Spain's Road to Empire

Book excerpt: Henry Kamen's work re-creates the dazzling world of Imperial Spain, from the capture of Moorish Granada and Columbus's first voyage in 1492, to its expansion into Europe, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, ad the opening up of the frontiers in Texas and California in the eighteenth century. Drawing on the accounts of those who witnessed these great events, whether Aztec chroniclers, Italian explorers or Filipino sultans, Kamen balances the wonders of the Empire (the first sight of the Pacific, the astonishing voyages of the Manila galleons) with the horrors - the slavery, disease, terror and waste of human life it entailed.