Portuguese Conquests in Asia and the First Global Empire

"Had there been more of the world they would have discovered it," wrote Portuguese explorer Luís de Camões.

Crowley is out to challenge the primacy of Columbus and the Spanish discovery of the Americas in contemporary Western history. The age of exploration was a European endeavor but particularly an Iberian one. The Portuguese explorers were the ones who did the bulk of the discovering. Moreover, Crowley says Portuguese swashbuckling managed to penetrate into the heart of Asia and dominate trade in the region. The Portuguese, in a matter of years, had created the first Western-dominated world empire since Alexander the Great. Their achievement was the first salvo in the turbulent rise of the West since the 15th century.