Before the 16th century, Portugal played a major role in maritime trade as a hub of exchange between the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Northern European markets. By the late 16th century, Portugal not only grafted itself onto the pre-existing Indian Ocean trade, but also created new trade flows and established new structures of power to protect their commercial interests.   Al-Lixbûnâ Fonte Mourisca (Moorish fountain) in Sintra, Portugal. Source: Flickr   Before becoming one of the dominant Christian empires in the Indian and Atlantic oceans, Portugal had lived under Muslim rule for several centuries. Along with present-day Spain and Southern France, Portugal comprised part of the Muslim-ruled ‘al-Andalus,’ or ‘country of the Vandals,’ beginning in the 8th century (Disney, p. 53).   Al-Lixbûnâ, the Arabicized name of Lisbon, was part of the “first global age” during the 11th century (Lains, p. 201). The port city prospered as part of a network of exchange that circulated silk, copper, jewels, citrus, textiles, and other items arriving from maritime trade routes connecting East Asia to the Arabian Peninsula. These objects filtered into the Mediterranean via Muslim traders in present-day Turkey and the Levant or in North Africa.   Lisbon acted as the midway point between merchants coming and going from the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, seeing as it was positioned facing the open seas of the Atlantic. A Flemish shipping list from the 12th century lists over 34 countries with shipments coming to Bruges, as well as their products—liquor and almonds from Navarre, saffron and rice from Aragon, and dried fruit, honey, and leather from Portugal (Lains, p. 201). It is likely many of these objects arrived on merchant ships coming from Lisbon.   Age of Crisis to Age of Exploration Detail of tapestry The Conquest of Tunis depicting Luís de Portugal, Duque de Beja, 1543-1548. Source: visipix.com   Muslim rule came to an end in Portugal beginning in the 12th century. The 1147 Siege of Lisbon, the only Christian victory of the Second Crusade, saw the city return to Christian rule. The event consolidated the rule of Afonso Henriques, who proclaimed himself the first king of Portugal several years earlier. Armed with its own language (however with many words borrowed from Arabic), a Kingdom, and under the umbrella of Christianity, Portugal became a nation. Over the following centuries, Christian kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula gradually conquered al-Andalus from its Muslim rulers as part of the Reconquista.   However, Portugal’s fortunes wavered during its initial period of independence. The kingdom was heavily impacted by the spread of the Black Death, which likely entered the country through Lisbon in 1348. Like many European cities, it lost almost one-third of its population. Following the plague, Portugal was hit by several other disasters ranging from civil wars, famines, and earthquakes. The 14th and early 15th centuries in Portugal are referred to as an “age of crisis” (Disney, p. 108). How then, did Portugal become one of the largest global maritime empires by the end of the 15th century?   Portugal turned towards trade as a viable source of income after the economic losses of the Black Death. The Iberian peninsula became more integrated, with trade flowing between Portugal, Castile, Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia, as well as commercial cities further afield, such as Florence. The latter had a revolutionized banking system that created a new class of people with the capital to purchase goods coming from long distances. At the same time, Portugal was slowly building a strong navy.   The Padrão dos Descobrimentos (Monument of the Discoveries) in Lisbon. Source: Flickr   The ability to build and maintain a formidable fleet of ocean-going ships enabled Portugal to embark on the ambitious project of finding an alternative route to India, the center of the vast Indian Ocean trade network. The cannon placed on Portuguese ships would also put them at an advantage against the largely unarmed merchant ships in the Indian Ocean.   Further, due to a long-standing relationship with Arabs, via al-Andalus, and continued trade with Arab and Muslim nations in the Mediterranean, the Portuguese acquired the sailing technology employed by merchants of Arabia and Persia who routinely sailed across the Indian Ocean along trade network between East Africa and China known as the ‘maritime Silk Road.’ A desire to be directly involved in this trade, and the potential wealth they could accumulate by cutting out middlemen, was one of the guiding forces behind Portuguese maritime expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries.   Portugal and the Spice Trade Spices, mainly from Asia. Source: Flickr   The spice trade was one of the dominant forms of trade in the Indian Ocean. This included pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and mace. Until the 19th century, the last three grew only in the humid environment of the Maluku Islands in present-day Indonesia, adding to their value. The spice trade was especially lucrative due to their various uses in medicine, cuisine, perfumes, and religious rituals.   Prior to the 16th century, pepper was brought into Europe primarily through the Venetians. The spice would travel from Southeast Asia to the Malabar Coast (southwest India) before being brought to Cairo by Gujarati and Arab merchants. From Cairo it would travel to Alexandria, where it would be acquired by Venetian merchants who carried it into Europe. However, after the 16th century, Portugal secured a stronghold in Malacca (Malaysia), one of the main entrepots for spices from Indonesia. This caused ripples in the supply chain for spices, especially pepper, that circulated the Indian Ocean and eventually Europe.   Portugal became one of the largest suppliers of pepper in the 16th century, with 60,000-70,000 quintals annually by the end of the 16th century (Hancock, p. 227). This is the equivalent of around 7.8 million pounds or 3.5 million kilograms. The dominant Portuguese presence in Malacca caused merchants to establish new trading posts elsewhere, changing nearly 200 years of trading history in the port city. In the case of spices, merchants circumnavigated Portuguese power by diverting to other ports, such as Sumatra and Java in Indonesia.   Portugal and Sino-Japanese Trade Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine Historical landmark in Oda, Japan. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Once Portuguese sailors reached Malacca, they didn’t stop there, but continued eastward towards China, where they were allowed to establish a trading post in Macau (southern China) by the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644 CE). However, during a voyage in 1543, winds blew merchant ships to land unexpectedly on the island of Tanegashima in Japan. This moment ushered in the beginning of trade between China and Japan, with Portugal as the mediator. The Ming Dynasty had placed a trading ban on Japan, which had been active for almost a century. Acting as intermediaries, Portugal reconnected two regions that had been previously detached.   Portugal regularly facilitated the movement of silver from Japan to China. Silver was highly desired by China because it functioned as one of its main forms of currency, especially for taxes, but was one of the few natural objects it couldn’t produce itself. Meanwhile, Japan desired silk from China, perceived as the ideal material for kimonos, book bindings, and samurai cloaks. This role as intermediary came at a time when massive silver deposits were found in Japan in Iwami Ginzan in 1526 (Hancock, p. 229). The flow of silver from Japan to Macau was accompanied by the export of gold, porcelain, and silk from China in increasing quantities to Portuguese trading posts throughout the Indian Ocean, which then made their way to European markets.   Cowries as Currency in the Transatlantic Slave Trade Kuba Headdress by an unknown artist, late 19th/early 20th century. Source: Brooklyn Museum, New York   Cowries from the Maldives, the archipelago southwest of present-day Sri Lanka, were used in cultures throughout the Indian Ocean as adornments, everyday objects, materials for rituals or ceremonies, and also as currency. Cowries even travelled as far as West Africa as early as the 7th century, carried along the caravan route of the Trans Sarahan trade network. The Portuguese early in the 15th century increasingly developed their presence in West Africa—after all, Portugal already had a strong maritime presence as traders between North Africa and Europe via the Atlantic Ocean.   The Portuguese presence in Africa, West Africa in particular, expanded during the 15th century following the exploration of lands further south down the West African coast. This was facilitated by the development of Portuguese colonies in the Cape Verde Islands in the 1450s, a project financed by Prince Henry the Navigator. The son of King John I of Portugal, Prince Henry’s ventures were motivated by the desire for trade expansion, the legend of the Christian king Prester John, and the prospect of spreading Christianity to new converts. While Henry rarely went to see himself, he invested heavily in the early voyages of discovery that earned him his nickname.   Once the Portuguese made it past India and encountered the Maldives, they most likely recognized cowries as the highly prized shell of West Africa. From 1515, the Portuguese began to bring a steady stream of cowries to the Bight of Benin, which was eventually used as currency to buy enslaved Africans. Cowries, people, gold, tobacco, alcohol, sugar, and textiles all changed hands in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, of which Portugal was an instrumental participant.   Indian Ocean and Atlantic Worlds Collapse The Conquest of Mexico Hernán Cortés by an unknown artist, second half of 17th century. Source: Picryl   The Portuguese were the first Europeans to establish themselves in the Indian Ocean, and they would soon be followed by the Dutch, and subsequently the English, French, and Spanish. While these colonial powers were establishing their commercial and political presence in the Indian Ocean, they were simultaneously destroying and constructing new worlds across the Atlantic in the Americas.   Once the dust had settled on the dismantling of indigenous American socio-political systems, the Americas became ripe environments for the Portuguese and Spanish to replicate the cash crop system they had employed in West African islands since the 15th century. However, this time would be on a much larger scale. The Portuguese had commercial interests around the world, and the commodities produced in the Americas through enslaved labor from West Africa disrupted existing trading relationships in the Indian Ocean.   For example, sugar grown in Portuguese-ruled Brazil by enslaved West African labor would be brought as far as China, in addition to ivory, gold, and other commodities sourced from Portuguese colonies. These would be exchanged for porcelain, silk, and other Chinese goods.   Chilli or pepper plant (Capsicum annuum). Source: Wikimedia Commons   The Portuguese and Spanish colonization of the Americas developed links between the Americas and Asia in many ways, but particularly in the form of cuisine. Peppers, tomatoes, peanuts, and potatoes were all brought to ports in Southeast and East Asia, where they became staple foods. In one case, the introduction of ‘exotic’ foods such as potatoes into China even helped decrease mortality, leading to a population boom during the Ming Dynasty (Wang, p. 99).   Portugal’s Impact on Indian Ocean Trade Portuguese Carracks off a Rocky Coast by an anonymous painter from the circle of Joachim, c. mid-16th century. Source: Royal Museums Greenwich   The Portuguese also dramatically changed the landscape of Indian Ocean trade by enforcing a trade pass known as a cartaz that could only be administered by the Portuguese. They were mainly registered in Goa, which became the capital of the viceroyalty of Portuguese India in 1530. Being found by a Portuguese ship without a cartaz could result in the confiscation of cargo, burning of ships, or in some cases, the death of its crew members. The cartaz system allowed the Portuguese to control and regulate maritime trade, a major departure from centuries of unmonopolized trade in the Indian Ocean. However, Portuguese dominance of the Indian Ocean trade would be challenged by the Dutch from the 17th century.   Grotius and the Freedom of the Seas Hugo Grotius portrait by Michiel Jansz. van Mierevelt, 1631. Source: Great Norwegian Encyclopedia   The presence of Portugal in the Indian Ocean trade network would also have an effect on early modern law. At the beginning of the 17th century, Dutch traders announced their presence in the Indian Ocean and challenged Portuguese dominance of the trade network.   In 1603, a Portuguese ship, the Santa Caterina, was captured by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the Singapore Straits. Nearly all of its cargo was stolen. Portugal claimed that the maritime straits were under their jurisdiction due to their control of Malacca. Thus, according to Portugal, the actions of the VOC were illegal. To defend themselves, the VOC hired Hugo Grotius, a prominent philosopher, political theorist, and lawyer.   Grotius posed a challenge to the Portuguese cartaz system and events of the Santa Caterina fleet by declaring the sea as ‘mare liberum,’ a concept known in English as freedom of the seas. This stated that the ocean could not be under the jurisdiction of any one country or empire because the sea itself was international territory. All regions were free to trade in it openly. This would create the foundation for what would become international maritime law in the early modern period.   From Europe to the World Portuguese Map of Asia by D. Jeronimo de Ataide and Joao Teixeira, 1630. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Portugal, a country the size of the US state of Maine, was able to disrupt a long-established trading system in the Indian Ocean. Backed by a strong fleet, a tradition of commercial expertise, and enough capital to fund trading missions to India, Portugal became a commanding force in the Indian Ocean.   Further, Portugal helped streamline the flow of objects from Asia into Europe, connected products and people to both Europe and the Indian Ocean, and even helped shape international law. Portugal left a lasting legacy in both the Indian and Atlantic oceans as well as the modern world.   Sources    Disney, A. R. (2009). A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.   Hancock, J. F. (2021). Spices, Scents And Silk: Catalysts Of World Trade. Cab International (Centro Internazionale Per L’agricoltura E Le Scienze Biologiche).   Heath, B. (2016). Commoditization, Consumption and Interpretive Complexity: The Contingent Role of Cowries in the Early Modern World. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, Washington, D.C.   Lains, P. (2024). An Economic History of the Iberian Peninsula, 700–2000. Cambridge University Press.   Wang, Q (2015). Edward. Chopsticks: A Cultural and Culinary History. Cambridge University Press.

  In 1492, Christopher Columbus made landfall in present-day San Salvador in the Bahamas while trying to reach the East by sailing westward. Over the next half century, the Spaniards built a colonial empire, expanding their hold in South America and conquering vast empires. Leaders in these expansionist efforts were the conquistadors (conquerors), who led several expeditions in search of gold, wealth, and fame in various areas of the Americas. Read on to discover the stories of the most famous conquistadors and how they overthrew ancient empires.   Setting the Stage: The Age of Exploration Portrait of a Man, Said to be Christopher Columbus, by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City   In January 1492, the Italian-born seaman and explorer Christopher Columbus obtained the support of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon for an ambitious endeavor: reaching India and the “Spice Islands” by sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean.   By then, King John II of Portugal had already lent his patronage for a sea voyage under the command of Bartolomeu Dias, tasked with finding a route to the East by sailing around Africa. As a combination of circumstances, including the weakening of the Mongol Empire and the resurgence of Muslim rule on the Mediterranean shores, had hindered the lucrative spice trade, the European powers were forced to find alternative routes that would allow them to reach India and Cathay (present-day northern China) directly.   The need for a quick and reliable way to the “Spice Islands,” along with fear of a Portuguese monopoly and a desire for adventure and conquest, undoubtedly influenced the Spanish monarchs’ decision to finance Columbus’ first voyage. However, instead of finding a new sea route to the East, the Italian-born navigator ended up making landfall on an unknown continent: the Americas.   After the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas between Portugal and Spain assigned to the latter all lands west of an imaginary line 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, the Spaniards, spurred by stories of gold and rich empires, began launching expeditions on the mainland of the “new” continent. Leaders of this fast-paced conquest were the conquistadors.   A New Worldview The 1507 Waldseemüller Map, the first document showing the lands discovered by Columbus as a “New World” named after Amerigo Vespucci. Source: Library of Congress   Besides the lust for gold and spices, religion was also a key driving force behind the conquistadors’ expeditions against the Indigenous people of the “West Indies.” In 1492, the conquest of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula, ended the Reconquista (a series of centuries-long campaigns against Muslim rule) and led to the resurgence of missionary fervor and crusading spirit.   In 1493, following a petition from the Catholic Monarchs, Pope Alexander VI, a Spaniard, issued the bull Inter Caetera, granting Spain jurisdiction over all lands west and south of an imaginary line 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands that was not already ruled by a Christian king. Remarking that “in our times especially the Catholic faith and the Christian religion be exalted and be everywhere increased and spread,” the pope urged the monarchs to “lead the peoples dwelling in those islands and countries to embrace the Christian religion; nor at any time let dangers or hardships deter you therefrom, with the stout hope and trust in your hearts that Almighty God will further your undertakings.”   In the following decades, the Spanish conquistadors frequently cited religious fervor as the ideological basis for their expeditions, claiming to have gone to the newly discovered continent to serve God. To aid in the conversion efforts, Dominican and Franciscan friars often accompanied the conquistadors in their campaigns.   Portrait of Bartolomé de las Casas, by anonymous, 16th century. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Alarmed by the ruthlessness of conquest and its disastrous effects on the Indigenous populations, some friars became concerned by the moral aspect of colonial rule. As the Age of Exploration had redrawn the world map, the Europeans were also faced with the challenge of incorporating a new continent and its inhabitants into the existing worldview.   Theologian Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, drawing on Aristotle’s claim that some people are “slave by nature,” justified Spain’s brutal conquests, declaring that the “lesser humans” (homunculi) inhabiting the Americas were inferior to the Spaniards “as children are [to] adults, as women are [to] men, … as apes are [to] human beings.” Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, however, denounced the violence against the Indigenous people, calling for a peaceful evangelization. Sepúlveda and las Casas famously clashed in a debate held in Valladolid in 1550, where las Casas criticized Spain’s system of exploitation in the Americas. “They violently forced away Women and Children to make them Slaves, and ill-treated them, consuming and wasting their Food, which they had purchased with great sweat, toil, and yet remained dissatisfied too,” accused the Dominican friar in Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1552).   Who Were the Conquistadors? Landing of Columbus, by John Vanderlyn, 1847. Source: Wikimedia Commons   While some conquistadors came from other parts of Europe or even Africa, the majority of the soldiers-turned-explorers who ventured across South America were Spanish. Many were so-called hidalgos, sons of lesser nobility who embarked on expeditions to the “New World” in search of wealth, fame, and upward mobility.   Upon reaching the early Spanish settlements in South America, the future conquistadors were usually able to amass considerable wealth by acquiring lands or through the slave trade. As stories of empires with precious artifacts and immense reaches began to spread among the settlers, they embarked on expeditions on the mainland of South America with the hope of securing the treasures for themselves and their monarchs.   Over the second half of the 16th century, the conquistadors’ exploits overthrew the Aztec and Inca empires, whose populations were ill-equipped to defend themselves against the firearms, horses, and wheeled vehicles employed by the European invaders. The indigenous populations also lacked immunity against the deadly diseases spread by the Europeans, such as smallpox and measles, leading to the outbreak of deadly epidemics.   Hernán Cortés: Conqueror of the Aztec Empire Portrait of Hernán Cortés, by anonymous, 17th century. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Naval Museum of Madrid   Born in 1485 in Medellín, Castile, in an ancient lineage, Hernán Cortés sailed for the Americas in 1504. After settling on the island of Hispaniola, where Christopher Columbus had made landfall twelve years earlier, Cortés took part in Diego Velázquez’s 1511 expedition, which led to the conquest of Cuba. He was then elected alcalde (mayor) of Santiago, the island’s new capital, twice.   In 1518, Velázquez appointed Cortés captain-general of an expedition tasked with exploring the continent’s mainland, where the Spanish authority planned to establish a colony. A charismatic figure, Cortés soon gathered six ships and around 300 men, and before the jealous Velázquez could claim leadership of the mission for himself, he hastily left Cuba with his fleet.   In 1519, Cortés and his crew landed on the southern Mexican coast, where he established Veracruz and was elected captain by his soldiers. As the conquistador and his men began exploring the Mexican interior, they came into contact with the Aztec Empire.   Exploiting the political crisis of the empire to his advantage, Cortés formed alliances with those who resented the tributes imposed by the Aztecs, such as the nation of Tlaxcala, then in a state of chronic war with the Aztec emperor Montezuma II. In November 1519, Cortés entered the capital of the empire, Tenochtitlán, where he was greeted by Montezuma. Believing the Aztec monarch planned to lay a trap for the Spaniards, Cortés seized Montezuma.   In 1520, however, after Pedro de Alvarado massacred several Aztec chiefs (more on that later), the Spaniards were forced to make a hasty and costly exit. The following year, Cortés returned to Tenochtitlán, and after a siege, conquered it on August 13, effectively ending the Aztec Empire.   Francisco Pizarro: Toppling the Inca Empire Portrait of Francisco Pizarro, by Amable-Paul Coutan, ca. 1834-1835. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Palace of Versailles   The illegitimate son of Gonzalo Pizarro, Francisco Pizarro arrived at Hispaniola two years before Cortés. After joining Vasco Núñez de Balboa’s expedition, which led the Spaniards to catch their first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, Pizarro became the mayor of Panama and acquired considerable wealth.   In 1523, when he was 48 years old, the conquistador embarked on a series of expeditions on the west coast of South America, hoping to extend Spain’s reach on the continent. While the first two missions were unsuccessful, Pizarro’s party learned of the existence of a civilization located in present-day Peru: the Incas. As the governor of Panama called off the expedition, Pizarro refused and, along with thirteen of his men, continued to explore the coast.   When the governor again refused to support his efforts, Pizarro left South America to personally ask Charles I of Spain (Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) for permission to continue his mission. The meeting with the Spanish monarch was successful, and after receiving titles and privileges, Pizarro returned to Peru, where the unresolved struggle for succession had weakened the Inca Empire.   The Funerals of Inca Atahualpa, by Luis Montero, 1867. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Lima Art Museum, Peru   In April 1531, Pizarro made contact with emissaries of the Inca emperor, Atahualpa, who invited him and his men to Cajamarca, the Inca capital. After Atahualpa refused to convert to Christianity and accept the authority of Charles V, Pizarro ordered an attack. In the ensuing Battle of Cajamarca (1532), the Incas, shocked by the firearms of the Spaniards, were defeated.   Following Cortés’ example, Pizarro seized Atahualpa, requesting a ransom in gold. Though the Incas complied with Pizarro’s demands, the conquistador had the emperor killed, and in 1533, entered the Inca capital, Cusco. The conquistador then consolidated Spain’s rule in Peru until, in 1541, he was killed by a group of supporters of Diego de Almagro, his second in command, who had been executed on Pizarro’s order.   Hernando de Soto: Exploring North America Discovery of the Mississippi by De Soto, by William Henry Powell, 1853. Source: Wikimedia Commons   After spending his younger years on the family estate at Jerez de los Caballeros, Hernando de Soto joined an expedition to the West Indies in 1514. Settling in Panama, he amassed considerable wealth through slave trading, and in the 1530s, he took part in Pizarro’s conquest of the Inca Empire.   Despite playing a central role in the expedition, de Soto grew dissatisfied with Pizarro’s leadership, and in 1536, he was back in Spain. The following year, the Spanish crown made him governor of Cuba and entrusted him with organizing the conquest of present-day Florida, where he landed in May 1539.   Over the following years, de Soto and his men, led by native guides, traveled to present-day Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Alabama. In October 1540, however, a group of Indians attacked them near Mobile Bay. The clash ended with heavy losses for both sides, with the Spaniards also losing most of their treasure and equipment.   After a month-long pause, de Soto resumed his exploration of the inland, crossing Alabama and then moving west through Mississippi while under constant attacks by the Indians stationed in the area. In May 1541, the conquistador and his soldiers crossed the Mississippi River and headed to Arkansas and Louisiana. The following year, however, de Soto died of a fever.   Pedro de Alvarado Pedro de Alvarado, by Tomás Povedano, 1906. Source: Wikimedia Commons   Born in the province of Extremadura, Pedro de Alvarado was a hidalgo of a minor noble family. In 1510, he and several of his brothers sailed to the Americas, hoping to gain fame and fortune by participating in various expeditions of conquest.   Then, in 1519, he accompanied Cortés on the expedition that would overthrow the Aztec Empire. The following year, when Cortés left Tenochtitlán to meet a hostile Spanish force and left him in command of the garrison in the city, de Alvarado ordered the massacre of numerous Aztec chiefs who had gathered to celebrate the festival of Toxcatl. In response, the Aztecs besieged the Spaniards’ quarters.   When Cortés returned to Tenochtitlán, he ordered a retreat from the city, aware that the situation had turned against the Spaniards. On the night of June 30, 1520, the Spanish soldiers began to quietly leave the city, but they were spotted by the Aztecs. In the ensuing clash, Alvarado managed to escape, but the Spaniards suffered many losses. The event became known as the noche triste, the “sad night.”   In 1522, when Cortés’ forces recaptured Tenochtitlán, Alvarado became its first alcalde. Over the following years, he embarked on a series of expeditions of conquest of his own against the kingdoms located in the lands once home to the Maya Empire, using a divide-and-conquer strategy to defeat the Quiché and Cakchiquel of Guatemala. He died in 1539 while trying to crush an uprising in Mexico.   Diego de Almagro Diego de Almagro (left) and Francisco Pizarro (right) in a drawing from Guaman Poma, Nueva corónica y buen gobierno (1615). Source: Det Kgl. Bibliotek (Royal Danish Library), Copenhagen   Diego de Almagro arrived in the “New World” in 1524, where he accompanied fellow conquistador Francisco Pizarro in the expedition that ended with the fall of the Inca Empire. Despite the successful outcome of the mission, however, a bitter rivalry arose between Pizarro and de Almagro, resulting in political instability in New Castile, the Spanish colony established in the vast region previously under Inca rule.   In 1534, when Diego de Almagro, acting on the order of King Charles I (Emperor Charles V), joined an expedition to present-day Chile, the Indians of Peru rose against the new Spanish rule, attacking the fortress of Cusco. Rushing back, de Almagro put an end to the insurrection and imprisoned Hernando and Alonso Pizarro, Francisco’s brother, accusing them of having disobeyed his direct orders.   Soon afterward, Pizarro arrived in Cusco, where he defeated de Almagro and executed him. In 1535, while Pizarro was in Lima, a group of Almagro’s former supporters attacked his palace on June 26, killing the conquistador.   Vasco Nunẽz de Balboa: Discovering the Pacific Portrait of Vasco Nunẽz de Balboa, by anonymous, 19th century. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Naval Museum of Madrid   Born into a family of the minor nobility, Vasco Nunẽz de Balboa sought—like many other hidalgos—to make his fortune in the West Indies, where he arrived in 1500. Failing to prosper as a farmer in Hispaniola, he embarked on an expedition to aid a colony founded in present-day Colombia as a means to escape his creditors.   After the colonists moved to the less hostile coast of the Isthmus of Panama and founded Santa María de la Antigua, Balboa was elected as one of the two town magistrates. By 1511, he had become the undisputed leader of the first stable Spanish settlement, and King Ferdinand II made him interim governor. Over the following years, Balboa launched a series of ruthless attacks against the Indian tribes of the area, combining the use of barter and brutal force to extract information.   Upon hearing stories of a sea and a gold-rich empire lying to the south, Balboa planned an expedition. However, King Ferdinand II, displeased by the charges brought against the conquistador, made Pedro Arias Dávila the leader of the mission. The enmity between the two Spaniards would have disastrous consequences for Balboa.   Monument of Vasco Nunẽz de Balboa in Panama City, photograph by Carlos Siu, 2012. Source: Wikimedia Commons/Flickr   Meanwhile, Vasco Nunẽz de Balboa, set on carrying out his enterprise, sailed from the Isthmus of Panama in September 1513. At the end of the month, after a harrowing march across a dense jungle and swamps, he and his men finally sighted the Mar del Sur (Pacific Ocean), taking possession of the expanse of water and the nearby lands for the monarch.   Pleased by Balboa’s success, Ferdinand II made him adelantado (governor) of the Mar del Sur, Panama, and Coiba. Meanwhile, the friction between Balboa and Dávila continued to rise, and when the latter feared Balboa would testify against him in an upcoming judicial review, he sentenced the conquistador to death. Balboa was beheaded in January 1519.

Winter warfare has profoundly influenced military history, presenting challenges like frostbite, snow-induced blindness, and logistical nightmares. Conflicts such as the Battle of Stalingrad and the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union were significantly shaped by these harsh conditions. The severe cold often determined the outcome, with frostbitten hands and frozen landscapes turning the ...

Three large coins hoards from Late Antiquity have been discovered in an ancient Roman residential block in Senon, northeastern France. Instead of being secreted during periods of instability, however, these were carefully installed and regularly maintained and accessed. Senon was an important city of the Mediomatrici tribe, documented in Roman sources after the conquest of Gaul (57 B.C.). While pre-Roman Gallic remains had been found before, the excavations were too small in scale to draw any conclusions about the extent and nature of the settlement. The excavation revealed the remains of timber-framed constructions that proved it was a fully developed settlement from the middle of the 2nd century B.C. to the beginning of the Roman period. The excavation also revealed how the Gallic settlement changed after the conquest. In the 1st century A.D., the growth of the city coupled with Roman building methods led to an explosion in stone quarrying. The wood and earth structures that characterized the Gallic settlement were overtaken by stone construction, and builders turned to local sources of limestone to supply it. No fewer than 10 quarry pits were found on the site, some as much as 10 feet deep. As the city expanded, the quarry pits were reused. Scientific analysis will determine what exactly they were used for, but possibilities includes as storage spaces or latrines. The rebuilt stone houses and roads were laid out in a typical Roman pattern, and the survival of so many remains makes it possible for archaeologists map the buildings, their architectural features and therefore the economic status of their owners. At least three buildings had living rooms with concrete floors, hypocaust heating, meticulously designed cellars, ovens and courtyards in the back. The people who lived in these homes were well-off, likely commercial class like merchants or successful artisans. The coins hoards were placed inside large amphorae in pits dug inside the homes. The were in different dwellings, but they all have in common the same type of container holding thousand pf coins dating from the last quarter of the 3rd century to the first decade of the 4th century. [T]hese deposits should be seen … as a snapshot of complex monetary management, planned over the medium to long term, within a household or administration, capable of making deposits and withdrawals at various intervals. Initial analysis, observations made during the excavation do not appear to reveal hasty concealment: the vessels containing these coins were carefully placed in well-prepared pits, perfectly vertical thanks to the use of leveling stones. In two cases, the presence of a few coins found stuck to the outer face of the vessel clearly indicates that they were placed there after the vessel had been buried, before the pit was filled with sediment. Finally, the location of the two deposits discovered during the excavation, in apparently ordinary living rooms and at an altitude very close to that of the contemporary ground (the neck of the vases must have been flush with the surface), indicates that they remained easily accessible to their owner. All hypotheses will be examined, but it is possible that there is a link between these three subcontemporary coin hoards—all buried, according to our current information, between 280 and 310 AD—and the known military occupation at Senon, attested by a fortification dating from the same period and located only 150 meters from the excavated area. This highlights the importance of documenting the archaeological context of these coin hoards, which will be clarified in the coming months through post-excavation studies. Their exceptional nature lies less in the discovery of a large quantity of coins (some thirty coin hoards are known in the Meuse department alone) than in the possibility of documenting their depositional context so precisely, which is rare. The fight against archaeological looting, which deprives scientific research and society as a whole of all this contextual information, is a crucial issue for understanding the motivations behind monetary deposits.

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