The Boundless Sea

Resumen del libro

David Abulafia begins with the earliest of seafaring societies - the Polynesians of the Pacific, the possessors of intuitive navigational skills, long before the invention of the compass, who by the first century were trading between their far-flung islands. By the seventh century, trading routes stretched from the coasts of Arabia and Africa to southern China and Japan, bringing together the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, linking together half the world through the international spice trade. In the Atlantic, centuries before the little kingdom of Portugal carved out its powerful, seaborne colonial empire, many peoples sought new lands across the sea - the Bretons, the Frisians and, most notably, the Vikings, now known to be the first Europeans to reach North America. As Portuguese supremacy dwindled in the late sixteenth century, the Spanish, the Dutch and then the British each successively ruled the waves

Biografía del autor

Influyente historiador británico especializado en Italia, España y el resto de reinos del Mediterráneo durante la Edad Media y el Renacimiento. Descendiente de judíos sefardíes, es profesor de Historia del Mediterráneo en la Universidad de Cambridge, miembro de la British Academy y de la Academia Europaea. De entre su vasta bibliografía cabe destacar "El gran mar. Una historia humana del Mediterráneo" (2013) que se convirtió en un verdadero éxito de ventas.