Texts dealing with Portuguese and Castilian enterprise, translated into English and edited. The main pagination of this and the following volume (Second Series 87) is continuous. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1942.

Texts dealing with Portuguese and Castilian enterprise, translated into English and edited. The main pagination of this and the following volume (Second Series 87) is continuous. This is a new print-on-demand hardback edition of the volume first published in 1942.

"This publication accompanies the exhibition Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe, held at the Walters Art Museum from October 14, 2012, to January 21, 2013, and at the Princeton University Art Museum from February 16 to June 9, 2013."

The result of years of work by scholars from all over the world, The UNESCO General History of Africa reflects how the different peoples of Africa view their civilizations and shows the historical relationships between the various parts of the continent. Historical connections with other continents demonstrate Africa's contribution to the development of human civilization. Each volume is lavishly illustrated and contains a comprehensive bibliography. This fifth volume of the acclaimed series covers the history of the continent from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the close of the eighteenth century in which two themes emerge: first, the continuing internal evolution of the states and cultures of Africa during this period second, the increasing involvement of Africa in external trade--with major but unforeseen consequences for the whole world. In North Africa, we see the Ottomans conquer Egypt. South of the Sahara, some of the larger, older states collapse, and new power bases emerge. Traditional religions continue to coexist with both Christianity (suffering setbacks) and Islam (in the ascendancy). Along the coast, particularly of West Africa, Europeans establish a trading network which, with the development of New World plantation agriculture, becomes the focus of the international slave trade. The immediate consequences of this trade for Africa are explored, and it is argued that the long-term global consequences include the foundation of the present world-economy with all its built-in inequalities.

How early did the Chinese explore the world? Did the Treasure Fleets, led by Admiral Zheng He, discover many parts of the world before Christopher Columbus? While it is known that Christopher Columbus discovered America and Europe ushered in the Age of Discovery, there is an ongoing debate on the 'unknown' areas depicted in Western maps from the period and earlier. There is agreement among scholars that certain areas seem to have been mapped out prior to the arrival of Western explorers.Chinese Global Exploration in the Pre-Columbian Era: Evidence from an Ancient World Map analyses the world's first modern map — known as Kunyu Wanguo Quantu (KWQ) 《坤輿萬國全圖》 in Chinese, translated as the 'Complete Geographical Map of All Kingdoms of the World' to demonstrate evidence of Chinese global exploration in the Pre-Columbian era. The map of concern was first printed by Italian missionary, Matteo Ricci in 1602, and has been purported to be of entirely European origin, based on Ricci's former maps which he had brought to China in 1582.This book, thus, seeks to be transformational in presenting essential new insights on Pre-Columbian world history and Chinese global exploration, moving away from the norm of the studies of geography and cartography by:

On the 20th of January 1526, the Santiago left Lisbon bound for Africa with a cargo of brass and tin bracelets, round bells, barber basins and cloth; by early October the ship was back in Portugal with a very different cargo, 108 enslaved Africans. With chilling detachment the ship’s trading log records the commodification of human beings, the prices paid for them, the sums received for their sale and the number who did not survive the crossing. Whilst this log may be extremely rare, it is clear from another surviving document, the receipt book of the customs office of the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands, that such voyages were commonplace in the early years of the sixteenth century. The bulk of this volume consists of a translation into English of the receipt book from the customs office of the Cape Verde Islands. In it Portuguese customs agents recorded import duties on over 3,000 slaves transported from nearby West Africa in 36 ships. The customs officers named the slave traders, ships, officers, crew, and outfitters of the ships, as well as the price of each slave and the import duty collected by the Portuguese government and the Catholic Church. A second section of the customs book provides details of export taxes paid on c.600 African slaves by merchants from Portugal, Spain, and the Spanish Canary Islands, when they exchanged European merchandise for slaves. The final chapter of the volume translates the Santiago’s log, providing an example of an actual slave trading expedition. Taken together these documents open a rare window into the workings and scope of the early Atlantic slave trade.