HISTORY: AFTER COLUMBUS
1493 by Charles C. Mann (Knopf)
The rush to claim the Americas after Christopher Columbus’ arrival in 1492, writes journalist and historian Charles C. Mann in his new book, “1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created” (Knopf), “threw Spain’s elite into delirium.” The country’s rulers launched wars against the mighty Ottoman Empire and other Muslim powers, to say nothing of fellow Christians elsewhere in Europe. The wealth from the newfound silver mines of Potosi didn’t begin to cover the bill, so the Spanish crown borrowed from foreign powers and banks, mortgaging the country’s future and amassing vast debts. The rich worked out tax exemptions and retreated behind the walls of their villas, while the small middle class and peasantry shouldered the burden, the latter struggling to grow food in the face of a worsening climate.
It all sounds familiar, and terribly modern — and that’s no accident. Mann’s book, a successor to his best-selling “1491,” takes a God’s-eye view of the world as it began to change in the face of the wealth a restless Europe discovered in the Americas — and, at about the same time, in Asia and Africa. “1493” ranges across continents and centuries to explain how the world we inhabit came to be.
