Spain's Mediterranean interests and the Habsburg connections, the Cambridge Modern History chapters on Spain and the New World, though dated and sometimes hard to find, are still a much better choice for even the average reader.
10 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
useless info overload
By K. Vestal
thomas is very well educated and writes well. but, he uses so many proper names of people and places of unheard of people and places all interconnected. some sentences contain 4 proper names. he forgets what is so special and fascinating about the whole process of discovery of the americas for all the details. some people may want this? yould have to have a Ph D in latin american studies or catholicism!
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