Description
Book Synopsis''A rare gift . . . The story he has to tell may be a thrilling one but not every historian could tell it so thrillingly.'' Financial Times
''Magnificently rip-roaring history . . . Bursting with colour and excitement.'' Dominic Sandbrook
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.
Conquerors is narrative history at its most vivid - an epic tale of navigation, trade and technology, money and religious zealotry
