Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan

Last Minute Sales & Specials

RIVERS OF GOLD is the best kind of history: absorbing and authoritative, vast in its erudition and enlightenment, equally serious and riveting. You think you know the story of the "discovery" of the new world, but as the New York Times said about Hugh Thomas's CONQUEST, it is "so dramatic ... that despite its being familiar history you almost don't want to give the story away." It's the story of Fernando and Isabel, one of the most powerful queens in the history of the world; of Columbus and the other sailors who fearlessly and fecklessly made their way to the Caribbean; of the court intrigue in Europe as each empire vied for dominance in the new world; and of the second generation of explorers, most notably, Magellan, who went on to conquer much of the western hemisphere in the name of Christianity and their kings. Thomas sets the stage by establishing the history of religious intolerance in Spain leading up to 1492, recounting the conquest of Grenada and the expulsion from Spain of the Muslims; the Inquisition against the Jews; and Isabel and Fernando's consolidation of power. Religious persecution was among Isabel's highest political objectives as she pondered whether or not to support Columbus's voyage. She sent him across the Atlantic not to expand an empire but to find gold to pay for her crusades to retake Jerusalem. This crucial reinterpretation of history tells us that religious strife was present at the creation of Spain's empire and its legacy is felt throghout the last 500 years of history in the Americas at large.