New Worlds: The Great Voyages of Discovery 1400-1600. . - Reviews - book review

Contemporary Review, April, 2003

New Worlds: The Great Voyages of Discovery 1400-1600. Ronald H. Fritze. Sutton Publishing. [pounds sterling]25.00 (US$36.95). 285 pages. ISBN 0-7509-2346-6. One of the most exciting and far-reaching events in British and European history was the series of explorations that crossed the seas. Some left to discover new lands and others discovered them in passing but the effect on world history was monumental.

In this study Prof. Fritze takes advantage of the large amount of new research into the explorations of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He also quite naturally concentrates on the two greatest exploring nations, Spain and Portugal. In the first three chapters he discusses medieval Europe before the explorations began: Europeans' views of the world, their trade with Asia and Africa and their earlier explorations of Africa and of lands across the Atlantic. He then discusses the voyages of the three greatest explorers. Columbus, Cabot and Vasco da Gama after which he looks at the discoveries in South Am erica, the first circumnavigation of the globe, the fruitless search for the Northern Passages, the conquests of the new lands, especially those by Spanish and Portuguese forces and, finally, the settlements of the French, English and Dutch in the sixteenth century. In his conclusion he shows exactly how the new discoveries affected European life, not least in the realm of food. The author has given his readers a good introduction to one of the most exciting chapters in world history.