Set Sail for the World

From the fifteenth to the seventeenth century, sails cut across the oceans, and humanity embraced the globe for the first time. Portuguese fleets rounded the Cape of Good Hope, Columbus stumbled upon the Americas, and Magellan completed a voyage around the world. The Age of Exploration ushered in globalization, but also brought colonial plunder, the slave trade, and the destruction of civilizations. Looking beyond the heroic legends, this book recounts the glory, conflicts, and heavy costs behind the era's splendor, restoring a complete and complex portrait of a great age of seafaring.