Conquerors

How Portugal Seized the Indian Ocean and Forged the First Global Empire

By: Roger Crowley

Narrated by: John Sackville

As remarkable as Columbus and the conquistador expeditions, the history of Portuguese exploration is now almost forgotten.

But Portugal's navigators cracked the code of the Atlantic winds, launched the expedition of Vasco da Gama to India and beat the Spanish to the spice kingdoms of the East - then set about creating the first long-range maritime empire.

In an astonishing blitz of 30 years, a handful of visionary and utterly ruthless empire builders, with few resources but breathtaking ambition, attempted to seize the Indian Ocean, destroy Islam and take control of world trade.

Told with Roger Crowley's customary skill and verve, this is narrative history at its most vivid - an epic tale of navigation, trade and technology, money and religious zealotry, political diplomacy and espionage, sea battles and shipwrecks, endurance, courage and terrifying brutality.

Drawing on extensive firsthand accounts, it brings to life the exploits of an extraordinary band of conquerors - men such as Afonso de Albuquerque, the first European since Alexander the Great to found an Asian empire - who set in motion 500 years of European colonisation and unleashed the forces of globalisation.

Roger Crowley read English at Cambridge. He has had a varied career as a teacher and publisher and is the author of three books on the history of the Mediterranean. He lives in Gloucestershire and now writes full time.

©2015 Roger Crowley (P)2015 Audible, Ltd

More Roger Crowley please Audible

I try not to give many 5 star ratings but this was an excellent history and deserving of one. It was engaging in both content and narration. I had previously read about the famous voyage of Vasco da Gama to India and the decades of preparation that lead up to it but knew nothing of the aftermath. This book covers the journeys of Dias and Gama etc. as well as the immediate decades after. I found this fascinating and a topic I'll definitely read more about. Hopefully we'll see more Roger Crowley works appear on Audible.

Master writer + Master Narrator! not to be missed

I did not expect the book to be this good. The narrator, John Sackville is really really gifted I think. The perfect pace, pauses, and emotion that he put in is just breathtaking. The writer as well is truly gifted and covers so much important ground in really interesting and articulate manner. Thanks truly to the narrator, this experience was better than a movie.

John Sackville, please narrate more books.
one of the most well spoken Narrator on Audible

All the details I never knew

Awesome account of the pioneer Portuguese explorers. Impeccable research. The writing is captivating and I never was bored. I'm planning on reading other books by this author.

a great narrative on the dawn of the Portuguese Empire

I was really taken by this history. told in a listener friendly narrative format a bit like Shelby foot. you get a real sense of the immense task and burden these men took on that might get swept away in other works.