The Age of Reconnaissance: Discovery, Exploration, and Settlement, 1450-1650

by John H. Parry

Book Overview

The Age of Reconnaissance, as J. H. Parry has so aptly named it, was the period during which Europe discovered the rest of the world. It began with Henry the Navigator and the Portuguese voyages in the mid-fifteenth century and ended 250 years later when the "Reconnaissance" was all but complete. Dr. Parry examines the inducements-political, economic, religious-to overseas enterprises at the time, and analyzes the nature and problems of the various...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520042352
• ISBN13: 9780520042353
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Meat for the serious history reader

I found this book because of the favorable review it got in the American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature. It is definitely a serious academic work (published by University of California Press) but accessible to the general reader. It makes no attempt to offer interesting anecdotes or historical tidbits but gives an insightful look at early European voyages of "discovery, exploration, and settlement" through 1650. Part I details the technological, social, political, and economic factors that led to the explosion of Europe onto the world scene with lots of space being dedicated to technologies of sailing, mapping, navigation and (not least of all) fighting. The second part is straight narrative outlining the history of the voyages themselves with a chapter for each destination region: Africa and the Indian Ocean, Atlantic and South Sea, America, etc... The final part discusses the empires of each of the European powers in turn: Spain, Portugal and Holland. There are also comparative chapters outlining differences in administration and economies between the empires.