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Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

Roger Crowley

4.27 · Rating details · 2,141 ratings · 249 reviews

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten. But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire. In an astonishing ...more

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Hardcover, 384 pages

Published December 1st 2015 by Random House (first published January 1st 2015)

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Jun 24, 2019 Max rated it it was amazing

Shelves: world-history

Riveting, bloody history. Crowley makes the people and the action come alive on the page. Conquerors is not a mere recitation of facts, but a look deep into the thoughts and emotions of the Portuguese explorers who found the way to India and the way to dominate the Malabar Coast. Their methods were brutal. They were fearless, bloodthirsty, arrogant and hateful. They killed countless thousands for territory, plunder, religion, revenge or just to show that they were not to be messed with. This is ...more

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Apr 06, 2017 Sebastien rated it it was amazing

I really enjoyed this read. Excellent use of primary texts, told in a narrative type way that focuses on direct accounts of primary players in the history. This gives a nice worm's eye view of the action and story and makes for a very readable text and history.

The one negative is that I thought the macro, bird's eye view of the history was lacking. I would've been interested in grander scope analysis of the economics and trade flows going on. There was a bit of it but not very much. But there wa ...more

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Nov 05, 2015 Ian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: world-history, 4-star-non-fiction, india, portugal

The decade of the 1490s was without doubt one of the most significant in human history. Nowadays we see the European (re)discovery of the Americas in 1492 as the event which more than any other shaped the world we live in today, but at the time it was Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India in 1498 that seemed the more significant event. Mr Crowley tells the story of how, within 20 years of that event, a tiny, poverty stricken country on Europe's western fringe created a global empir The decade of the 1490s was without doubt one of the most significant in human history. Nowadays we see the European (re)discovery of the Americas in 1492 as the event which more than any other shaped the world we live in today, but at the time it was Vasco da Gama's discovery of the sea route to India in 1498 that seemed the more significant event. Mr Crowley tells the story of how, within 20 years of that event, a tiny, poverty stricken country on Europe's western fringe created a global empire based on sea power, an event so astonishing that some contemporaries viewed it as a manifestation of the biblical proverb "The last shall be first."

The author explains that, prior to 1498, the western part of the Indian Ocean was a closed sea dominated by Muslim merchants. This, as he puts it, was the world of Sinbad, a trading network that stretched from Mozambique to Egypt and along the Persian Gulf right down the western coast of India and on to Sri Lanka. In this environment, the Portuguese ships that burst into the Indian Ocean after 1500 were like cats amongst mice. Entire fleets of merchant ships were sent to the bottom and almost every important port was either sacked or the ruler forced to become a Portuguese vassal. The Portuguese success was certainly helped by the fact that the major Muslim power of the time was the Mamluk Sultanate in Cairo, once vigorous but now weak and ineffectual. Nevertheless much of the impact also came from the character of the Portuguese noblemen, the fidalgos, who combined greed, ambition, and religious fanaticism with seemingly limitless reserves of endurance and a honour code that regarded the slightest disinclination to fight as the greatest possible social disgrace. The result was a group of people who displayed extreme levels of aggression and a "beserker" fighting style that often simply unnerved their opponents. Some of their victories were remarkably asymmetrical. The wealthy city of Malacca, in present day Malaysia, had a population of around 120,000, (around an eighth of the entire population of Portugal) but fell to an attack by around 1000 Portuguese soldiers and sailors. In many ways these victories were even more impressive than those achieved by the Spanish in the New World, since the latter encountered stone age cultures that fought on foot with weapons like clubs and slingshot, whereas the Portuguese faced enemies who had gunpowder, cannon, steel swords, chainmail, cavalry and war elephants. However, in acknowledging the achievements of the Portuguese, the author does not overlook the fact that their arrival in the Indian Ocean precipitated a bloodbath, and that they were often guilty of extreme brutality.

The book covers the sudden rise of the Portuguese empire up to about 1520, and as such does not cover their subsequent journeys to Indonesia, China and Japan, nor how their dominance came to be challenged by new powers such as the Dutch and the Ottoman Turks. Although a little more limited in scope than I might have liked, this is a first rate narrative of a remarkable period in history. ...more

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Apr 16, 2016 George rated it really liked it

Shelves: europe-history, read-in-2016, maritime, india-history, audible-library, portugal, colonialism

"Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire" by Roger Crowley is a good introduction to Portugal's development of its maritime empire in the Indian Ocean.

This book covers approximately a 40-year period (1480 to 1520) and is primarily focused on the Portuguese point of view of the events described.

Portugal's armadas were the sharp "tip of the spear" of modern European colonialism that was erupting in the late 1400s and would impact world history for several centuries.

The small "Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire" by Roger Crowley is a good introduction to Portugal's development of its maritime empire in the Indian Ocean.

This book covers approximately a 40-year period (1480 to 1520) and is primarily focused on the Portuguese point of view of the events described.

Portugal's armadas were the sharp "tip of the spear" of modern European colonialism that was erupting in the late 1400s and would impact world history for several centuries.

The small kingdom of Portugal, on the Iberian Peninsula (in southwestern Europe), had something to prove. Having driven out the Moors who had dominated their lands for several centuries, they had a "chip on their shoulder." King Manuel and his armada captains had big ambitions: To break the European spice trade monopoly controlled by the Venice-Alexandria axis. Their aim was to outflank the existing trade network by sailing directly to India via the southern tip of Africa. In terms of today's business language, the Portuguese crown developed a "disruptive innovation."

Indian ocean trade had existed for more than a thousand years prior to the Portuguese arrival. The armadas did not respect the people nor the trade networks they encountered. The Portuguese were violent, brutal, and orchestrated relentless acts of terror throughout the region. And they were successful: Lisbon became a trading hub to rival Venice. Yet, the cost of their "success" was their barbaric behavior. I wonder what would have happened if they had taken a more peaceful approach.

In some ways, the Portuguese development of their India spice trade empire reminded me of the Wright brothers' development of the airplane. Each developed a technology over several years, each kept its technology somewhat secret, each was successful, and each made mistakes in dealing with competitors.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning about Portugal's development of its maritime empire in the Indian Ocean. I also recommend it to anyone interested in disruptive innovation.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Notes:
Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
Length: 13 hours and 7 minutes
Release Date: 2015-12-01
Publisher: Recorded Books ...more

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Jul 07, 2020 Frank B rated it really liked it

As Roger Crowley explains in "Conquerors", in the early 16th century Portugal, a poor country on the periphery of Europe, came to control trade in the Indian Ocean thanks to bravery, cruelty, navigation skills and cannons. They fought against kings and sultans on the Swahili Coast of Africa and the Malabar Coast of India with no more than 1500 troops at a time. Before they could start fighting they had to find a way to the Indies, and did this after eighty years of working their way down the coa As Roger Crowley explains in "Conquerors", in the early 16th century Portugal, a poor country on the periphery of Europe, came to control trade in the Indian Ocean thanks to bravery, cruelty, navigation skills and cannons. They fought against kings and sultans on the Swahili Coast of Africa and the Malabar Coast of India with no more than 1500 troops at a time. Before they could start fighting they had to find a way to the Indies, and did this after eighty years of working their way down the coast of West Africa.

“Behind the Africa initiative lay a very old dream of militant Christendom: that of outflanking Islam, which blocked the way to Jerusalem and the wealth of the East.”

This is a story to rival or even eclipse those Columbus discovering America, Cortes conquering Mexico and Pizarro doing the same in Peru. But the names of Vasco da Gama, the Portuguese captain who made it around Africa, and Alfonso de Albuquerque the man who consolidated the Portuguese presence in India are not so well known. The Indians didn’t manage to get the Portuguese out of Goa until the 1960s! Magellan, the captain who circumvented the world under Spanish patronage, is the only Portuguese explorer the Anglo world taught me about as a kid -- and then I grew up to discover Magellan was killed half way through the journey! In the Indies the Portuguese were known as the Franks or Ferenggi, the common term for Christian Westerners at the time. The Thais call us Farang to this day.

The Portuguese made it around Africa with the counter-intuitive move of sailing away from the West African coast. This allowed them to catch the winds to take them past the bottom of Africa. This way they discovered Brazil, sailing too far west and landing there by accident. But “Conquerors” does not deal with South America. Once in India, da Gama was surprised to meet with some Castilian speaking Tunisians and find a thriving multicultural civilization. The rulers were generally Hindus but the traders were Muslim, due to the fact that it was taboo for Hindus to eat at sea. The Muslims knew all about Europe and Asia, but the Christian knowledge of the world at the time was limited. Da Gama caused havoc in India before having to sail back before the Monsoon.

After da Gama, Almeida and Albuquerque solidified the Portuguese position. They used diplomacy, threats and terror to achieve their aims. One terror tactic was cutting off the noses ears and hands of Muslim prisoners and then setting them free. Albuquerque was a skilled leader and commander, introducing pike-wielding phalanxes of foot soldiers, much to the disgust of the noblemen who wished for the glory of one on one combat. Albuquerque, following the orders of King Manuel, made a real attempt to control the Red Sea and from there the plan was to launch an attack on Jerusalem, but the failure to capture the city of Aden scuttled these plans. Portuguese pressure in the area was one of the factors in a shift of power in the Muslim word, away from the Mamaluk Sultans in Cairo to the Ottomans in Turkey. "Conquerers", however, does not give much information on the politics of the Middle East and India -- which is fair enough, otherwise this manageable, concise work would balloon out in length. The Venetians, who had controlled the entry of spices into Europe worked with the Muslims to try and get the Portuguese out of the Indian Ocean.

My interest in the Portuguese Empire was sparked by a visit to a Brazilian BBQ in Shanghai in 2007 called Vasco da Gama. "What does Vasco da Gama mean?" I asked. Despite being twenty-eight I had no clue - I’d been to Macau and seen the Portuguese colonial buildings, the azulejos, the calcadas and eaten the Portuguese tarts -- but I had no idea how the Portuguese got to Macau. Slowly I've been piecing it all together -- it's quite the job as the Portuguese made it to the most far flung places and often didn't leave much behind.

Crowley maps the Portuguese progression clearly, occasionally I encountered sentences that made no sense or something mentioned in the narrative that would not be explained until much later. This is minor quibbling, Crowley, like Max Hastings, can condense a huge amount of information and turn it into a cohesive narrative. I’d say one of his strengths is relating the tactics of maritime battles. I’m sure he had a lot of help with the translation of original sources, his bibliography looks pretty thorough. Crowley's message is that the Portuguese were cruel and backwards compared with the civilizations of the East, but they were great navigators and incredibly determined and astute with the trump card of superior weaponry. ...more

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Sep 02, 2020 Dimitri rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: portugal, 1500-1900

How "Boys Own" is this tale of the first generation of Portugese expansion? Crowley usually injects a bland pointer sentence of 4 words or less just before things go awry for Alfonso De Albuquerque, but his "Santiago!" fueled battle scenes roar.

The contrast between the cautious & cumbersome exploration of the African coasts until Vasco Da Gama and the self-confident, truly brutal entry upon the trade network of the Indian Ocean is felt.

So is the shift from a sheer cannon-centred approach to so ...more

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Feb 09, 2016 Andrew rated it really liked it

Shelves: european-history, portugal, asian-history, india, malaysia

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire, is an interesting book by Roger Crowley on the Portuguese conquest of the Indian Ocean. The book follows the Portuguese conquest of Cueta in Morocco, through the journey's of exploration around the African coast, to the conquests of coastal cities on the Western coast of India, the city of Malacca in modern Malaysia, and Ormuz in Persia, amongst others. This is more of a narrative history, following the likes of Henry the Navigator, King M Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire, is an interesting book by Roger Crowley on the Portuguese conquest of the Indian Ocean. The book follows the Portuguese conquest of Cueta in Morocco, through the journey's of exploration around the African coast, to the conquests of coastal cities on the Western coast of India, the city of Malacca in modern Malaysia, and Ormuz in Persia, amongst others. This is more of a narrative history, following the likes of Henry the Navigator, King Manual, de Gama and Albuquerque. Many of these individuals were courageous explorers, ruthless tacticians, and brutal conquerors. Following fidalgo traditions, the Portuguese did not take India lightly, and mixed ruthless diplomacy with brutal naval bombardments, massacres and genocide of Muslim subjects in India and piracy in the Indian Ocean. The Portuguese were obstinate in their early wars. They thought little of being outnumbered tenfold, and stubbornly took possession of territory, lost it due to infighting and betrayal, and then took it again. The Portuguese conquerors did not forgive slights, and led personal vendetta style attacks on their foes, the Mamluks in Egypt (at the time the rulers of Mecca and the guarantors of the Islamic trading sphere in India), the Ormuz Sultan, and the Samduri of Calicut.

This book was brutal and fascinating. It chronicles the rise of a peripheral and poor kingdom on the Western extremities of the Atlantic Ocean. This state had a personal vendetta against Islam, and the crusading spirit of the Portuguese led to brutal and horrifying massacres of entire Muslim populations in Western India.

Crowley does not take sides in this account, however. The reality of the conquest is explained in detail, and it is fascinating how such a small kingdom came to dominate the Indian Ocean so thoroughly, with underwhelming numbers and little financial clout. Their foes outnumbered them, had similar cannon and musket arms, and were familiar with the climate and geo-strategic needs of the area. The Portuguese fought back using terror. They burned trading vessels at sea, sacked coastal trading hubs from Africa to Malaysia, put thousands of innocents to the sword, and built and manned forts across a fifteen thousand mile span of ocean. They engaged in bitter infighting that often hampered their forward progress. But the indomitable will of megalomaniacs like Albuquerque and his compatriots seemed to win the day. Against many odds, the Portuguese came to dominate the Indian Ocean trade for over a century.

Conquerors is a book that at times was hard to enjoy. The accounts are both horrifying and fascinating. Crowley has done a good job laying out the facts, and engaging the narrative of each side in the conflict to try and remain unbiased. The book obviously deeply chronicles the early years of Portuguese conquests, and heavily favours such factors throughout. Even so, the book has done a good job showing the horrifying cost of conquest, and the intricate cultural world the Portuguese smashed to pieces. As a narrative history, the book relies primarily on accounts, quotes and letters from the time period these events took place. Therefore, the level of detail in many of the events is lacking. Crowley focus' on the personal courage and actions of the conquerors and conquered, but does not go into greater detail on the underpinnings of Portuguese success, which is sorely missed in this account.

All in all, however, this was a highly enjoyable narrative history of Portuguese conquests in the Indian Ocean in the early 16th century. Crowley gives all the gruesome details, but it is difficult not to respect the indomitable will of this crusading state, with all its self righteousness, its brutal and thoughtless slaughter, and its ever hungry need for plunder. This book is recommended for those looking for a good narrative history, but I would hold back if a more detailed account is wanted. This book is a better as a background and introduction to the subject. ...more

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Oct 23, 2016 Tariq Mahmood rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history, europe

This invaluable book of a most intriguing time in history when a tiny and poor European country managed to almost dethrone the main enemy of Christian Europe by strangling the rich spice trade away from the Mamluk sultans of the Muslims. The book also explains 'gunboat diplomacy' in quite some detail. How the Portuguese with their ships, guns and muskets posed as extraterrestrial beings appeared in the coasts of Africa, India, and the Middle East to plunder in the name of 'trade' completely disr ...more

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Aug 21, 2018 Vicky Hunt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: around-the-world-in-2018, vicky-s-favorites

With Pen and Sword

From the voyages of the Chinese Star ships (and the genetic traces China left behind) to the arrival of the Caravels and Carracks of Bartholomew Diaz, Vasco de Gama, Alphonso de Albuquerque, and Dom Francisco de Almeida on the Malibar Coast; Roger Crowley masterfully unveils the world of the Indian Ocean and the magnificence of the coveted spice trade from India. But, these traders brought overwhelming firepower to the table. The Portuguese under Manuel I of Portugal launched a With Pen and Sword

From the voyages of the Chinese Star ships (and the genetic traces China left behind) to the arrival of the Caravels and Carracks of Bartholomew Diaz, Vasco de Gama, Alphonso de Albuquerque, and Dom Francisco de Almeida on the Malibar Coast; Roger Crowley masterfully unveils the world of the Indian Ocean and the magnificence of the coveted spice trade from India. But, these traders brought overwhelming firepower to the table. The Portuguese under Manuel I of Portugal launched a large scale effort to dominate the market and drive out the Muslim trade.

“Portugal is very poor; and when the poor are covetous, they become oppressors.”

In the early half of the 15th Century, China had mapped much of the area with their treasure fleets in a soft show of power. (They had mapped Africa as roughly a triangle with a great lake in the middle as early as the 14th Century.) But, once they stopped exploration with the end of the Ming Dynasty, and Constantinople fell to the Muslims, Venice dominated the European market for spices from India, controlled by the Muslims.

This of course was the root reason for the frantic search for alternate routes to India that was prevalent at the time of Columbus’ voyage in the last decade of the 1400’s, the period now known as the Age of Discovery. But, Portugal was absorbed with finding a route around the tip of Africa, and Portuguese sailors unlocked the riddle of the winds, jettisoning out into the Ocean, around the Cape of Africa, opening up that trade route for a new spice market in Lisbon that would propel Portugal to the level of the first Global Empire the world had ever seen. This became enmeshed inextricably with a crusade to hook up with a mythical Christian King called Prestor John and wipe out the Islamic Empire from both sides.

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire tells the story of how a tiny marginalized country on the tip of the Iberian Peninsula, blocked off from Mediterranean trade routes, discovered the Southern Hemisphere with a pen and a sword, from the prow of Europe. They monopolized that market for over a century, and Western domination would continue for a couple more centuries. The book goes into many details of the India Venture: such as the Battle of Mombasa, the spice fleets, fortification, ship artillery, and all that came with this globalization of trade that ushered in the modern age. I am left to mull over the deeds of these piratical “grasping tyrants” while I sip my coffee, and enjoy cinnamon in my tea, and sugar’s fine appeal in all its many forms.

I read this book as part of my Journey Around the World in 80 Books Voyage for 2018, and I highly recommend it as something that would be the perfect starting place for anyone delving into the history of this time period. It really is the perfect history of the beginning of modernity. I will be leaving my view of the two stout Portuguese carracks: Sao Gabriel and Sao Raphael, with their angelic sails in the wind, as I turn toward Spain for a view of the Mediterranean Sea. But, I won’t lose sight of the discovery, as I’ll be visiting the court of Isabella. ...more

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Apr 11, 2018 Sean rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, history

This book blew my mind. Full stop. The Portuguese exploration of the African coastline and the race to conquer the Indian spice trade is at least as impressive a feat, and perhaps even more improbable, than America’s moon landing. That being said, their achievement is soaked in gore and nothing about this story is nice – death was a constant companion, and they had no qualms about killing. The men who faced down the Mamluks and conquered Goa, Cochin, and Malacca are aliens to the 21st century We ...more

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Jan 07, 2020 Natali rated it it was amazing

It is amazing to read this book knowing that 500 years after these events Portugal would be named the 3rd most peaceful country in the world on the Global Peace Index. The inception of the empire was anything but peaceful and the author tells the tale of Portugal as pirate terrorists, forcing their way into the spice trade through unspeakable violence and cultural insensitivities. It is a book about the inception of globalization by way of Game of Throne style battles that actually happened, blo ...more

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Aug 24, 2015 Jennifer (JC-S) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: net-galley, review-books

‘How Portugal seized the Indian Ocean and forged the First Global Empire’

Portugal had a population of about one million people at the beginning of the fifteenth century. A tiny country, with an economy which largely depended on fishing and subsistence farming. A country where the kings were too poor to mint their own gold coins. But, as Mr Crowley writes, a country with big aspirations.

‘In August 1415, a Portuguese fleet sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar and stormed the Muslim port of Ceuta,
‘How Portugal seized the Indian Ocean and forged the First Global Empire’

Portugal had a population of about one million people at the beginning of the fifteenth century. A tiny country, with an economy which largely depended on fishing and subsistence farming. A country where the kings were too poor to mint their own gold coins. But, as Mr Crowley writes, a country with big aspirations.

‘In August 1415, a Portuguese fleet sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar and stormed the Muslim port of Ceuta, in Morocco, one of the most heavily fortified and strategic strongholds in the whole Mediterranean.’

In Ceuta, the Portuguese saw a glimpse of the wealth of Africa and the Orient, and dared to dream of expansion, of conquering infidels, and of trade like that enjoyed by Genoa and Venice. After Ceuta, Prince Henrique (Prince Henry the Navigator) began to sponsor expeditions down the coast of Africa in search of gold, slaves and spices. The Portuguese also explored inland Africa for the mythical Christian king Prester John. Portugal was also driven by a desire to eradicate Islamic culture, and to establish a Christian empire in the Indian Ocean.

Mr Crowley has drawn on letters and eyewitness accounts to write of Portugal’s rapid rise to power. Some of the major characters portrayed in this account of the Portuguese empire were King Manuel (the Fortunate), João II (the Perfect Prince), the governor Afonso de Albuquerque, and the explorer Vasco da Gama.

How did Portugal achieve such dominance in such a short period? By discovering a route to India around the horn of Africa – achieved by sailing out west from the African coast in order to use the Atlantic winds to sail east around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean.

‘Though its supremacy lasted little more than a century, Portugal’s achievement was to create the prototype for new and flexible forms of empire, based on mobile sea power, and the paradigm for European expansion. Where it led, the Dutch and the English followed.’

I found Mr Crowley’s account fascinating. While I knew some of the history of Prince Henry the Navigator, of Vasco da Gama and (later) of Ferdinand Magellan, I had not focussed on the detail and the impact of the Portuguese empire. The history of Portuguese exploration is well worth reading: it is an epic tale of courage, endurance and brutality, of skilled navigation, of diplomacy and of religious zealotry. And, supporting the public figures we can name and read about, are many unknown sailors who suffered illness, disease and frequently death. Afonso de Albuquerque became the first European since Alexander the Great to found an Asian empire.

‘The Iberian powers who had carved up the world at Tordesillas in 1494 were conditioned to believe in monopoly trading and the obligation to crusade.’

Portuguese supremacy may have only lasted just over a century, but during that period the Portuguese reached India in 1498, Brazil in 1500, China in 1514 and Japan in 1543.

Note: My thanks to Netgalley and the Random House Publishing Group for an opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
...more

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Dec 09, 2020 Noreen rated it it was amazing

Pike and shot

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Oct 24, 2019 Stephen added it

Shelves: portugal, history, india, africa, naval

Roger Crowley’s Conquerors is a history that starts with hope and ends in horror, at least of the slasher-film kind. Suffice it to say, if you ever chance to meet a 15th century Portuguese officer while time-traveling, run for your life. The story opens with Portugal, recently triumphant in its bid to push the Moors back into northern Africa, joining the hunt for the Indies, but once it finds them…..well, it’s not pretty.

In the 16th century, Europe was waking up; its princes were no longer warlo Roger Crowley’s Conquerors is a history that starts with hope and ends in horror, at least of the slasher-film kind. Suffice it to say, if you ever chance to meet a 15th century Portuguese officer while time-traveling, run for your life. The story opens with Portugal, recently triumphant in its bid to push the Moors back into northern Africa, joining the hunt for the Indies, but once it finds them…..well, it’s not pretty.

In the 16th century, Europe was waking up; its princes were no longer warlords, but instead men with increasing coffers and confidence. New ideas were opening the doors to prosperity, and creating tools that could create even more. Across the world, the nations of Europe knew, there are spice-kingdoms — but access to them was closed by the Ottoman Empire, now having finally taken Constantinople. What few shipments trickled through the hands of Venetian middlemen through their Arab contacts were enormously expensive. All those who could afford it wanted to find another way — and while Columbus decided to sail west, into the great unknown, on a chance that the world was smaller than the experts said it was (it wasn’t), Portugal worked to find a way east, around a similar great unknown: Africa. But just as Columbus’ trip west mixed glory and blood, so to did the Portuguese endeavors.

The mayhem begins, as it often does, in mutual misunderstanding. The Portuguese lived in a world where Europe was constantly under siege from a foreign threat, with a Moorish hold on southern Iberia and the powerful Ottoman empire controlling most of eastern Europe. When the Portuguese arrived in the Indian ocean, they brought their fear and battle-rage with them. Their attempts to purchase spices were undermined by Arab merchants serving as translators, who looked askance at any competition. Instead of viewing this as commercial rivalry, Crowley writes, the Portuguese saw the merchants through the narrow visor of a war helmet. Bombards were introduced, and within a short time the Portuguese have declared an all-out war against any Muslim activity in the Indian Ocean, quickly ratcheting up both the numbers of ships they sent and the mound of bloodshed and horror they were willing to inflict on those who did not acknowledge their new lord in the king of Portugal. The various nations and small states around the Indian ocean, both African and Asian, were baffled and horrified when the Portuguese began seizing ships — not to take as booty, but simply to destroy. They also began imposing a tax and granting safe-conduct passes to friendly ships, with unbelievable arrogance. Although I already knew there’s nothing like war to completely pull the civilized shroud off a human being – -we are worse than chimpanzees once the fury of battle has overtaken us — there are plenty of reminders here of humanity at its worse, from the firing of ships with innocent pilgrims aboard (including women and children), to the deliberate torture and desecration of those who would not comply.

On the one hand, Conquerors is very readable narrative history, especially for readers without a trace of knowledge about the subject; I knew vanishingly little about Portugal beyond its role in the Napoleonic war. The early sections chronicling their determined and often mortal attempts to chart the extent of Africa, and see if there was a way through it or around it, are inspiring. But the bloodshed that follows and dominates most of the history make it feel like a slasher film, with the Portuguese playing the implacable monster that won’t stop hunting the main characters — and once the various powers of the Indian ocean realize they had to fight, things get even bloodier.

Related:

If you want more bloodshed, try John Keay’s The Spice Route , which chronicles not only the wars Portugal raised in the Indian Ocean, but the conflicts that then pursued between Spain and Portugal, then the English and Dutch. Spice and greed drive human beings barking mad.

Roger Crowley has written other books, including City of Fortune , a history of Venice. ...more

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Oct 11, 2015 Liviu rated it really liked it

Shelves: read_2015, 2015_release_read, non-fiction

I had very high expectations from this one based on the author's earlier books I've read or am currently reading (the siege of Constantinople and a history of Venice are both excellent and the book about Lepanto seems quite good also) and the book starts very well with the early years of Portuguese exploration after they defeated the Moors at Ceuta (in Marocco) in early 1400's and got a hold on the North African coast, while later slowly going down the coast, exploring the inland rivers, some up I had very high expectations from this one based on the author's earlier books I've read or am currently reading (the siege of Constantinople and a history of Venice are both excellent and the book about Lepanto seems quite good also) and the book starts very well with the early years of Portuguese exploration after they defeated the Moors at Ceuta (in Marocco) in early 1400's and got a hold on the North African coast, while later slowly going down the coast, exploring the inland rivers, some up to 500 miles upstream

then the now obscure 1480's Dias voyage which established fairly conclusively that despite Ptolemaic geography, Africa was indeed separated by a presumed Antarctic continent so it could be gone around and the way to India was doable, while also showing how to actually do it by swinging in the mid-Atlantic and going South and only at very southern latitudes turn east towards Africa (way which led to the discovery of Brazil in 1500, so immediately after Da Gama pioneering voyage of 1498 - the included maps showing this clearly)

while the Da Gama voyage is relatively well covered too, after that the story starts becoming much more confusing and the book starts even having occasional repetitive paragraphs which become a bit annoying after a while; still the remarkable way how this small nation mobilized itself so extensively after Da Gama came back and started sending annual expedition of considerable size and then with two commanders in chief of considerable military and organizational ability, started actually devising a strategy of domination (taking strategic points which were easy to provision from water and hard to reach from land - Goa is the prime example but there were others - and holding them with forts and guns, while playing on the rivalries and conflicts of the local rulers and making strategic alliances) is also well covered, but then the book sort of ends in the 1515-1520 period with just a little about the century of Portuguese dominance and nothing really about how that was ended by the Dutch (and later English), though some Portuguese strongholds remained until mid 20th century

Overall a great start and a reasonably good follow-up, but an abrupt ending that reads like the book stops in the middle - also with lots of end-notes the book is quite short as pages go too; I would say that for someone not familiar with this story, the book would probably work better than it worked for me, but while the details of what followed after Da Gama's groundbreaking expedition were to a large extent new for me, I really expected more ...more

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Feb 01, 2016 Chrisl rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2010s, history, iberia, india, asia

Five hundred years ago, the exploring ships of Portugal were the first Christians to get east of Islam, establishing their Indian Ocean empire. By reading Crowley, and learning more about the Christian Fanatic Empire Builders, I think of them rather like Comanche in Caravels, with German cannon.

A Quote from mid-book, when the some Portugal ships first arrived near the Islamic heartland, around the Persian Gulf :

"Some of the ports along the Omani coast submitted meekly. Others resisted and were s ...more

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Aug 15, 2020 Charles J rated it it was amazing

Without specific intention, I seem to have turned into a Roger Crowley fanboy, as shown by that I have now read every one of his books. Crowley is a British maritime historian, all of whose books are tied to the Mediterranean in the pre-modern portion of the second millennium, many centering around the interaction of Christianity and Islam. Conquerors is somewhat of a departure—still a maritime history, even more so than most of his books, but focused not on the Mediterranean, instead on the nea ...more

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Feb 07, 2020 Taylor Pearson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: history

I went to Portugal at the beginning of the year and anytime I take a trip somewhere, I try to pick up and read at least one book on the place (Wikipedia pages are also fantastic). Conquerors is the tail of how the tiny Portuguese nation, sidelines and far out on the edge of Europe for its entire history, rose, over a period of decades to be a truly global empire, controlling the seas from East to West.

This book is wonderfully written and gripping, reading more like a Tom Clancy novel than a nonf ...more

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Jun 28, 2016 Candice rated it liked it

I read this in preparation for a trip to Portugal later this summer. It was well-written and gave more information than I can really handle. It is amazing that a small nation like Portugal had such a huge influence on the world exploration of the 16th century. The world was different then and voyages lasted months and even years. Communication, too, took way too long. But the violence! I wonder just how many innocent people died at the hands of the Portuguese as they sought to claim lands along ...more

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Mar 07, 2016 Corinne rated it did not like it

Marginally interesting, but suffers from a myopically colonial point of view. There is no world context given and no acknowledgment of the lives of those who actually lived in these "discovered" lands. Because of the lack of any awareness or big picture view, it just became a rather dull recounting of sea voyages and colonial slaughter. ...more

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Mar 10, 2016 Harikrishnan Tulsidas rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-challenge, favorites

Five hundred years of European domination of the oceans. This was set into its course by a “tiny marginalized” Portugal. How could this tiny nation do what the great powers of Europe at that time could not even imagine? Portugal made ‘discovery’ a matter of state policy and put in place a robust system for acquiring knowledge and applying it.

The real aim was to break the Mamluk - Venetian trade monopoly on spices and other trade from India, though religious zealotry of defeating Islamic power a Five hundred years of European domination of the oceans. This was set into its course by a “tiny marginalized” Portugal. How could this tiny nation do what the great powers of Europe at that time could not even imagine? Portugal made ‘discovery’ a matter of state policy and put in place a robust system for acquiring knowledge and applying it.

The real aim was to break the Mamluk - Venetian trade monopoly on spices and other trade from India, though religious zealotry of defeating Islamic power and recapturing Jerusalem was also put forward as a lofty objective. Middle ages Europe had some vague notions of a powerful eastern Christian king called ‘Prester John’, teaming up could be the answer to take back lost Jerusalem. With these aims in forefront, the Portuguese fleet broke the calm of the Indian Ocean and dug the foundations of modern day colonization.

It was Bartolomeu Dias who perfected a novel technique to swing around the southern tip of Africa to enter Indian Ocean. But he had to return before reaching India. Better equipped and prepared Vasco da Gama was successful and land in Kappad beach on 20 May 1498. India never considered this spot as important and today an obscure stone monument with inscription "Vasco da Gama landed here, Kappakadavu, in the year 1498." Later in nearby Calicut Vasco da Gama kneeled before a Hindu temple mistaking the image inside for “Our Lady” and “tawny” inhabitants as some heretical Christian sect.

Non-European countries do not see these historic acts of exploration and discovery in a good light. This is understandable. But Europeans also jeered at the “grocer king” of Portugal, even though they also followed a century later and excelled in setting up grocery shops all over the east.

The story moves to the exploits of Afonso de Albuquerque, who was instrumental in firmly establishing Portuguese power in Indian Ocean. Albuquerque captured Goa and established the first overseas territory of Europe in the east. He encouraged his men marry local women and established an unique multi-racial culture in India, a theme that was resisted by a section of Portuguese, including the clergy. Had this experiment been more widespread the story of colonization would have taken a different hue.

Albuquerque toiled for nearly a decade as Governor of India to strengthen the foundations of the new empire, often with very little support from Lisbon. He died in Goa drawing curtains on an era of discovery which was never reenacted again.

Prose of this book has a poetical quality, that could leave one with the saltiness of the raging oceans, breeze of the palm fringed coasts and the rage of valiant explorers who changed the history of the planet to join two worlds.
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Mar 17, 2016 Omar Ali rated it really liked it

A great read. A detailed and fair account of the rise of the Portuguese empire; violent, vicious, greedy, fanatically religious and cruel..but also very capable and almost insanely courageous and venturesome. A great story, though he ends it rather abruptly and with a less than satisfying epilogue. Also, don't expect data.. ...more

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Apr 01, 2017 Todd Payne rated it really liked it

Gripping account of Portuguese conquistadors whose accomplishments, and reign of terror, equaled those of their Spanish rivals but seem somehow less known. Inspires one to learn more about the peaceful Chinese expeditions to the Indian Ocean before they burned their ships and closed off their society -- the exact opposite of their European counterparts.

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May 15, 2017 Sorin Hadârcă rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: asia, india, history

Amazing how Crowley narrates the events of long ago, as if everything has happened just about now. No deed goes unnoticed, no account neglected, and all that in good perspective.

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Apr 14, 2018 Maurício Linhares rated it it was amazing

Could another nation eventually do what the Portuguese did? Definitely. Was there any other nation at the fifteenth century capable of doing it? Not a chance.

Portugal was many years ahead of the competition both in it's ships, naval war power and knowledge of the seas. After Henrique O Navegador (Henry The Navigator) instigated his father, king João 1 a tomar Ceuta, in Northern Africa, he becomes the patron of naval exploration, kicking off the age of discoveries. Under his direction Portugal d Could another nation eventually do what the Portuguese did? Definitely. Was there any other nation at the fifteenth century capable of doing it? Not a chance.

Portugal was many years ahead of the competition both in it's ships, naval war power and knowledge of the seas. After Henrique O Navegador (Henry The Navigator) instigated his father, king João 1 a tomar Ceuta, in Northern Africa, he becomes the patron of naval exploration, kicking off the age of discoveries. Under his direction Portugal developed the caravels that would eventually sail to Brazil and India, mapped a considerable part of Africa's western coast and directed the Portuguese to continue the exploratory work, making the small kingdom the most advanced naval power in Europe.

His work would eventually end with the discovery of Brazil and the route to India, the creation of the Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia and the disruption of the spice trade routes through the middle east and Italy. And, even more important, it connected Europe and Asia directly again, something that hadn't happened since the Mongol empire had fallen and the silk road forgotten.

Still, this wasn't accomplished with diplomacy alone, the Portuguese were violent, hated the muslims and had as their main goal not only access to the spices but to take over and destroy the islamic religion, and objective that while not attainable, specially for such a small country, was the source of much violence and suffering for muslims all over africa and asia. The Dutch and English would follow later employing the same tactics and violence to create their own empires after the Portuguese lost their influence.

The book focuses mainly in the years from 1480 to 1520 and while that might not look like much, it covers world changing events that affect our lives still today. It includes references to characters that were incredibly important to the events (like Álvaro de Albuquerque, most likely the most important Portuguese general in centuries), how they behaved, the wins and losses and strategies employed by them to forge the world as we know today. It's an incredible and sober telling of what happened through those years and how they led to the connected world we live in today. ...more

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Apr 27, 2017 Kenny rated it really liked it

Roger Crowley writes a cracking piece of narrative history. This one is what it says - the 30 year purple patch when the Portuguese were the first Europeans to navigate round the cape and up to India - where they stayed, set up bases, conquered Goa, set up in Calicut, started trading and never stopped fighting. In fact, when I say purple patch, rather large sticky red patch is probably more accurate given the copious amounts of blood shed. Crowley writes very well and makes no secret of the bloo ...more

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May 06, 2018 Masha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

An exceptional account on history of South and SE Asia.

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Apr 09, 2016 Bfisher rated it liked it

Shelves: history

On the back jacket of this book, there was a blurb from a review of another book by Roger Crowley: “There is a certain British genius for Boys' Own Paper military history, and Roger Crowley has it.” (Norman Stone, The Guardian, May 10,2008)

That would also be a fair comment on this book. It is a quite readable account of the Portuguese penetration of the Indian Ocean up to the conquest of Goa. Unfortunately, it was rather one sided in that it failed to explain the factors, other than the direct a ...more

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Feb 08, 2016 Johann_tor rated it it was ok

Shelves: history

A well written narrative history of the Portoguese exploration journeys and the Albuquerque regime in the Malabar coast. Even though the focus is on 20-25 years, there is a sense that a lot is left out. Political and economic context is at the bare minimum, and the focus is on the adventuring side of things. While the cruelties of the Portoguese are highlighted, this is unavoidably in an aggrandizing genre, and one feels that even the author has a tough time reconciling the demands of the tellin ...more

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Oct 03, 2016 Shawkat Kamal rated it really liked it

Generally a very well written book with lot of factual information. However, I did not like the tendency of the author to portray savage Portuguese pirates who killed so many innocent people as great military commanders. Having powerful and modern cannons that were not available to the dwellers of the Indian ocean allowed most of the so called "asymmetric victories"; nothing to do with bravery of the Portuguese. ...more

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About Roger Crowley

Roger Crowley

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Roger Crowley was born in 1951 and spent part of his childhood in Malta. He read English at Cambridge University and taught English in Istanbul, where he developed a strong interest in the history of Turkey. He has traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean basin over many years and has a wide-ranging knowledge of its history and culture. He lives in Gloucestershire, England.

Books by Roger Crowley

Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521-1580

1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West

City of Fortune: How Venice Won and Lost a Naval Empire

Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades

Der Fall von Akkon: Der letzte Kampf um das Heilige Land

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“In the process, Albuquerque was consolidating a revolutionary concept of empire. The Portuguese were always aware of how few they were; many of their early contests were against vastly unequal numbers. They quickly abandoned the notion of occupying large areas of territory. Instead, they evolved as a mantra the concept of flexible sea power tied to the occupation of defendable coastal forts and a network of bases. Supremacy at sea; their technological expertise in fortress building, navigation, cartography, and gunnery; their naval mobility and ability to coordinate operations over vast maritime spaces; the tenacity and continuity of their efforts—an investment over decades in shipbuilding, knowledge acquisition, and human resources—these facilitated a new form of long-range seaborne empire, able to control trade and resources across enormous distances. It gave the Portuguese ambitions with a global dimension.” — 2 likes

“He was the most widely travelled poet of the Renaissance; a man who lost an eye in Morocco, who was exiled to the East for a sword fight, who was destitute in Goa and shipwrecked in the Mekong Delta – he swam ashore clutching his manuscript above his head while his Chinese lover drowned.” — 1 likes

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