Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Atlantic Books (2013), Paperback, 560 pages
Description
A new interpretation of Vasco da Gama's revolutionary voyages, which were seen as a turning point in the struggle between Christianity and Islam, explores the tragic collision of cultures resulting from his journeys to the Indies.
User reviews
LibraryThing member nbmars
Nigel Cliff’s Holy War is a reinterpretation of the explorations conducted by Vasco da Gama. Specifically, he tells the story of the deeply flawed, fanatically religious, but very brave but edacious men who first sailed around the Cape of Good Hope from Portugal to India, and in the process broke
Cliff sets the stage for the main story by describing the early growth of Islam and the intolerance followers of Islam and Christianity had for one another. He observes, "The modern concept of Europe was born not from geography alone, nor simply from a shared religion. It slowly emerged among a patchwork of fractious peoples that found common purpose in their struggle with Islam.”
To Cliff, the original motivation behind the Portuguese expansion was not so much trade and profit, as it was religion and a desire to rid the world of Islam. (Cliff's interpretation asks the reader to choose between fanaticism and greed as motivators, not exactly a happy outcome in either event.)
To understand the remarkable events of the 15th and 16th centuries, modern readers must be aware of significant differences between current technology and our perception of the world and those of the people of that time. Navigation on the high seas was exceedingly difficult. Using Polaris, mariners could determine their latitude, but only in the Northern Hemisphere. More importantly, there was no known way of measuring longitude other than by estimating speed, direction, and time from a know starting point. The Americas remained undiscovered because sailors seldom ventured very far west from the European land mass. Indeed, the Portuguese discovered Brazil accidentally by straying farther west than they had intended while trying to find favorable winds to round Africa’s Cape of Good Hope!
The peoples of Europe and of the Middle East were at constant loggerheads with one another owing to religious differences. Because of the difficulties of traveling through Muslim lands, Europeans had only very infrequent contact with East Asians, and knew very little about China and India, except that they were the source of that era’s “gold” - spices. In the absence of refrigeration, food spoiled quickly and so spices (which grew in India and farther east, but not in Europe or the Islamic world) were relatively precious because they made food palatable.
In the 15th century, the Christians of Portugal and Spain were engaged in a bitter struggle with the Muslim Moors, who had conquered much of the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century. In 1415, King John of Portugal initiated an aggressive campaign against the Muslims and astonished his contemporaries by conquering Ceuta, an important trading port on the African side of the Pillars of Hercules, in a single day. Cliff argues that that victory “left a legacy that would burden the ambitious young nation for centuries to come.”
The Portuguese were determined to find Prester John, a legendary king of a great Christian power to the south or east of the Muslim lands. They hoped to link up with him by sailing around Africa. In fact, there was a predominantly Christian country, Ethiopia, south of the Islamic world with which the Europeans had lost contact. However, it was nowhere near as powerful as they fancied.
The Portuguese began their southern quest in earnest in the 1440’s when their control of Ceuta proved to be a liability--the Muslims simply ignored it and traded with nearby Tangiers. Rounding Africa proved to be a daunting task: it took more than 50 years of exploring the west African coast before a small flotilla of three ships and about 160 men led by the intrepid Vasco da Gama actually made it to India in 1498. Da Gama’s mission was to win allies and wealth (including spices) that would enable Portugal to invade the Arab heartland and conquer Jerusalem. In the latter respect, he was unsuccessful, making more enemies than allies, and discovering that Islam had penetrated the African continent and even India much more than the Portuguese had believed. On the other hand, he was enormously successful in expanding European knowledge of geography and opening up a profitable trade in spices for Portugal.
The Portuguese were fortunate in their timing because the most powerful Muslim country of that time, the Ottoman Empire, was more concerned with expanding into southeast Europe and Iran than protecting trading opportunities in India. Consequently, the Portuguese were able to build forts and establish semi-permanent trading stations in India - Goa being the most prominent. From these fortified locations, the Portuguese traded profitably with the Indians and raided Muslim shipping from the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. However, the crusader spirit petered out in the 16th century when Prester John proved nowhere to be found and the profits from the spice trade and piracy directed against Arab shipping provided a greater incentive than religious zeal.
By 1600, the Portuguese monopoly of the seaway around Africa was ended as the English and the Dutch began to build strong navies and sought colonies in the East. Nevertheless, the long-term effects of the Portuguese expansion involved a significant shift of the balance of power between the Islamic world and Europe. Cliff summarizes: "As centuries of cribbed fantasies gave way to clearly charted facts, new mental as well geographical horizons opened up. Colonies were founded, churches sprang up in unheard-of places, and Islam’s supremacy no longer seemed unassailable. Vast wealth in natural resources—bullion, manpower, and of course spices—fell under Christian control, and at long last the West had the means to hold off and eventually repel the Ottoman challenge at its gates. But for that, the fate of much of Europe, the settlement of America, and the discovery of new worlds then unknown might have taken a very different path.”
But as to the Portuguese motivation, Cliff concludes: "In the end, the religious certainty that drove Vasco da Gama and his fellow explorer halfway around the world was also their undoing. For all their astonishing achievements, the idea of a Last Crusade—a holy war to end all holy wars—was always a crazy dream.”
Evaluation: This is a very enlightening and entertaining book. Cliff is a good raconteur, and his descriptions of the privations of the early explorers make riveting reading. Many ships were lost because of foul weather or just bad navigation, and the crews suffered horribly from scurvy. On the other hand, the Portuguese were far from sympathetic actors on the global stage; they were greedy and rapacious, often using their new-found superiority in naval artillery to slaughter Muslims or primitive Africans. Cliff asks that we understand Portuguese exploration as part of a "holy war" instead of a war for territory and land. He makes an interesting though not definitive case, but certainly provides much "spicy" food for thought.
(JAB)
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up the monopoly of the spice trade that the Islamic world had exercised over Europe. Cliff sets the stage for the main story by describing the early growth of Islam and the intolerance followers of Islam and Christianity had for one another. He observes, "The modern concept of Europe was born not from geography alone, nor simply from a shared religion. It slowly emerged among a patchwork of fractious peoples that found common purpose in their struggle with Islam.”
To Cliff, the original motivation behind the Portuguese expansion was not so much trade and profit, as it was religion and a desire to rid the world of Islam. (Cliff's interpretation asks the reader to choose between fanaticism and greed as motivators, not exactly a happy outcome in either event.)
To understand the remarkable events of the 15th and 16th centuries, modern readers must be aware of significant differences between current technology and our perception of the world and those of the people of that time. Navigation on the high seas was exceedingly difficult. Using Polaris, mariners could determine their latitude, but only in the Northern Hemisphere. More importantly, there was no known way of measuring longitude other than by estimating speed, direction, and time from a know starting point. The Americas remained undiscovered because sailors seldom ventured very far west from the European land mass. Indeed, the Portuguese discovered Brazil accidentally by straying farther west than they had intended while trying to find favorable winds to round Africa’s Cape of Good Hope!
The peoples of Europe and of the Middle East were at constant loggerheads with one another owing to religious differences. Because of the difficulties of traveling through Muslim lands, Europeans had only very infrequent contact with East Asians, and knew very little about China and India, except that they were the source of that era’s “gold” - spices. In the absence of refrigeration, food spoiled quickly and so spices (which grew in India and farther east, but not in Europe or the Islamic world) were relatively precious because they made food palatable.
In the 15th century, the Christians of Portugal and Spain were engaged in a bitter struggle with the Muslim Moors, who had conquered much of the Iberian Peninsula in the 8th century. In 1415, King John of Portugal initiated an aggressive campaign against the Muslims and astonished his contemporaries by conquering Ceuta, an important trading port on the African side of the Pillars of Hercules, in a single day. Cliff argues that that victory “left a legacy that would burden the ambitious young nation for centuries to come.”
The Portuguese were determined to find Prester John, a legendary king of a great Christian power to the south or east of the Muslim lands. They hoped to link up with him by sailing around Africa. In fact, there was a predominantly Christian country, Ethiopia, south of the Islamic world with which the Europeans had lost contact. However, it was nowhere near as powerful as they fancied.
The Portuguese began their southern quest in earnest in the 1440’s when their control of Ceuta proved to be a liability--the Muslims simply ignored it and traded with nearby Tangiers. Rounding Africa proved to be a daunting task: it took more than 50 years of exploring the west African coast before a small flotilla of three ships and about 160 men led by the intrepid Vasco da Gama actually made it to India in 1498. Da Gama’s mission was to win allies and wealth (including spices) that would enable Portugal to invade the Arab heartland and conquer Jerusalem. In the latter respect, he was unsuccessful, making more enemies than allies, and discovering that Islam had penetrated the African continent and even India much more than the Portuguese had believed. On the other hand, he was enormously successful in expanding European knowledge of geography and opening up a profitable trade in spices for Portugal.
The Portuguese were fortunate in their timing because the most powerful Muslim country of that time, the Ottoman Empire, was more concerned with expanding into southeast Europe and Iran than protecting trading opportunities in India. Consequently, the Portuguese were able to build forts and establish semi-permanent trading stations in India - Goa being the most prominent. From these fortified locations, the Portuguese traded profitably with the Indians and raided Muslim shipping from the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf. However, the crusader spirit petered out in the 16th century when Prester John proved nowhere to be found and the profits from the spice trade and piracy directed against Arab shipping provided a greater incentive than religious zeal.
By 1600, the Portuguese monopoly of the seaway around Africa was ended as the English and the Dutch began to build strong navies and sought colonies in the East. Nevertheless, the long-term effects of the Portuguese expansion involved a significant shift of the balance of power between the Islamic world and Europe. Cliff summarizes: "As centuries of cribbed fantasies gave way to clearly charted facts, new mental as well geographical horizons opened up. Colonies were founded, churches sprang up in unheard-of places, and Islam’s supremacy no longer seemed unassailable. Vast wealth in natural resources—bullion, manpower, and of course spices—fell under Christian control, and at long last the West had the means to hold off and eventually repel the Ottoman challenge at its gates. But for that, the fate of much of Europe, the settlement of America, and the discovery of new worlds then unknown might have taken a very different path.”
But as to the Portuguese motivation, Cliff concludes: "In the end, the religious certainty that drove Vasco da Gama and his fellow explorer halfway around the world was also their undoing. For all their astonishing achievements, the idea of a Last Crusade—a holy war to end all holy wars—was always a crazy dream.”
Evaluation: This is a very enlightening and entertaining book. Cliff is a good raconteur, and his descriptions of the privations of the early explorers make riveting reading. Many ships were lost because of foul weather or just bad navigation, and the crews suffered horribly from scurvy. On the other hand, the Portuguese were far from sympathetic actors on the global stage; they were greedy and rapacious, often using their new-found superiority in naval artillery to slaughter Muslims or primitive Africans. Cliff asks that we understand Portuguese exploration as part of a "holy war" instead of a war for territory and land. He makes an interesting though not definitive case, but certainly provides much "spicy" food for thought.
(JAB)
Show Less
LibraryThing member CBJames
On his final voyage to India, Vasco da Gama, then a successful commander, publicly ordered the sailors in his employ, from common seaman to captain, not to smuggle women on board when they left Portugal. Anyone who did would be promptly and permanently put ashore to fend for themselves in the wilds
It's these odd little footnotes to history that make reading history so much fun. Imagine hiding your lover on a ship facing thousands of miles at sea. Did they really think they'd get away with it?
Da Gama is something of an also ran in American history classes. Since he didn't come to the Americas, we tend to overlook him in favor of those who did. Seems natural to me.
Mr. Cliff makes a strong case for the importance of Da Gama's voyages and subsequent colonization of the Indian subcontinent. He argues that Portugal saw these expeditions as a final crusade, one last attempt to defeat Islam. Both Portugal and Spain drove the Islamic kingdoms out of their countries in the years proceeding the expeditions of Da Gama and Columbus. Mr. Cliff makes the case that Da Gama and his ilk were seen as one way to defeat the Islamic kingdoms of Northern Africa as well as a way to liberate the Christians they believed lived under the thumb of India's Islamic kings. Perhaps they may even have wanted to take Jerusalem from the East via the Arabian Sea.
In another odd footnote to history, Mr. Cliff writes about how those on Da Gama's first voyage to India mistook the Hindu religion they found there for a form of Christianity made strange by centuries of isolation from the church in Rome. They were sorely disappointed once they realized their mistake.
I'm not enough of an historian to say just how accurate Mr. Cliff's argument that Da Gama's voyages were part of the crusading spirit is, but he made a case strong enough to convince me. The voyages of Da Gama and Columbus do mark the point in time when Europe (Christendom) overtook the Islamic world in the competition for dominance. Mr. Cliff's account of this time makes for interesting reading.
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of Africa, any woman found would be flogged. Still, three sailors hid women on board ship only to find that Vasco da Gama was a man of his word. It's these odd little footnotes to history that make reading history so much fun. Imagine hiding your lover on a ship facing thousands of miles at sea. Did they really think they'd get away with it?
Da Gama is something of an also ran in American history classes. Since he didn't come to the Americas, we tend to overlook him in favor of those who did. Seems natural to me.
Mr. Cliff makes a strong case for the importance of Da Gama's voyages and subsequent colonization of the Indian subcontinent. He argues that Portugal saw these expeditions as a final crusade, one last attempt to defeat Islam. Both Portugal and Spain drove the Islamic kingdoms out of their countries in the years proceeding the expeditions of Da Gama and Columbus. Mr. Cliff makes the case that Da Gama and his ilk were seen as one way to defeat the Islamic kingdoms of Northern Africa as well as a way to liberate the Christians they believed lived under the thumb of India's Islamic kings. Perhaps they may even have wanted to take Jerusalem from the East via the Arabian Sea.
In another odd footnote to history, Mr. Cliff writes about how those on Da Gama's first voyage to India mistook the Hindu religion they found there for a form of Christianity made strange by centuries of isolation from the church in Rome. They were sorely disappointed once they realized their mistake.
I'm not enough of an historian to say just how accurate Mr. Cliff's argument that Da Gama's voyages were part of the crusading spirit is, but he made a case strong enough to convince me. The voyages of Da Gama and Columbus do mark the point in time when Europe (Christendom) overtook the Islamic world in the competition for dominance. Mr. Cliff's account of this time makes for interesting reading.
Show Less
LibraryThing member setnahkt
Despite the subtitle (“The Epic Voyages of Vasco da Gama”), he plays a relatively minor part – there just isn’t that much information about him. Instead, this is a workmanlike history of Portuguese exploration in the Indian Ocean. As far as a “crusade” goes, retaking Jerusalem was
The East Indians, despite possessing numbers and some firearms, fared almost as poorly opposed to da Gama and subsequent Portuguese as the West Indians did opposed to Columbus and Spanish conquistadores. Eventually, though, the numbers told on the Indian subcontinent, and the Portuguese contented themselves with Goa, a couple of other fortified cities, holdings on the Arabian Peninsula and Indonesia, decent sized chunks of Africa, and, of course, Brazil, which was picked up more or less by accident by an expedition trying to round the Cape of Good Hope.
An easy read; lots of interesting history of a part of the world and time period that were unfamiliar. No foot- or endnotes but page number references; contemporary color illustrations; a good bibliography.
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always presented as one of the motivations, but most of the explorers allowed that getting rich off spices was also doing holy work. The myth of Prester John, the supposed mighty Christian emperor of the east, figured strongly; it was expected that once contacted he would supply the troops to conquer Islam while everybody else stood back and cheered; this led da Gama and other explorers to find Christians even when there weren’t any. In one case that would have been amusing if it hadn’t eventually ended in massacres, Hindu temple statues of multi-limbed and multi-headed goddesses and gods were interpreted as strange local variants of the Virgin and various saints, while chants of “Krishna!” were thought to be the regional pronunciation of “Christ!”. The East Indians, despite possessing numbers and some firearms, fared almost as poorly opposed to da Gama and subsequent Portuguese as the West Indians did opposed to Columbus and Spanish conquistadores. Eventually, though, the numbers told on the Indian subcontinent, and the Portuguese contented themselves with Goa, a couple of other fortified cities, holdings on the Arabian Peninsula and Indonesia, decent sized chunks of Africa, and, of course, Brazil, which was picked up more or less by accident by an expedition trying to round the Cape of Good Hope.
An easy read; lots of interesting history of a part of the world and time period that were unfamiliar. No foot- or endnotes but page number references; contemporary color illustrations; a good bibliography.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Teufle
A history book that unfolds like a story. It tells you the basics of what you need to know regarding the founding of Portuguese and European ambitions in Indian, with Vasco Da Gama and his family at its core.
This is a must read book for anyone who wants to know how European nations began the epic
This is a must read book for anyone who wants to know how European nations began the epic
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scramble for Empire, how Portugal became the oldest and longest lasting of these Empires, and how the Islamic and Venetian world was set on a path towards long economic decrepitude from its once illustrious position. Show Less
LibraryThing member kaitanya64
Clear and readable with scholarly footnotes but a narrative style, this is excellent. The author adds evidence to the clear case that the world map was never a "blank" and describes the interactions between Europe and the "East" (which could be argued to include parts of Africa) that led into the
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development or European colonialism and the retreat of Islam. Not uncontroversial, but well supported and intriguing. Show Less
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
There is a good deal of Naval Warfare in this lively read.
Mr. Cliff is definitely a lively writer, and his book flows well. He strives a bit too hard for the telling phrase, but the story he tells has very sensational elements. Still, after a very lively and simplistic first section on the history
The image of the India that Da Gama encountered is a trifle sketchy, but the emphasis overall is on the treatment of the crusading ideal, and its place in the mental furniture, of medieval men who came to a very foreign environment. It has been customary in the last couple of generations to downplay the religious elements in the explorative explosion of Iberia, and this is perhaps a necessary corrective. Whether the emphasis is too narrow is a judgment remaining with the reader, of course.
The coverage of the effects of the Portuguese intrusion, both in Africa and in India, is quite informative. Happily, the effect on the Portuguese as a society is detailed and relatively new ground to the English reading public.
The mapping is weak, and a map detailing the political jurisdictions of the Indian area would be a real improvement. The footnoting is adequate. The book reads well, and occupies a useful place on the bookshelf of the student, and will be referred to in any discussion of the period.
Mr. Cliff is definitely a lively writer, and his book flows well. He strives a bit too hard for the telling phrase, but the story he tells has very sensational elements. Still, after a very lively and simplistic first section on the history
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of Portugal and the enduring Christendom versus Islam struggle, the rest of the book does try to be even-handed in the description of the expansion of a very minor European power into the dominator of the Indian Ocean. There is considerable exploration of the personality of Vasco Da Gama, and the social systems he encountered both home and abroad. There is not much exploration of the ship's technology, or the navigational technology, as found in a Samuel Eliot Morison book, the focus being on the economic and political side of things.The image of the India that Da Gama encountered is a trifle sketchy, but the emphasis overall is on the treatment of the crusading ideal, and its place in the mental furniture, of medieval men who came to a very foreign environment. It has been customary in the last couple of generations to downplay the religious elements in the explorative explosion of Iberia, and this is perhaps a necessary corrective. Whether the emphasis is too narrow is a judgment remaining with the reader, of course.
The coverage of the effects of the Portuguese intrusion, both in Africa and in India, is quite informative. Happily, the effect on the Portuguese as a society is detailed and relatively new ground to the English reading public.
The mapping is weak, and a map detailing the political jurisdictions of the Indian area would be a real improvement. The footnoting is adequate. The book reads well, and occupies a useful place on the bookshelf of the student, and will be referred to in any discussion of the period.
Show Less
Awards
PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize (Shortlist — 2013)
Language
Original publication date
2011
Physical description
560 p.
ISBN
1848870191 / 9781848870192