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Updated Sunday 15 May, 2011 12:18 PM |
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This Day in Alternate History Blog
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Rivers of Gold: The
Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan The Spanish Empire is one
of history’s turning points, which makes the significant lack of information
available to the English reader inexplicable.
We know it existed, but we know very little of its nature and
compositions, indeed, I’ve met people who believe that the Spanish only ever
held Cuba and the Philippines, which they lost to America in 1898.
Recently, however, there
has been an upsurge in books dedicated to that period of history.
Spain’s Road to Empire is one such book – and now Hugh Thomas has
added his own book on the subject. In
doing so he provides background to ‘The Conquest of Mexico’, which he wrote
several years before and is still the definite (if long-winded) word on the
subject. Thomas begins by
examining the victory of the two monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, perhaps the
ablest monarchs in an outstanding generation of European rulers, over the
Muslims. This victory completed
their quest to unify Spain under their banner.
He then discusses the processes and politics that led to Spain (and
Portugal) becoming involved in the New World and the development of what we, in
later years, would call the ‘white mans burden’. Not unlike the British, the Spanish monarchy would consider
the native Americans their responsibility, while adopting an attitude of
complete unconcern over the fate of Jews, Muslims and Conversos, who were
Jews who had embraced Christianity. There is frustratingly
little detail on the problems in Spain that resulted from Charles becoming Holy
Roman Emperor. The Commeros
revolt looks a little like the Nomonhan incident – we know its important, but
how many sources are there on it? There is ample ground for
alternate history speculations. The
link between the mother nations and the early colonists was fragile, it may have
been cut at any time, leaving the colonies as independent nations.
A bid for independence on the part of Cortes was apparently expected
(although it never materialised) by the royal agents, who spent considerable
effort in neutralising him. Other possibilities along those lines came very close to fruitarian
when the Spanish court tried to press laws that granted natives some
basic rights, or when the religious orders tried to press their own power and
influence over the Indians. Incidentally, the book was clearly rushed out by the author, as there are a minor amount of little spelling and grammar mistakes in the text.
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