Two manuscripts in one book:

• The Conquistadors: A Captivating Guide to the Spanish Explorers, Conquest of the Americas, Cultural Exchange, and Legacy
• The Columbian Exchange: A Captivating Guide to the Transatlantic Transfer of People, Plants, Animals, Ideas, Resources, and More Between the Americas and Europe

In the early 16th century, Spanish adventurers swarmed over the islands of the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, and South America. Portuguese explorers and merchants pushed into the Indian Ocean and beyond to the Spice Islands of the South Pacific. The names of the leaders of these overseas conquests are well known: Hernán Cortés, Francisco Pizarro, Hernando de Soto, Afonso de Albuquerque, and Ferdinand Magellan. What this book explores is the details of their incredible lives in service of their monarchs and personal wealth.

In the first part of this book, you will discover the following:

• How the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean was used as a jumping-off point for Spanish expeditions;
• The details of many failed and few successful Spanish expeditions to settle the lands around the Caribbean;
• How the Portuguese came to dominate Brazil;
• Why the Portuguese dominated trade in the East;
• How Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs and defeated his Spanish rival for control of Mexico;
• Why Pizzaro met an untimely death after conquering the Incas.

Discover how the Old World of Eurasia and Africa began a monumentally important exchange of people, ideas, crops, animals, and diseases that changed history and humanity forever. This extended stitching together of the two hemispheres is called the Columbian Exchange.

In the second part of this book, you will learn about the following:

• Japanese samurai who guarded silver shipments in Mexico in the 1600s;
• Catarina de San Juan, who began life as a Muslim girl in India and ended as a popular saint in Mexico;
• The immense amount of silver from Peru and Mexico, which fueled Spain's Golden Century and led to repeated bankruptcy;
• American chili peppers giving some heat to cuisines from Hungary to Korea;
• Crops domesticated by indigenous Americans enabling China to double its population;
• Disease from the Americas making millions of Europeans miserable, including Henry VIII, Casanova, Ivan the Terrible, and Beethoven;
• The annual Manila Galleons from Acapulco to the Philippines creating the first global economy;
• How Potosi, the richest silver mine in the world, became the biggest and most violent city in the Spanish Empire;
• Rootstock from American grapes saving the French wine industry;
• And so much more!