The
Globe Encompassed: The Age of European Discovery, 1500-1700 – Glenn J. Ames
This
book is an installment in the Connections Series for World History, which would
be used in undergraduate general education courses such as World Civilizations.
The aim is to provide an overview of a topic and provide selections from
primary documents in books about 200 pages long. The first three chapters cover
the empires of Portugal, the Netherlands, and Spain. The last chapter presents
the English and French imperial experiences in North America.
Ames
examines how "Old World" diseases devastated Native American
populations in the Americas. Indians had no natural immunity to measles,
smallpox and influenza. Demographers estimate that upwards of 80 to 95 percent
of the Native American population died in these epidemics within the first 100
to 150 years following 1492. The most affected regions in the Americas lost
100% of their indigenous populations. I read this book in July, 2014 when
people were expressing concerns about Central American migrant children who
were supposedly carrying infectious diseases. Rich, indeed, very rich.
I
recommend this book to readers who are seeking general information about the
Portuguese, Dutch, and Spanish empires. The prose is a model of clear, precise
writing. Before his early death at only 55, Ames was a well-regarded
scholar of early modern Europe and the history
of European expansion.
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