Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World

by Roger Crowley

The story of the sixteenth-century’s epic contest for the spice trade, which propelled European maritime exploration and conquest across Asia and the Pacific   Spices drove the early modern world economy, and for Europeans they represented riches on an unprecedented scale. Cloves and nutmeg could reach Europe only via a complex web of trade routes, and for decades Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find their elusive source. But when the Portuguese finally reached the spice islands of the Moluccas in 1511, they set in motion a fierce competition for control.   Roger Crowley shows how this struggle shaped the modern world. From 1511 to 1571, European powers linked up the oceans, established vast maritime empires, and gave birth to global trade, all in the attempt to control the supply of spices.   Taking us on voyages from the dockyards of Seville to the vastness of the Pacific, the volcanic Spice Islands of Indonesia, the Arctic Circle, and the coasts of China, this is a narrative history rich in vivid eyewitness accounts of the adventures, shipwrecks, and sieges that formed the first colonial encounters—and remade the world economy for centuries to follow.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, World History, Audiobook, Economics, European History, Food

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2024

About the author

Roger Crowley was born in 1951 and spent part of his childhood in Malta. He read English at Cambridge University and taught English in Istanbul, where he developed a strong interest in the history of Turkey. He has traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean basin over many years and has a wide-ranging knowledge of its history and culture. He lives in Gloucestershire, England.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think a better title for this book would be TRADE, because this book is less about Spice and more about sea faring and the expansion of trade routes. If you plan on picking this book up because you want to know about the history various spices, you should probably read something else. This book is about Trade and maps.

This was an unexpectedly timely read given current world events. Trade is important. Most countries depend on it to survive. Trade has some good sides but it also leads to atrocities. The global slave trade. The genocides of native peoples. The extinction of various animals including a bird I've never heard of The Auks.

Slavery isn't really touched on until towards the end of the book with the horrifying stat that in thr 17th century their were between 20,000 and 40,000 enslaved Africans in Mexico. Slaves along with the native Andean tribes people were horribly treated and subjected to inhumane working and living conditions.

World trade has from the very beginning depend on the exploitation of developing nations for cheap labor and cheap goods. The most powerful and riches countries in the world are not being "raped" by other countries that those powerful countries depend on for essential items. The powerful countries are the villains. We are the bullies.

I highly recommend this to my fellow History lovers.

[Dax · Rating 3 out of 5]

In one of his earlier books, Crowley covered the rise of Portuguese exploration around the Cape of Good Hope and into the Indian ocean. In 'Spice', Crowley now turns his attention to the rise of the spice trade and the contest between Portugal and Spain in the Pacific. We actually start with Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe in the early 16th century, but that is well-traveled ground in historical works. The more interesting aspects of this book were the mini-wars between Spain and Portugal in the spice islands, the attempts to establish trading ports in the Philippines, China and Japan, and the routing back across the Pacific that opened that arena to international trade. He really covers a lot of ground in a short amount of time. That will appeal to a lot of readers as it makes for a fast read, but I would love to see Crowley drill down on some of these episodes a little more. He seems to have a wordcount in mind when he begins a new project. A very good book, to be sure, but maybe not quite excellent. High three stars.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a lot of fun with this one, as I almost always do with Crowley’s work. This book bills itself as a story about the spice trade, and that’s certainly present throughout the narrative, but really what it’s about is Spain and Portugal forging the last few links in a global trading network while doing their best to wipe each other out, all while exploiting every natural resource and oppressing every indigenous person they come across. The book walks a pretty fine line between being exciting, informative, and depressing.

Lots of good stuff in here, including a really engrossing summary of Magellan’s expedition and its aftermath, stories about early European contact with China, and a section on the Spanish galleon trade. My favorite bit of the book occurred during a one chapter aside about an attempt by the English to establish their own north east route to the pacific, only to get derailed in Russia. This section of the book includes an account of an honest to god ghost ship, and even though the explanation for that ship is very logical and very mundane, there were still a few genuinely creepy moments where I was like “what the fuck is even happening in this book right now?” Not a feeling I ever expected to experience while reading a history book about boats and shit. Very good stuff all around.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Survey of how the spice wars over cloves, nutmeg, and pepper, the first worldwide trading commodities, in the 16th Century between the Portuguese and Spanish, set in process European global exploration and created the first global trading networks.


Myristica fragrans. Valued for centuries in the global spice trade, M. fragrans is the primary source of two distinct spices: nutmeg, derived from its seed, and mace, obtained from the seed's aril. Dried spices were an almost imperishable, high-value, lightweight, luxury consumable ideal for long, ocean transport. In 1515, Lisboa, the return on an arrived cargo was 700%.

My dead tree version was 304 pages and carried a US 2024 copyright. The book includes illustrations, maps, footnotes, a bibliography, and an index.

Roger Crowley is a British historian and author known for his works on maritime and Mediterranean history. He has written around ten books covering the Middle Ages. This was the second book I’ve read by him. The first being Empires of the Sea: The Final Battle for the Mediterranean, 1521 - 1580 (my review).

This is an intermediate-level, popular work. It’s strongly recommended that readers have some background knowledge of European late medieval history and the “age of sail” maritime exploration before tackling it. Familiarity with Southeast Asian geography is also helpful.

“The world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.” -- William Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act 2, Scene 1

TL;DR

Spice is a combination of the history of The Age of Discovery and the economics of globalization through Iberian exploration. In the early 1500s, small amounts of exotic Southeast Asian spices began to arrive in Europe, creating enormous demand. Portuguese exploratory sea voyages circumnavigating the intervening Ottoman Empire eventually located the sole source of cloves and nutmeg products in the Molucca Islands, now in Indonesia. (Black pepper came from India, an earlier colonial conquest.) Earlier in 1494, with the Treaty of Tordesillas between the seafaring, colonizing empires of Portugal and Spain, the globe outside Europe was divided longitudinally into hemispheric spheres of influence, irrespective of the indigenous populations or that accurate longitudinal calculation was beyond the current technology. Most of Southeast Asia was under Portuguese ownership. The spice trade set off a rivalry between the Iberian Portuguese and Spanish Empires for over two generations, from 1511 to 1580 C.E. The Portuguese more easily developed trade routes and colonies by traveling south around Africa then to the east, while the Spanish made voyages of discovery westward, originally from Spain and later Mexico, determined to find a route to Southeast Asia, unaware of the extent of the landmass of the Americas and the breadth of the Pacific Ocean. Over almost 80 years, Iberian colonies and their global trade routes linked Europe and Asia, developing the first instance of the global economy.

Crowley describes the good, the bad, and the ugly of Iberian imperialism in Southeast Asia. The Iberians were both traders and conquistadores. The world generally benefited from the trade, but it also included genocide and slavery. The book provides a lively description of the 16th-century maritime exploration and commerce, technology, and colonial encounters that remade the early modern world through Iberian imperialism. However, the book is uneven, and Crowley reaches in places. While this is a popular history, Crowley's narrative is littered with unexplained facts that might be interpreted as speculation by a trained historian. In addition, while his bibliography is wide enough, his citations indicate a very narrow usage of primary sources. In the end, this provided a solid description of the first knitting of east and west.

The Review

I like reading Crowley's histories. His popularization of historical writing makes for quick reads on what might be considered obscure events. His litany of the gunfire, bloodshed, and double-crosses within history is entertaining. However, you can't know too much when reading him, or you'll see how much he stretches the fabric of history to make for a better narrative.

The production quality of my book was very good. I found no errors in Yale University Press's copyediting.

Crowley's prose is strong. It was pitched in a style between academic and popular history. Although there is some repetition, his style resembles that of Rick Atkinson , combining scholarly detail with a journalistic bent that makes the narrative vivid and, at times, disturbing. The effects of the hardships on the crews of long ocean voyages are full of body horror, particularly involving starvation and deficiency diseases. He's particularly fond of repetitiously describing the effects of scurvy. The conquistadors had little, if any, cultural sensitivity, which led to atrocities, despite a veneer of chivalry amongst themselves and their Iberian counterparts.

The book assumes readers have a working knowledge of naval terminology (“port,” “starboard,” “fore,” “aft,” etc.). Although Crowley occasionally assumes a higher level of knowledge of naval architecture and maneuver. In addition, late medieval military terms, both ground and naval, are also used.

The book contains sixteen photographs and numerous period illustrations. The photographs were well chosen. Modern line diagrams of period ships were absent, and would have been valuable, given their use in exploration and commerce. Most readers may recognize "galleons" but not be familiar with them. Period pictures and woodcuts are used liberally, though the woodcut's technical accuracy could be more confusing than helpful.

The use of maps, a crucial component of exploration history, was good. There were six professional line maps. The line maps included were useful for orientation but lacked sufficient detail to support the narrative. For example, the important San Bernardino Strait is unmarked in the map of the Philippines, and the period trade route. There is also no map of the period showing Mexico's arduous land bridge to the Pacific from the Atlantic, through Mexico City. All maps appear at the beginning of the book rather than within their respective chapters. Some 16th-century “map-like” illustrations appear, but these are more artistic than accurate.

Charts and graphs were absent; they could have enhanced the understanding of numerical and logistical details. At times, I wished the author had consulted Tufte’s The Visual Display of Quantitative Information .

Footnotes appear only at the end of the book and were enumerated in the text. Crowley is known for his use of primary sources. The citations indicated a narrow reliance on primary sources to support the narrative sections. This was despite a solid but short Bibliography. That's problematic.

The bibliography is extensive, spanning 1704 to 2021 and including sources in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The index is adequate but lacks the granularity of modern computer-generated ones. Cross-references for individuals and terms were inconsistent.

The book is organized chronologically, focusing mainly on the western hemisphere for the Spanish Iberians and Southeast Asia for the Portuguese Iberians. The narrative is primarily a Jostling of Empires between the Catholic Portuguese (the first movers) and the Castilian Spanish. Tudor England is mentioned in only one section.


16th Century Iberian Southeast Asian trade routes: Portuguese trade routes (Blue) originating in Lisboa, Spanish trade routes (White) originating in Seville.

Strategic overviews of the competing powers and the influence of geography on maritime trade between Southeast Asia and Europe are addressed in great detail. The Pacific is a vast ocean compared to the Atlantic. Commerce and its “trade protection” were practiced very differently between the Portuguese, who traversed the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and the Spanish, who traversed the Atlantic and then the Pacific.


The book focuses on mainly Portuguese and Spanish expeditions pioneering trade routes and colonization in Southeast Asia: the Indies Voyages of Francisco Serrão (1511), Spanish Magellan expedition (1519), Portugeuse Missions to China (1514 -24), the Spanish Loaísa expedition (1522 -26), Spanish Saavedra expedition from Mexico (1526 -36), Spanish Villalobos expedition to the Philippines (1542 -46), Portuguese Galvão Moluccas pacification (1536 -40), the English Northeast Passage expedition (1553- 56), Portuguese trade penetration of China, and Spanish Legazpi expedition colonizing the Philippines (1557-71), the emergence of silver as a global currency (1545- 71) and the emergence of Proto-globalization(1571- 80).

Biographical analysis of key figures on both the Catholic Portuguese, Spanish, and the indigenous Southeast Asians, Central and South Americans (Moluccans, Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, Mexicans, and South American Indians) covering their political, organizational, and professional conflicts in what might now be “strategy” is sometimes excellent, sometimes sparse. For example, the Japanese Sengoku period leadership receives much less attention than the Chinese Ming dynasty leadership in resisting Portuguese influence and pressure during the period. It should be noted that establishing Asian colonies and practical east-west trade routes between Europe and Southeast Asia was a generations-long endeavor by the Iberians: in many cases, sons, brothers, and nephews carried on the efforts started by their fathers, older brothers, and uncles in Asia.

The book is somewhat uneven in detail. The voyages are well covered, and the diplomatic and cultural sections are likewise strong; however, the development of the colonial administrative apparatus received less attention. Colonial apparatus is the set of institutions, policies, and administrative structures and physical infrastructure established by colonizing powers to govern and exploit their colonies. For example, it took a “Moon-Landing”-like effort for the Spanish to build a shipyard on the west coast of Mexico over four years to build the Legazpi expedition's ships to colonize the Philippines. Even then, sails and cannons had to be imported from Spain because Mexico lacked the manufacturing capacity to produce them. There was no discussion of the later effort required to build the Manila galleons in use from 1565 to 1815, built from “native hardwoods” at the Cavite shipyard in remote Manila, in the Philippines.

Even so, this book provided me with several revelations on a pivotal period in the late-medieval, early-modern history of Habsburg Spain. These insights explained both cultural and economic frontiers that persist to this day.

Like all histories of exploration, this is ultimately a story of men, machines, and organizations in contention. Crowley leaves the reader being familiar with the period's key figures: emperors, like Philip II (1527–1598), indigenous leaders like Tanegashima Tokitaka (1528–1579), and explorers, like Andrés de Urdaneta, OSA (1508 – 1568). Biographical sketches are generally well done. They're also not just of the high and mighty. There are journalistic-style references to some very minor figures that readers of popular histories will appreciate. These make the narrative more vivid.

Crowley does well in describing the technology, organization, and evolution of maritime commerce during this period. For example, the Portuguese India Armadas and the previously mentioned Manila Galleons.

Crowley also handles the organizational behavior of the Spanish Habsburgs well, while the Portuguese House of Aviz is less well covered. The author was more descriptive of the English House of Tudor and their ill-fated attempts at the pre-Global Warming Northeast and Northwest passages than of the Portuguese. The Chinese Ming dynasty and the other indigenous peoples were handled well enough.

The late-medieval/early modern 16th Century was the first since antiquity when wealth, technology, and bureaucracy allowed global commerce. Central administration wasn't possible over these long distances, and trading voyages could take a year round-trip. However, the profits from global trade in luxury cargoes were enormous and continued despite inevitable losses. Global commerce started with spices being traded with primitive islanders in exchange for trinkets. The Habsburgs’ New World acquisitions brought immense amounts of silver bullion. Bullion was converted into specie, which paid for armies, navies, and colonial development. Eventually, contact was made with the advanced Chinese and Japanese societies. In trade with China, the Chinese only took silver, for tax purposes, in exchange for rare agricultural products (tea and silk) and advanced manufacturing (porcelain and precision metalware). Spanish silver was used to pay for Chinese goods.


Summary


This book's greatest strength lies in situating the imperialist trade economy within the late-medieval/early-modern world. The Portuguese and the Spanish competed with each other until the Iberian Union, which combined the two houses. This consolidation left the Habsburg dynasty in almost complete control of global trade until the rise of the Dutch East India Company (1602 – 1730).

Its weakest point was Crowley's peculiar apologia for the conquistadors. They came to conquer and then trade, although if they couldn't conquer, they'd find a way to trade. The slavery or genocide of the indigenous population was always a potential policy.

This is a story of men, machines (ships), and empires in contention. Its Southeast Asian focus reveals the early shift of wealth and power from Southern Europe to the Iberian seafaring states, and eventually to northern Europe via Southeast Asian trade.

This is a worthwhile read for those with a background in world economic and diplomatic history, particularly maritime commerce, who wish to understand why, in the 16th Century, China was the manufacturing center for European luxury goods, as it is today.

[History Today]

As we slide towards Earth’s sixth extinction event and look covetously towards planets endowed with precious rare metals, Roger Crowley’s new book should be required reading for those commanding future conquests of resource extraction. Written with the verve of a detective novel, Crowley charts a 16th-century version of the ‘moon shot’ to the fabled ‘Spice Islands’ of the Moluccas.

Then the sole known source of cloves, nutmeg, mace and sandalwood, trading profits on these rare but easily portable commodities could reach a thousand per cent. Such profits were the stuff of dreams, spawning a frenzy of map-making, schools of navigation, travel accounts, commercial espionage, state-sponsored exploration and oversight bodies, with Seville’s Casa de la Contratación de las Indias (established in 1503) leading the way. It would not last, but for a moment in the 16th century, buoyed by the silver of the New World, it would catapult Spain to superpower status.

Crowley’s book spans an action-packed 60 years, stretching from the Portuguese conquest of Malacca (Melaka) on 15 August 1511 to the Spanish conquistador Miguel López de Legazpi’s capture of Manila on 24 June 1571. Both provided secure bases for the Iberians in the Malay world and the Philippines thus ensuring them a temporary global advantage: ‘Whoever is Lord of Melaka has his hand on the throat of Venice’, as the astute Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires put it. The fact that both victories occurred on major Catholic feast days – the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist’s Day respectively – was not lost on the pious Iberians.

Read the rest of the review at HistoryToday.com.

Peter Carey is Fellow Emeritus of Trinity College, Oxford and former Adjunct Professor in Humanities at the University of Indonesia.

[Reece Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Really interesting, with great inserts from explores and ships logs. So intriguing and was easy to get hooked into a read-a-thon.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theme is a bit tenuous for some of the chapters, but good

[Julie Knudsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jeg prøvede. Guderne skal vide jeg prøvede. Men 183 sider inde giver jeg op - den her bog er SIMPELTHEN så kedelig. En lang uendelighed af datoer, navne og den samme elendighed igen og igen. Skrevet som fagbog, men med et twist af skønlitteratur så den formår at være lige dårlig til begge.

[Jaimie forsyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

fascinating, if at times pretty uncritical of European expansionism … call a spade a spade pls roger!

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A long, meandering narrative all intense descriptions of sea journeys over long miles of ocean.
Not descriptive about the Kings and Emperors who facilitated the adventures.
Interesting to learn about Import/ export on China over silver- changing the world economy. I had previously read of England's silver in the 12th and 13th centuries.
I may well read more off exactly Spain and Portugal policies towards each other.

[Emilio Minichiello · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.7 stars) A really amazing read, very fun and fast paced, it really reads like a novel. This is a book about the early Portuguese and Spanish missions to the spice islands in southeast asia, starting with Vasco de Gama and Columbus accidentally discovering the Americas, and then going on to Magellan and his successors. I learned a ton from this book. It totally fascinated me how the desire for spices from the rich, just a simple luxury item, which might be something like luxury cars or expensive handbags to us now, launched insane expeditions and completely changed history. We start off with the Portuguese conquering Malacca in India, though the author doesn’t go very deep into that, and I wish he did, and then going from there to the spice islands, the Moluccas. We learn a lot about the confusing relationship between Spain and Portugal at this time in history. There were significant tensions between the two empires, but their royalty were all related and kind to one another, leading to some really bizarre diplomacy, like the Tordesillas Line. We then follow the story of Magellan, who got sponsored by King Charles of Spain, who was trying to get to the spice islands by a different route than the Portuguese did around Africa, to avoid those military tensions and to hopefully find a shorter route. So he sails all the way to South America, finds a waterway near the very south and then sails through the Pacific ocean, finally arriving at the Moluccas after just about the most nightmarish trip that one could ever go on. Between mutinies, starvation, disease and violent feuds with indigenous peoples, most of Magellans crew died or ended up stranded on random islands in the Pacific. With the few people he has left, he finally arrives at his destination in the Moluccas only to get embroiled in local disputes between warlords. He moronically gets himself and a bunch of his followers killed in an extremely stupid battle with a local army. The story of Magellan is definitely the high point of this book, and a great reminder that people were always really dumb and short sighted. The rest of the book continues with further voyages and the development of Spain and Portugal. Overall an amazing book.

[Geir Ertzgaard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tenker det er mange som leser Erika Fatlands "Sjøfareren" nå, og det helt sikkert med god grunn. Jeg skal også lese den, men den handler om Portugal og Fatlands reise fra Lisboa til krydderøyene i Indonesia. Denne boken handler om krydder, men også om alt det andre som skjedde på 1500-tallet: Kampen mellom Spania og Portugal om handelsherredømme, oppdagelsen av sjørutene gjennom Stillehavet til det som i dager Filipinene og Indonesia, den er innom seilaser langs Norskekysten og inn i Hvitesjøen, egentlig om hele det storpolitiske handelsspillet om havene og kampen om markedene.
Jeg tror at du ikke får nok etter Sjøfareren. Da er det denne boka du skal gå til, for den er helt fabelaktig kunnskapsrik, informativ og samtidig like fabelaktig skrevet.

[Álvaro Fuentes Postigo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Libro interesante y recomendable para conocer la historia de la globalización. Se centra en los episodios que tuvieron lugar en el siglo XVI con los portugueses y españoles en su lucha por disponer de las islas de las especias. Asi mismo, se añade el viaje inglés hacia el norte con el objetivo de encontrar una nueva ruta comercial a oriente y lo que encontraron fue el Reino de Rusia. También, se pone de manifiesto la importancia del comercio en China y su relación con los países ibéricos.

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great narrative history by Roger Crowley. As in his previous books, it feels more like reading a story than history. Pivotal moments during Spanish and Portugese explorations are related in a flowing narrative supported by first hand accounts, giving life to this entire period of history and the people who drove it.

[Amanda Montoya · Rating 4 out of 5]

History is wild. Interesting to learn about my Spanish heritage (sorry, world) and Portuguese influence on Japan and other parts of the world (apologies again). Will bring a new level of appreciation to my next travels.

[Michael Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a riveting narrative history! It reminded me just how brutal, dangerous, greedy, and world-changing the Age of Exploration was. Thankfully, it isn’t the sanitized version of the explorers. It’s the more accurate version: ocean-spanning voyages, high death tolls, lots of greed, conspiracies and betrayals, and inhuman cruelty. In short, it’s about the pretty violent birth of the global economy.

Crowley really is a gifted narrative historian. The book reads like a novel at times but always stays tethered to historical reality. Storms, starvation, mutiny, shipwrecks, disease, political intrigue, naval warfare, they just keep coming. It made me realize how fragile these expeditions really were. Life at sea was horrifying. They died of exposure, malnutrition (those are maybe the most horrifying stories), infection, and exhaustion. Added to all that suffering were the ruthless captains and treachery among the expeditions themselves. It’s a wonder anyone survived; often none of them did.

Behind everything lurks greed. Everyone was willing to risk huge amounts of money and many human lives for control of spices we now buy for pennies. These luxury items unleashed so much suffering to obtain them.

The book deals honestly with the Europeans’ conduct toward native people: contempt, manipulation, coercion, or violence whenever they deemed it necessary. Sadly, the rhetoric Christianity was often used to hide their avarice. It was all very disheartening.

For me, the final chapters were most interesting as they mapped out the world-wide trade networks these voyages birthed. It’s like I could see the modern world coming into existence. This wasn’t just the story of a commodity (in fact it really wasn’t about the spices all that much); it’s the story of globalization and the devastation caused by human greed.

This is great narrative history. It really was gripping and at the same time unsettling.

[Peeter Talvistu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in Schiphol Airport (an outgrowth of the events in this book, I would say) because of the title.

I take away one star because this book is not really about spice. Sure, spice from the Spice Islands is the force that sets all the events of this book in motion, but overall this book is about exploration and trade. So, in a way, I felt somewhat cheated although the subtitle of the book clearly states the actual intent.

I'm also pretty sure that I have read many of the stories previously as a teenager when I would swallow books on these themes (fiction and non-fiction) in one sitting. Whole days spent on distant seas and mysterious islands...

The book does have many interesting ideas which I hadn't heard about before or at least that hadn't registered with me. For example, the reason why the English went northwards instead. Or the size of Potosi. And, of course, all the parallels of history with the main result of all the events described in this book: the modern world.

"Many of the cultures to which the Europeans travelled came to produce hybrid works of art: statues of the Madonna and child that look distinctly Chinese; carved ivory boxes from Sri Lanka that mixed Hindu deities with representations of European kings and images of Dürer; Portuguese nobles in palanquins in Goan art and their ambassadors in Mughal miniatures; Benin bronzes of crucifixes and European soldiers with muskets and crossbows; intricately carved ivory salt-cellars topped with Western sailing ships. The inventiveness of Chinese craftsmen, their ability to copy and adapt for markets, was already legendary."

Do read.

[Ian Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

We take a lot of things in our modern world for granted. One of those items is the spices we use in our foods, which were not always available in the mass quantities they are today. Cloves and nutmeg. Pepper and cinnamon. Their histories are filled with violence, colonization, slavery, and greed that many don’t realize or have given thought to.

Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World by Roger Crowley explores these problematic issues that European exploration and exploitation caused for native peoples all around the globe. It’s a sobering look at one of the many aspects of this time in history that shaped our modern world, for better or worse.

While the spice trade is at the forefront of the book’s discussion, Crowley delves deeper into the overarching effects the Spanish, Portuguese, and eventually the Dutch had on mapping and conquering global exploration and trade. The tales within are fascinating, cringe-inducing, heartbreaking, and mind-blowing, and most of those feelings are in the first few chapters!

It amazes me how arrogant these European explorers were and how they felt entitled to lands, islands, and goods that weren’t theirs to take ownership of. The push by many of these expeditions to convert native populations to Christianity and the bloody consequences for refusal to join the faith show a level of ignorance and arrogance that still resonates in our modern world centuries later. Even with these conflicts, the goals of these explorers were clear: seek out and exploit the natural resources on these distant shores for profit and power.

And as they gained a foothold in one part of the world, global competition intensified, with warring factions and countries fighting for supremacy in the trade wars. Stuck in the middle were the native tribes and their communities, who were taken advantage of, victimized, and exterminated in the name of God, global trade, and monetary glory. You’ll see some familiar names appear throughout the book, with fates worthy of applause.

Spice also offers an intriguing look at China and Japan during this era of exploration and at how they dealt with arrogant European explorers and their demands. Let’s just say the Chinese were not willing to acquiesce or capitulate to the demands or interests of these barbaric outsiders, and they made sure future explorers knew they weren’t going to play nice.

There’s so much to learn in a short time, and Roger Crowley delivers an excellent primer for anyone who wants to take their education about the spice trade and world exploration beyond the pages of Spice. This is an unflinching look at the centuries-long consequences and generational destruction unleashed by power-mad men motivated by profit and prestige.

Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World by Roger Crowley is a compelling and engaging read. I highly recommend it.

[Simeon Pickup · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was excellent. I've read three of Roger Crowley's books now (this, 1453 and Empires of the Sea) and it's the second-best of those (behind EotS). While it has similar strengths to that book, covering a broad period in an engaging yet detailed and revealing way, the momentum and zest of the narrative wasn't quite as compelling as that one. This is still a very good overview of a fascinating period and ticks two big criteria for me: I wish it were longer and I'm looking forward to finding out more about what was covered. Can't wait for Crowley's next book!

[Himasweeta Sarma · Rating 4 out of 5]

More than talking about the spices themselves, the book explored trade, economies and most importantly, how global connections were formed in the 16th century. I wish there was a chapter instead of a paragraph alone on how different cuisines were affected by this global trade but well. Never thought Japanese food was actually inspired by Portuguese frying techniques! The last chapter on "Destruction" was important. Period.

[Paul Doherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roger Crowley’s Spice sets out to chart the fierce 16th-century race for control over the lucrative spice trade — a global contest that linked empires, explorers, and merchants in an age of bold ambition and brutal conquest. While the subject is inherently fascinating, the book delivers a mixed experience: moments of gripping storytelling balanced by sections that feel rushed and unevenly developed.

The Magellan Chapter: A Standout Epic

The undisputed highlight of Spice is the chapter devoted to Ferdinand Magellan. Crowley slows down here, giving space to the sheer audacity of Magellan’s circumnavigation attempt — the months at sea, the unimaginable hardship rounding Cape Horn, and the iron determination that drove him to find a western route to the Spice Islands.

Crowley vividly describes how Magellan faced and overcame multiple mutinies from his own men, holding the expedition together through a mix of courage, ruthlessness, and unwavering conviction. The tension is palpable as the ships grope through the labyrinth of fjords at the tip of South America, uncertain whether a passage even exists. And when they are finally “spat out” into the vastness of the Pacific, the scale of their suffering becomes almost unimaginable. Many of the crew died from scurvy and starvation, yet Magellan pressed on, eventually reaching the Philippines.

Even by modern standards, it’s an awe-inspiring journey — a feat of endurance and leadership almost beyond belief. Crowley truly succeeds in making readers feel like part of Magellan’s crew, caught between despair and destiny. It’s easily the book’s most immersive and emotionally resonant section.

The Rest: Crowded Waters

Elsewhere, Spice moves at a far brisker pace. Crowley races through decades of exploration — from Portuguese dominance to Spanish and later Dutch incursions — often introducing new figures only to move on within a few pages. Captains die in mutinies, sailors are killed by islanders, expeditions vanish in storms. Death is ever-present, but treated almost casually — as if it were simply part of the geography of exploration.

That approach may reflect how life and risk were viewed at the time, yet it leaves the reader oddly detached from the human cost. The succession of short episodes — one explorer dies, another takes command, another voyage begins — creates a feeling of distance. It’s history told in snapshots rather than stories, and while it gives a sense of the sheer scale of maritime expansion, it also dilutes its emotional impact. The contrast with the fully realized Magellan narrative couldn’t be sharper.

A Missing Ingredient: The Value of Spice

Another weakness lies in the lack of attention to why the spice trade mattered so much. Crowley mentions nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon throughout, but rarely pauses to explore what they were used for, or why they commanded such extraordinary prices in Europe. A richer picture of how a 16th-century noble household prized and used these spices — as status symbols, medicines, or preservatives — would have grounded the story in human experience.

Only near the end does Crowley briefly note that these once-mythical luxuries now sit cheaply in every kitchen. It’s a fleeting reflection that hints at a far greater story — how taste, wealth, and empire intertwined to reshape the world. Without this color, the reader understands that the spice trade was vital, but not fully why.

A Fresh Lens Near the End

The penultimate chapter offers a welcome change in tone and structure. Crowley shifts to a broader, more analytical narrative, tracing how the spice trade evolved into the first wave of globalization. His depiction of the Manila–Acapulco galleon route — linking the silver of South America with Chinese porcelain and Asian spices — is particularly engaging. It’s one of the few points where the book pauses to show the grand interconnectedness that the earlier chapters only hint at, and it’s easily one of the most rewarding sections.

A Weak Finish

The final chapter, however, loses momentum. Crowley attempts to bridge the past and present by touching on topics like oceanic pollution and underwater shipwrecks — issues that, while important, feel disconnected from the book’s core narrative. The conclusion feels rushed and slightly misplaced, as though tacked on to provide modern relevance rather than closure.

Hints of Another Story

Throughout Spice, Crowley drops tantalizing hints about the Dutch VOC and their later domination of the trade routes, even referencing the opium trade with China. These asides feel like unfinished threads — perhaps groundwork for a future book — but here they only tease what could have been a richer ending.

Final Thoughts

Spice is rich in ambition and occasionally brilliant in execution, but uneven in pacing and focus. Crowley’s command of maritime history is unquestionable, yet his narrative sometimes sacrifices depth for breadth. When the storytelling slows down — as in the Magellan and globalization chapters — the book shines. But too often it sails past its own discoveries.

Verdict: Worth reading for the Magellan chapter and its sweeping view of early globalization, but it misses a golden opportunity to explore why spices mattered so much — and the human cost behind the pursuit of them.

[Mac · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bust.

Skips around a little too quickly and is very Spain-centric when it really should be Portuguese-centric, must have something to do with the sources available as we really follow Spain as the underdog of the story for a long time - not sure why.

Perhaps a good read for those with no previous bearing on the age of discovery (exploration). And while I understand the parallels, I am not a giant fan of drawing comparisons between the historic exploitation covered here to more modern examples as done so in the author’s covid inspired epilogue.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spicy.

[David Billow · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title implies a narrow focus, but it felt broad in execution. Crowley is always worthwhile though. Maybe 3.5.

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spice : The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World (2024) by Roger Crowley primarily describes the great voyages that navigated and then circumnavigated the world. Crowley writes about how those journeys reshaped the world and ushered in the first age of global trade.

The book describes the incredible journey of Magellan in great detail. It’s interesting to see how Magellan rounded the world. The treaty of Tordesillas divided the world into parts for the Portugese and parts for Spain. Magellan went from Spain to the Americas and then across the Pacific in part to try and show that some of the spice isles lay in the Spanish section of the world.

While the book is about the spice trade it also describes Potosi, a great silver mine that the Spanish mined. The mining was carried out by whoever the Spanish could get to do it. The silver that came from the Americas had a profound effect on the world. China used silver for currency and silver was worth twice as much in China as it was in Europe. China was a great manufacturer of silk and porcelain that could be purchased with silver and then traded to Europe. Spices could also be bought with silver and brought to Europe. For the first time there was substantial global trade.

Spice describes how this global trading came about via these incredible voyages of discovery. It’s a well written book that most people will learn something from.

[Nilesh Jasani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Most colonial history books tend to fixate heavily on the later achievements of the Dutch and the English. Readers often encounter passing references to Spanish and Portuguese expeditions from the 1500s. We recognize the names of great navigators but rarely understand the intricate details of their voyages or the geopolitical forces they unleashed. The book corrects this oversight in popular literature masterfully. This volume serves as an exceptional guide for anyone unfamiliar with the chaotic foundational events of early modern globalization.

The narrative centers on a sixty year period beginning in 1511. It chronicles a violent scramble for the Moluccas. These tiny volcanic islands in the Malay Archipelago were the sole source of cloves and nutmeg. The immense markup on these commodities drove early profit seeking ventures long before the formation of formal monopolistic trading firms like the East India Company. Men risked starvation, disease, and shipwreck for the chance to acquire unbelievable wealth. The book portrays this primitive capitalism vividly. One learns in great detail exactly how a simple desire for culinary luxuries launched fleets across uncharted oceans and sparked ruthless corporate espionage. The author provides sharp descriptions of the treacherous local geography, where colliding tectonic plates and active volcanoes created an environment as dangerous as the invading armadas.

One of the most gripping sections details Ferdinand Magellan and his fateful western voyage to circumvent Portuguese control. The descriptions excel in showing the sheer terror of early maritime exploration through mutinies, scurvy, and relentless storms when ships navigated the perilous straits at the southern tip of South America. Magellan himself was killed in the Philippines after disastrously intervening in a local dispute with the indigenous chieftain Lapulapu before the successor completed the first circumnavigation of the globe. The book makes it clear that this journey was not merely a scientific triumph. It fundamentally opened the Pacific theater to continuous European exploitation and connected isolated regions in ways that still resonate today. The interactions between the sailors and indigenous populations were marked by a volatile mixture of curiosity, betrayal, and catastrophic violence.

In ways rarely explained elsewhere, the early history was primarily around the intense rivalry between Spain and Portugal. After the Pope arbitrarily divided the undiscovered world between the two Catholic powers, a frantic race began to establish territorial claims. Portugal pushed eastward around the African cape to India and Malacca. Spain sailed westward to the Americas and across the Pacific void. The author explicitly links Iberian operations in Asia with their simultaneous conquests in the New World. Once Andres de Urdaneta discovered the elusive return route across the Pacific, known as the tornaviaje, a permanent global supply chain emerged. Silver mined by enslaved populations in the mountains of Potosi flowed from South America to Acapulco and then across the ocean on Manila galleons. This precious metal purchased Asian goods and satisfied immense Chinese demand, forever altering international trade dynamics and forging the first true global economy.

The Portuguese occupation of scattered strategic ports is another major theme carefully explored in the text. By seizing critical maritime chokepoints rather than attempting vast inland conquests, a tiny European nation exerted disproportionate influence over massive Asian empires. Multiple sections detail the diplomatic failures and triumphs of these early encounters. They recount the ill fated diplomatic mission of Tome Pires to Ming dynasty China, which ended in imprisonment and death due to massive cultural misunderstandings. Yet the Portuguese persisted through sheer stubbornness and superior naval artillery. They eventually secured a permanent foothold in Macau and opened lucrative trading relationships with Japan. These narrow colonial pockets disrupted local power structures, introduced firearms to new theaters of war, and altered the economic and political trajectories of East Asia for centuries.

The book also demonstrates how Iberian successes directly paved the way for later colonial superpowers. Spain and Portugal expended vast amounts of blood and treasure charting the oceans. Their intense competition mapped the winds, shoals, and currents of the entire globe. When the Dutch and the English eventually arrived on the scene in the following century, they utilized the geographic infrastructure and navigational knowledge forged by their predecessors to seize control. The book even includes a fascinating detour regarding English attempts to bypass the Iberian maritime monopoly entirely. Searching for an Arctic route to the Spice Islands, English sailors stumbled into the frozen north of Russia. This accidental discovery initiated trade with Muscovy and prompted the creation of the first joint stock enterprises. That financial innovation laid the corporate groundwork for the British Empire.

Readers will appreciate the rapid pacing of the chapters. The text does not waste time pondering abstract theories or engaging in dense academic debates. It moves swiftly from the bustling dockyards of Seville to the violent sieges in Southeast Asia. Spice is an absolutely essential read. It transforms a potentially dry subject into a relentless adventure story.

[Jackson Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

IRL Dune

[Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Roger Crowley’s Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World is, at its core, a drama about Spain’s stubborn determination to pry open a door that Portugal had carefully bolted shut. The Iberians divide the globe with papal confidence, Portugal rounds Africa, and Spain, unwilling to be relegated to spectator status, gambles westward across a Pacific that seemed less like an ocean and more like a theological test of endurance.

Crowley tells this story with his usual cinematic precision. The Spanish push to reach the Moluccas from the opposite direction, most famously through Ferdinand Magellan’s expedition under the Spanish crown, is rendered as high-stakes improvisation. Portugal holds the eastern highway. Spain attempts a transoceanic workaround. Empires maneuver, ships splinter, and the globe shrinks by inches of latitude.

Yet for all its narrative strength, the book might have benefited from a slightly wider historical aperture. Spain’s maritime audacity in the sixteenth century did not emerge in a vacuum. It followed directly on the heels of the 1492 conquest of Granada, the final removal of Muslim Moorish rule from the Iberian Peninsula under Ferdinand and Isabella. The consolidation of Spanish power after centuries of Reconquista provided more than religious satisfaction. It delivered political unity, fiscal consolidation, and a hardened military culture accustomed to existential struggle.

That same year, 1492, Columbus sailed. The coincidence is not trivial. A kingdom that had just completed a centuries-long campaign to reclaim its territory from Islamic rule was suddenly positioned, psychologically and materially, to project power outward. The expulsion of the Moors and the unification of Castile and Aragon did not merely close a chapter of Iberian history. They opened the possibility of imperial ambition.

Similarly, the 1453 fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, an event that sent shockwaves through European trade networks, sits quietly in the background of Crowley’s narrative. The Ottoman consolidation of eastern Mediterranean routes and the growing difficulty of accessing Asian goods through traditional channels created the strategic incentive for maritime alternatives. Portugal’s push around Africa and Spain’s westward gamble were not just expressions of curiosity or greed. They were responses to a shifting geopolitical landscape in which established land routes had become more expensive, more contested, and more politically fraught.

Crowley certainly understands this context, but he keeps his lens trained tightly on the sixteenth-century Spanish-Portuguese rivalry itself. The result is a gripping account of tactical maneuvering and imperial brinkmanship. Still, a more explicit linkage to the Reconquista’s aftermath and the Ottoman capture of Constantinople might have strengthened the argument implied in the subtitle. These were not just background events. They were enabling and motivating factors that shaped the strategic imagination of Iberian rulers.

In a sense, Spain’s attempt to work around Portugal was itself part of a larger pattern. Having completed the removal of Muslim rule at home, Spain turned outward into a world where Islamic powers still dominated key trade arteries. The maritime push toward the Orient can be read not only as commercial ambition but also as the continuation of a civilizational contest, now conducted on oceans rather than on the plains of Andalusia.

None of this diminishes the power of Crowley’s narrative. Spice remains a vivid, tightly constructed account of how Spain tried to break into an eastern market guarded by Portugal’s guns and papal paperwork. But by more directly foregrounding the recent consolidation of Spanish authority and the long shadow of Constantinople’s fall, the book might have more clearly illuminated why Spain was so determined, so well positioned, and so psychologically primed to challenge Portugal’s grip on the road to the East.

As it stands, the connections are there, waiting for the attentive reader to draw them. Crowley gives us the contest in exquisite detail. The deeper motivations, forged in Iberia’s recent past and the shock of Ottoman expansion, hover just beneath the surface, shaping the modern world almost as quietly as the spice trade itself.

[Ilham Bangun Asmoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Membaca buku dari Roger Crowley seperti anda mendengarkan cerita dari Kakek sebagai pengantar tidur. Dimana dalam bukunya menceritakan berbagai macam perjalanan para pelaut pemberani dalam rangka mengelilingi dunia dan menguasai jalur rempah. Dari pengalaman membaca buku Roger Crowley ini, 1453, Empire of the Sea, dan Rempah-rempah, Peta yang disajikan selalu menarik pembaca agar selalu melihat, memetakan secara detail lokasi mana saja peristiwa peristiwa penting yang dibahas dalam bukunya.
Kisah pertama kita akan mengetahui kisah dimana Kengerian, Bencana, Pengkhianatan dan Malapetaka Ekspedisi Ferdinand Magelhaens menuju pulau Maluku dalam rangka pencarian rempah dan mengelilingi dunia. Walau akhirnya ekspedisi kedua Magelhaens sebagai pelaut Spanyol gagal. Namun kita dapat Mengetahui pula bahwa Enrique de Malaca. Seorang pelaut dari Maluku sebagai juru bahasa yang mengikuti ekspedisi Magelhaens tersebut. Melalui Pigafetta, cerita ini sampai ke para pembaca buku ini. Dimana perjalanannya, melalui armada dan Wilayah Portugis dengan keadaan sekarat. Tak lupa pula Tomi Pires Pelaut Portugal yang harus mati ketika gagal menaklukkan China sebagai jajahan terbarunya setelah Malaka.
Kisah pelayaran Kedua spanyol yang gagal. Melalui Repatriasi dengan Portugis, Urdanetta menceritakan Ekspedisi dua dan Ketiga (dari Spanyol Baru) yang gagal. Kegagalan melintasi Benua Amerika dan Samudera Pasifik menambah kelam perjalanan selanjutnya dari Spanyol Baru (Argentina), Vilalobos yang akhirnya mati di Maluku.
Kisah dalam bab ketiga, yaitu Sebastian Cabot Mualim handal Spanyol membelot ke Inggris. Cabot menginstruksikan raja inggris untuk melalui rute utara yang berbeda dengan Spanyol dan Portugis (bangsa Iberia). Willoughby sebagai Kapten Chancellor sebagai mualim akhirnya gagal dan hanya mencapai Rusia. Kisah perantara Portugis dengan pedagang dinasti Ming dan kekaisaran Jepang, dimana Dinasti Ming mengembargo Jepang yang sarat perak, disatu sisi Jepang membutuhkan Sutra terbaik dari China. Makau menjadi Solusi bagi kondisi tersebut. Dan juga Kisah Spanyol dalam menaklukkan Manila di Filipina dan didukung oleh penemuan Gunung Perak, Potosi di Bolivia. Dengan penemuan Spanyol akan daerah tersebut. Lalu lintas Pelayaran Pasifik semakin menggeliat, walaupun kegagalan selalu mengintai mereka. Galiung - Galiung di buat dengan tonase beragam dan lebih besar untuk memenuhi hasrat manusia pada zaman itu, Sutra dan Porselen dari Tiongkok, Ribuan Ton perak dari Meksiko dan masih banyak lagi.
Dari Itu semua, penjelajahan kaum Barat melahirkan produk Kartografi, yang berguna bagi pelayaran selanjutnya. Dan kecanggihan teknologi senjata dan kapal menghadirkan produk awal kolonialisme bagi masyarakat Selatan dan Kejayaan bagi masyarakat utara.

[Ryan Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spice

14/2026.

“The pumpkin spice wars” seems like nonsense, but some 400 years ago great fortunes were staked on cloves and nutmeg. Lives were lost and legends were born. Global trade networks were created, then used to consolidate wealth and power in to the hands of a few.

There’s a linkage between trade and conquest here that persists to this day. When we deal with scarce resources - in my world it’s radio spectrum - we see attempts to monopolize access to markets or to redraw longstanding boundaries to favor one side over another. Instead of equitable access, avarice and domination emerge. It never ends well. Private actors use nation-state powers to get traction and dominance and then ditch them to seek their own fortunes; Magellan and others wanted to create their own kingdoms in the pacific; doubtless today’s state-backed billionaires think similarly.

This linkage, of trade and conquest in turn always seem to exploit human labor and environmental resources. Roger Crowley gives us a stark reminder of the human and environmental cost of European expansion in the 16th and 17th centuries. Every time you see a Dutch Canal, a golden dome on a church in Spain, or a historic street in Lisbon, you’re seeing stolen labor and resources that were the result of the political consolidation and willful subjugation of the world by Europeans at this time. It’s no mere coincidence that the extinction of various species came along with the expansion of European powers (the dodo).

On the back of spices came the sugar trade, and its insatiable appetite for human bodies that created the conditions to traffic, sell, rape and kill millions of African people over 400 years.

This book is narrative non-fiction at its finest. It’s well resourced and leverages disparate accounts and the author’s insights to create a vibrant tapestry. It flows and makes clear how all the pieces fit. Rather than dwell on dates, it captures movements.

The story begins with Magellan’s ill fated but historic quest to circumnavigate- turns out he went halfway around the world for spices, died there and a small fraction of his men made it back. Later the Spanish tried to seize the spice islands from the Portuguese. Meanwhile, China saw all this as an incursion to their sphere of influence. The stage was set for bitter conflict.

It shows nicely how the oceans united, not divided, the parts of each empire: Spain could only hold the Philippines by launching from mexico; Portugal went around Africa and to Goa on its way to the Moluccas. Spain used its silver mines in Potosi to trade with China; Portugal launched missions to Macau from India.