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The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies by Nicolas Wey Gomez (Hardcover, 2008)

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A radical revision of the geographical history of the discovery of the Americas that links Columbus's southbound route with colonialism, slavery, and today's divide between the industrialized North and the developing South. Everyone knows that in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed west across the Atlantic, seeking a new route to the East. Few note, however, that Columbus's intention was also to sail south, to the tropics. In The Tropics of Empire, Nicolas Wey Gomez rewrites the geographical history of the discovery of the Americas, casting it as part of Europe's reawakening to the natural and human resources of the South. Wey Gomez shows that Columbus shared in a scientific and technical tradition that linked terrestrial latitude to the nature of places, and that he drew a highly consequential distinction between the higher, cooler latitudes of Mediterranean Europe and the globe's lower, hotter latitudes. The legacy of Columbus's assumptions, Wey Gomez contends, ranges from colonialism and slavery in the early Caribbean to the present divide between the industrialized North and the developing South. This distinction between North and South allowed Columbus to believe not only that he was heading toward the largest and richest lands on the globe but also that the people he would encounter there were bound to possess a nature (whether childish or monstrous ) that seemed to justify rendering them Europe's subjects or slaves. The political lessons Columbus drew from this distinction provided legitimacy to a process of territorial expansion that was increasingly being construed as the discovery of the vast and unexpectedly productive torrid zone. The Tropics of Empire investigates the complicated nexus between place and colonialism in Columbus's invention of the American tropics. It tells the story of a culture intent on remaining the moral center of an expanding geography that was slowly relegating Europe to the northern fringe of the globe. Wey Gomez draws on sources that include official debates over Columbus's proposal to the Spanish crown, Columbus's own writings and annotations, and accounts by early biographers. The Tropics of Empire is illustrated by color reproductions of period maps that make vivid the geographical conceptions of Columbus and his contemporaries.

Product Identifiers

Publisher
MIT Press Ltd
ISBN-13
9780262232647
eBay Product ID (ePID)
95823258

Product Key Features

Author
Nicolas Wey Gomez
Publication Name
The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies
Format
Hardcover
Language
English
Subject
Geography & Geosciences, History
Publication Year
2008
Type
Textbook
Number of Pages
616 Pages

Dimensions

Item Height
229mm
Item Width
203mm
Item Weight
2517g

Additional Product Features

Title_Author
Nicolas Wey Gomez
Series Title
Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology
Country/Region of Manufacture
United States

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The Tropics of Empire: Why Columbus Sailed South to the Indies by Nicolas Wey Gomez (Hardcover, 2008)

About this product

Product Information

Product Identifiers

Product Key Features

Dimensions

Additional Product Features

Best Selling in Adult Learning & University

Time Management by Peter Quarry (Paperback, 1986)

Thunder of Hooves: A History of 12 Light Horse Regiment 1915-1919 by Kenneth Hollis (Hardcover, 2008)

Polyvagal Exercises for Safety and Connection: 50 Client-Centered Practices by Deb Dana (Paperback, 2020)

Save on Adult Learning & University

Bill Perkins Die With Zero (Paperback)

Ford Falcon EF EL / Fairlane NF NL 1994 - 1998 Workshop Manual

NEW Netter Atlas of Human Anatomy By Frank H. Netter Paperback Free Shipping

Sapiens By Yuval Noah Harari

It's Not You: How to Identify and Heal from NARCISSISTIC People by Ramani Durvas

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