Erin ’s Reviews > Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World > Status Update

Overall, China lacked for nothing by way of essentials: it was self-sufficient.

Like the Portuguese, the Spanish worked tirelessly to suppress commercial and cartographic knowledge, but it proved impossible to seal the leaks.

In 1371 China had banned all foreign maritime trade and people were forbidden from going to sea and contacting foreigners.

In 1548, Giacomo Gastaldi produced the first "pocket book" atlas. For the first time, you could hold the world in your hands.

Of the 550 who set out on the doomed voyage about 117 were alive at the end.

It was believed that the Atlantic Ocean was enclosed by an encircling landmass with no possible exit to the East.

They have discovered China!

Rest in Piss Fernando Magellan.

Martin Waldseeműller, in 1513 was the first map maker to label the continent as America.

In the Middle Ages, Europeans resented that the spice trade was largely in the hands of Muslim merchants.