角川まんが学習シリーズ 世界の歴史 7 ひとつながりになる世界 一四〇〇~一六〇〇年

角川まんが学習シリーズ 世界の歴史 #7

by 羽田 正

ヨーロッパの人々が、海を越えてその活動範囲を大きく広げました。彼らはこの時期に南北アメリカ大陸の存在を知り、喜望峰経由のインド航路、世界一周の航路を発見しました。南北アメリカ大陸の多くの土地が、スペイン人、ポルトガル人によって征服、植民地化されました。ポルトガル人は、アジアの海に次々と交易の拠点を築き、日本にまでやって来ます。彼らの活動によって世界は大きく変化してゆきます。

Tankobon Hardcover

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume starts with the intriguing, hundred year struggle of the Ming Dynasty against illegal traders and pirates, and the flourishing of inter-Asian trade, and then, even better, moves on to the Renaissance and the Reformation (put the protest back in Protestant, baby!). But this history eventually turns to European royalty and explorers, and it ultimately delivers a darker message from the past.

For example, I did not know that the Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama (that’s him on the cover) was such a royal prick. He comes across as a horrible person in this telling, amazingly making it around the Cape of Good Hope, and then being shocked by all the wealth in Calcutta and vowing to come back and take it all by force. Which he then does, leading a Portuguese fleet to kill and pillage, destroying hundreds of years of peaceful ocean going trade from Africa to Southeast Asia, and thousands, if not tens of thousands, of peaceful peoples’ livelihood. And for what? Money. What a bad, bad person. That part of the story closes with the foreshadowing of what is coming to India after Portugal—the sails of the Dutch and the English on the horizon. Oh FFS.

And then, when you think you are now going to get a break from all this violence and thievery, right on que, Ferdinand and Isabella kick all of the Jews and Muslims out of Iberia, and Columbus sets sail for India with the Jesuits in tow, with Cortez and Pizarro waiting in the wings.… Oh… no.