Spice

What started as a contest for spices between Portugal and Spain had many consequences. It hugely expanded European understanding of the world and allowed people, through the resulting medium of cartography, the making of globes and the development of book printing, to visualise the world as an entity. This sense of planetary awareness was highly significant. It prefigured a global trading system. At the same time, it sowed the seeds for centuries of western imperialism and conquest that would also have profound environmental consequences. The new world that the spice voyages set in motion saw the planet as a limitless natural resource for plunder and extraction, culling the wealth of lands and their peoples. I came to write this book because of my long-term interests in maritime history. I had written a previous book about the Portuguese attempts to explore the world in the fifteenth century. They worked their way down the coast of Africa, and eventually, under Vasco da Gama, reached India. Their explorations became more and more extensive. My previous book saw the Portuguese establish themselves on the coast of India, at Goa, then finally capture Malaka on the Malay peninsula. This was a hub of spice trading. The Portuguese appetite for further and further exploration was insatiable. I was curious to see them make the next leap – to find the source of the most valuable of all spices and nutmegs. This book was the natural sequence.