"From the author of 1491--the best-selling study of the pre-Columbian Americas--a deeply engaging new history that explores the most momentous biological event since the death of the dinosaurs. More than 200 million years ago, geological forces split apart the continents. Isolated from each other, the two halves of the world developed totally different suites of plants and animals. Columbus's voyages brought them back together--and marked the beginning...

Chronicles the life, voyages, and discoveries of the intrepid explorer.

"In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed across the ocean and discovered America. Right? Wrong! Columbus never actually set foot in what is now the United States. His voyages took him to islands in the Caribbean and along the coast of South America. The truth is, when Columbus first arrived, Indigenous peoples, including the Taino, had been living there for thousands of years, raising their families, running their societies, and trading with their neighbors....

The author chronicles the details involving the last known voyage of explorer Christopher Columbus in 1500 and his attempts to regain his credibility after he had fallen into disgrace.

The true story of Christopher Columbus was not only one of victorious discovery, it was marked by disaster, accusation, and betrayal. Ten short years after his discovery of the New World, Columbus languished in a Caribbean prison. There, awaiting the gallows, he plotted what he called his 'most treacherous' voyage - one that ended with the loss of all four of his ships and left Columbus and his crew shipwrecked with little hope of survival.

"When the Inquisition comes, Luis joins a sailing expedition to explore new worlds with only his faith, his wits, and a silver hamsa for protection"--

In 1492, the Jewish and Muslim populations of Spain were expelled, and Columbus set sail for America. Luis de Torres, a Spanish Jew, accompanies Columbus as his interpreter. His journey is only the beginning of a long migration, across many generations. Over the centuries, de Torres' descendants travel from Spain and Portugal to Mexico, finally settling in the hills of New Mexico. Five hundred years later, it is in these same hills that Miguel Torres,...

"1493 for Young People by Charles C. Mann tells the gripping story of globalization through travel, trade, colonization, and migration from its beginnings in the fifteenth century to the present. How did the lowly potato plant feed the poor across Europe and then cause the deaths of millions? How did the rubber plant enable industrialization? What is the connection between malaria, slavery, and the outcome of the American Revolution? How did the fabled...