{"product_id":"spice-the-16th-century-contest-that-shaped-the-modern-world","title":"Spice: The 16th-Century Contest That Shaped the Modern World","description":"\u003cdiv data-a-expander-name=\"book_description_expander\" data-a-expander-collapsed-height=\"280\" class=\"a-expander-collapsed-height a-row a-expander-container a-spacing-base a-expander-partial-collapse-container\" style=\"max-height: none; height: 280px;\"\u003e \u003cdiv data-expanded=\"false\" class=\"a-expander-content a-expander-partial-collapse-content\" style=\"padding-bottom: 20px;\"\u003e \u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe story of the sixteenth-century‚Äôs epic contest for the spice trade, which propelled European maritime exploration and conquest across Asia and the Pacific\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Spices drove the early modern world economy, and for Europeans they represented riches on an unprecedented scale. Cloves and nutmeg could reach Europe only via a complex web of trade routes, and for decades Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find their elusive source. But when the Portuguese finally reached the spice islands of the Moluccas in 1511, they set in motion a fierce competition for control.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Roger Crowley shows how this struggle shaped the modern world. From 1511 to 1571, European powers linked up the oceans, established vast maritime empires, and gave birth to global trade, all in the attempt to control the supply of spices.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Taking us on voyages from the dockyards of Seville to the vastness of the Pacific, the volcanic Spice Islands of Indonesia, the Arctic Circle, and the coasts of China, this is a narrative history rich in vivid eyewitness accounts of the adventures, shipwrecks, and sieges that formed the first colonial encounters‚Äîand remade the world economy for centuries to follow.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-header a-expander-partial-collapse-header\" style=\"opacity: 1; display: block;\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"a-expander-content-fade\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003ca href=\"javascript:void(0)\" role=\"button\" data-action=\"a-expander-toggle\" class=\"a-declarative\" data-a-expander-toggle='{\"allowLinkDefault\":true, \"expand_prompt\":\"Read more\", \"collapse_prompt\":\"Read less\"}'\u003e\u003ci class=\"a-icon a-icon-extender-expand\"\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-expander-prompt\"\u003eRead more\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e \u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Yale University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50395548877085,"sku":"9780300281125","price":14.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0901\/5692\/5213\/files\/9780300281125.jpg?v=1758822521","url":"https:\/\/bookdelico.com\/products\/spice-the-16th-century-contest-that-shaped-the-modern-world","provider":"Book Delico ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}