An illuminating account of the world’s first conquering global power

The book explains the motivations behind the Portuguese explorers insatiable appetite for discovery of a sea route to India and beyond and the search for the elusive Christian king of Ethiopia. In so doing it also highlights the ruthlessness of those pioneers in securing long lasting colonies and riches for the Portuguese king. This was to set the blueprint for the Dutch, British and French colonists who followed.

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warts and all

I really enjoyed this and thought it was a detailed, well balanced interpretation of the historical achievements of the Portuguese during this era, recognising both the bravery and barbarity of those involved.

....as a consequence I now jokingly threaten to cut off the nose and ears of my wife for any perceived slight to myself.

I enjoyed the engaging narration and the only negative observation would be that of the prononciation of some Portuguese names

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Spectacular narrative history

The story of Portugal in the Indian Ocean is not commonly known. This story is excellently told and fascinating. More of Roger Crowley’s writing should be on Audible.

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1 person found this helpful

A great hustory lesson and fantastic listen

obviously the written accounts were skewed in favour of the conquorers whose ambition was vast and was backed up by raw brutality in the name if thier country Portugal .

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Fascinating

Excellent narration and very witty at times. The Portuguese are often overlooked by history, but their feat in the Indies, the characters involved and their empire building make for fascinating listening.

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Excellent

Random purchase during a sale and it’s great. A chunk of world history of which I knew little. Amazing how so many historical texts have passed down through the centuries.

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Fantastic book!

Apart the inconsistent butchering of Portuguese names, this is a fantastic, exciting and well researched book about the little nation that could!

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great history of Portugal, frustrating Amazon made it so hard to buy whilst living in Portugal

fascinating history in a page turning adventure. brutal imagary said in the most flippent way, casually mentioning genocidal acts like they were nothing.

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Conquistadors versus Sinbad

This is a joy because it's so well written and it also opens up a field of history which isn't much covered in the UK. The Portugese were stuck out on the atlantic coast of Iberia with very limited access to mediterranean trade so they were forced to hone their sailing and navigation skills voyaging south to Africa. Eventually this took them down to the freezing waters and mountainous storms of the south atlantic where they rounded the cape of good hope and found a route into the dazzlingly rich trading waters of the Indian ocean. The material about the voyages themselves is very good but if anything it's outshone by their adventures as they try to establish themselves in a wholly alien but very sophisticated culture covering South Asia, India, Goa, the east coast of Africa and beyond to Arabia. Think "Conquistador's versus Sinbad" and you're not far off. The cast of Portugese characters is brilliant because a large number of them come over as brilliant but unhinged psychopaths obsessed with personal glory, the acquisition of booty and (believe it or not) beard length. They also left enough personal correspondence that Crowley can paint believable charater portraits. He also acknowledges the awful impact that the Portugese had on the locals, who saw a relatively peaceful trading system thrown into uproar with the arrival of religious zealouts using next generation canon power to offset their small numbers. If you like this period of history I can't recommend this too highly. Personally, I listened to it as a double bill with Kirstin Downey's excellent "Isabella: Warrior Queen" which covers the same period in Spain and found it enhanced my appreciation of both books.

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19 people found this helpful

Fascinating

Really informative book on the conquests of those early pioneering Portuguese seamen. Very well written and read. Brilliant insights into the lives of these people both the Portuguese and the poor people they dominated.

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4 people found this helpful