“Spain’s colonization of the East Indies transformed the relationship between Europe and Asia. For 1,600 years, Europeans and desiring Asian goods could only purchase commodities that passed from merchant to merchant along 6,000 kilometers of the Silk Road, a trade network that linked China to Southern Europe and North Africa. This path closed in 1453, after the Ottoman Turks took Constantinople, making Europe’s ongoing search for a sea link to Asia more urgent than ever.”
Bob Pateman, Writer
At the height of New Spain, Acapulco became the first true global trade hub, thanks to a little help from some old Chinese ships the Phillipines and natural geography.
Daniel Defoe’s iconic literary creation may have been fictional, but the real Crusoe was a privateer who sailed the seas of Mexico.
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When Europe was building grand cathedrals and forging empires, what was going on in the New World?
