Christopher Columbus and the Genesis of New World Colonialism, 1493–96

Continuing the precious, innovative reading of the Colombian experience of the previous two books, Al Rocca dedicates himself here to the critical analysis of the Second Voyage, a voyage that at the beginning involved more than a thousand Spaniards who had enlisted, but also Columbus had imagined easy and decisive, and that instead upon arrival in the Nuovo Mondo (New World) had revealed itself to be full of pitfalls and obstacles.

What distinguishes this book from others that deal with the same subject is the fact that, in addition to telling the story of the voyage clearly and, as usual, with the help of beautiful geographical maps, it reconstructs the geographical environment, both physical and human, through the eyes of Columbus: an environment that, with the passing of time, reveals itself to be increasingly different from his expectations and difficult to understand and interpret.

Professor Ilaria Caraci