Ever since Christopher Columbus stepped off the Santa Maria and announced that he had arrived in the Orient; the Caribbean has been a stage for projected fantasies and competition between world powers. In Empire’s Crossroads; historian Carrie Gibson offers a vivid; panoramic view of this complex region and its rich; important history.That fateful landing in 1492 soon launched a savage competition for West Indian territory that would last centuries. Gibson compellingly traces the ups and downs of European imperial expansion—including the first cash crops; failed settlements; and pirating on the open seas—but she also brilliantly describes daily life on the islands. Creole societies complicated traditional ideas about class and race; and by the end of the eighteenth century; plantation slaves in Saint-Domingue had launched the Haitian Revolution; the world’s only successful slave revolt. As European control of the Caribbean loosened over the next 150 years; America was on the rise; ushering in a new era of foreign influence and the birth of the tourism industry that still thrives today. Incredibly multi-faceted and approachably written; Empire’s Crossroads encompasses the narratives of more than twenty islands and reinterprets five centuries of history have been underappreciated for far too long.
#4023116 in Books 2006-03-23Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .93 x 6.00l; 1.16 #File Name: 0801883229288 pages
Review
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Between Christians and MoriscosBy J.W.Benjamin Ehlers studies the Moriscos of Valencia and their failure to assimilate into popular and religious culture. He relies heavily on the records kept by the Spanish Inquisition. He concludes by stating that the Moriscos of Spain "adopted practices such as regular confession when necessary but continued the beliefs of their ancestors in private." The problem with this lies in the records themselves. The Inquisition documents are inherently bias; representing Moriscos who are on trial for not being converted to Christianity and continuing the practice of being a Muslim. When those are the primary records examined;I suppose he reaches a logical conclusion.
