Argues that Christopher Columbus was not the son of an Italian wool-dealer, but was in fact a Portuguese spy in the Spanish court

Portuguese Asia, otherwise known as the Estado da Ãndia Oriental, has been far less studied than the Spanish empire in America, its counterpart in the Western hemisphere. It differed from that vast entity in that it was essentially a maritime trading operation held together by strategic territories, such as Goa, Ceylon, or Macau. For more than a century these afforded it control of much of the Indian Ocean. As Professor Winius shows, it was certainly the most peculiar and colourful operation that existed in the history of European expansion, even giving rise to a second, 'shadow' empire created by escapees and renegades from its royal administration. Some of these essays reflect on Portuguese involvement in other areas, notably the Atlantic, and the impact this had in the East, but their focus is on the Portuguese in South and Southeast Asia. They describe its nature and its rise and fall, from the first voyage of Vasco da Gama to its dismemberment by the Dutch in the mid-seventeenth century, and include studies on the jewel trade and on the Renaissance in Goa.

This is a history of the region now known as the United States of America, from earliest times to the American victory over the British and the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The book charts the arrival of the first Americans through Alaska, millennia before the coming of the Norsemen, or of Cabot, Columbus and Raleigh. It tells of the sixteenth century incursions by the Spanish, French and English, their interaction with the American Indians, and describes the early settlements, their culture, activities and trade. The author traces the rise to dominance of the British settlers, and the establishment of the whole of east America within the British Empire. The book closes with an account of the war with the British and of Washington's final triumph.

History does not have to be boring. Kids who are excited about history learn more. History is also far more than facts to memorize for the most recent standardized test. That is where Creative Ways to Teach the Mysteries of History comes in—to make the teaching and learning of history a powerful and enjoyable experience in the classroom through the study of historical mysteries. What better place to snoop around and dig through mysterious graves than in your history class? This book takes ten mysterious events in history from ancient Egypt to the 21st century for students to grapple with and make their own decisions as to "Who done it?". Lessons include historical events such as "Who Killed King Tut?", "The Black Death of 1347 - Can It Come Again?" as well as an Advanced Document Analysis for the 21st Century entitled "Is the War on Terrorism Bogus?" Pahl focuses on a wide variety of active ideas and how-to-do-it brainstorms for teachers to get their students excited about history. At the same time, the book deeply analyzes some of the major issues that have confronted humankind from ancient times through the present and into the future. If this is what you want for your classroom then, Creative Ways to Teach the Mysteries of History, Volume I is for you and your students.

An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library as part of the Opening the Future project with COPIM.Empire Found: Racial Identities and Coloniality in Twenty-First Century Portuguese Popular Cultures examines how the discourses and narratives of Portuguese imperial exceptionalism and Portuguese racial identity, developed during the last centuries of Portuguese settler colonialism continue to inform an array of cultural production and consumption in the four decades since decolonization. By examining a range of contemporary popular cultural production (literature, football, musical production, and celebrity culture) in critical conversation with intellectual production of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Empire Found examines how narratives of Portuguese racial hybridity and indeterminacy operate alongside ongoing structures of coloniality and white supremacy in the realms of cultural production. I argue that these implied or overt historical dialogues carried out through cultural production are integral to the very reproduction of the Portuguese nation-state apparatus, as well as its racial structures and claims to whiteness in the wake of decolonization and marginal integration into the European Union.

A critical reassessment of world-shaping Portuguese voyages of discovery that places these quests in historical context. The lasting impact of historic Portuguese voyages of discovery is unquestionable. The slave trade, the diaspora of the Sephardic Jews, and the intercontinental spread of plants and animals all make clear these voyages’ long-term global significance. Navigations reexamines these Portuguese quests by placing them in their medieval and Renaissance settings. It shows how these voyages grew out of a crusading ethos, as well as long-distance trade with Asia and Africa and developments in map-making and ship design. Malyn Newitt also narrates these voyages of discovery in the framework of Portuguese politics, describing the role of the Portuguese ruling dynasty—including its female members—in the flowering of the Portuguese Renaissance, the creation of the Renaissance state with its distinctive ideology, and in the cultural changes that took place within a wider European context.