Histories of European expansion are now two a penny, but these are two of the best. They both end at about the same date, but Scammell’s has a wider range and a longer time span. He has four chapters on, respectively, the Norse, the Hanse, the Venetians, and the Genoese, before grappling with the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English, and French oceanic empires, with which Parry is exclusively concerned.
The Age of Reconnaissance was first published in 1963, and was instantly recognized as a classic. It is pertinent to inquire into how far this new edition is a revised one. The author claimed in his preface (dated July 1981): “The text of this edition has been extensively revised, to take account of new work, and to reflect my own changes of mind during that period” (p. vii). This claim cannot be substantiated. I have compared both editions page by page. Over nine-tenths of the 1981 edition could be a photo-offset reprint of the 1963 edition. Such trifling alterations as there are, are limited to passing allusions to the “Vinland map” and to the ongoing Vespucci controversy. Most of the factual errors pointed out by Charles Nowell in his review of the first edition (HAHR, Aug. 1964, pp. 402-404) remained uncorrected. They include the tenth parallel north being drawn where the equator should be on the map of the East Indies at the end of the book. Nor has the bibliography, as reflected in the notes to the text and in the “Notes for further reading,” been brought up to date. Long outdated works on Spanish America still remain, with no mention being made of more authoritative books, such as James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, 1532-60: A Colonial Society (Madison, 1968), and John Hemming, The Conquest of the Incas (New York, 1970). On the other side of the world, M. H. M. Vlekke, Nusantara: A History of the East-Indian Archipelago (Cambridge, Mass., 1944) is retained as the main secondary source; whereas for the period with which Parry deals, it was replaced twenty years ago by M. A. P. Meilink-Rodofsz, Asian Trade and European Influence in the Indonesian Archipelago between 1500 and about 1630 (The Hague, 1962). Similarly, Fernand Braudel, La Mediterranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II, is cited in the original one-volume edition of 1949, instead of in the heavily revised and expanded two-volume French edition (1966), or in the excellent English translation by Siân Reynolds (London, 1972-73). The innovative and densely documented (albeit, alas, unindexed) works by V. Magalhães Godinho on Portuguese expansion have not been used; whereas the hopelessly outdated The Portuguese Pioneers (London, 1933) by the late Professor Edgar Prestage is cited as an up-to-date authority. The work done by the Dutch colonial historians (W. H. Coolhaas et al.) since 1963 has been totally ignored. Last but not least, the cheeseparing publishers have reduced the number of illustrations from thirty-two to nine, and they have not deigned to list them in the contents (they will be found between pages 176 and 177). The author’s “Conclusion” is identical in both editions, and does not reflect his alleged “changes of mind.”
Parry and Scammell are both practical mariners, fond of “messing about in small boats.” Hence they are equally good at describing the mariner’s “art, craft, and mystery,” and at explaining technical developments in ships, shipbuilding, and navigation in clear and concise language. Both are equally adept in evaluating and comparing the long oceanic voyages, typified by the Portuguese carreira da India and by the Spanish carrera de Indias.
Scammell has much of interest to say about the Norse, the Hanse, and the Italian precursors of the Iberians, which will be new to many readers of the HAHR, as it was to this reviewer. In dealing with Iberian overseas expansion, he emphasizes the extent to which Portuguese and Spaniards relied on their indigenous allies and auxiliaries, as pointed out by João de Barros in 1552 and by the Jesuit José de Acosta in 1590. His discussion of the roles of the Spanish conquistadores, settlers, and bureaucrats in America is sound and sensible, if not particularly new. After weighing up the strengths and weaknesses of the Spanish colonial administration, he observes: “Spain’s administrative shortcomings are self-evident. Nevertheless, royal policies were in some measure enforced, much of the wealth of the Indies was at the disposal of Spain’s rulers, and their major European rivals were effectively excluded from the Spanish Americas” (p. 349). Perhaps one may enter a caveat here on the Dutch occupation of Curaçao in 1634, when the island became a major center for contraband trade, and the close and cordial cooperation (including sexual unions) between Calvinists and Caribs on the neighboring mainland. Maybe he does insufficient justice to the Jesuit missions of New France, in comparison with his fuller treatment of the Iberian missions “from China to Peru,” but these are quibbles that do not detract from his masterly handling of major themes. These include the slowness of many educated Europeans to absorb (without distorting) the new facts about alien societies, and the role of European technology in overseas expansion and exploitation. He is equally at home in Spanish America and in Portuguese Asia. The World Encompassed is just that; and it is written in compulsively readable prose, enlivened by many penetrating asides and illuminating insights. Unfortunately, his printer and publisher have let him down badly. The book is liberally peppered with misprints, missing words, and typographical errors. These can all be remedied in the future paperback edition, for which there will surely be a call.
