From one of the greatest historians of the Spanish world, here is a fresh and fascinating account of Spain’s early conquests in the Americas.

Hugh Thomas shows Spain at the dawn of the sixteenth century as a world power on the brink of greatness. For Spain and for the world, the decision to send Christopher Columbus west was epochal—the dividing line between the medieval and the modern.

Spain’s colonial adventures began inauspiciously. In spite of its small scale, it was a mission of astounding scope: to claim for Spain all the wealth of the Indies.

The lofty aspirations of the first explorers died hard, as the pursuit of wealth and glory competed with the pursuit of pious impulses. In their search for gold, Spaniards enslaved “Indians” from the Bahamas and the South American mainland. Columbus and other Spanish explorers—Cortes, Ponce de Leon, and Magellan among them—created an empire for Spain of unsurpassed size and scope. But the door was soon open for other powers, enemies of Spain, to stake their claims.