Indonesia in The Lusiads
<p>If you ask me, the sixteenth century was when it all changed. The two hemispheres came together in the worst possible way, with destruction and death on an unprecedented scale. A European scourge swept the globe: For the first time European (mostly Iberian) armies marched in Malaysia and Mexico and, assisted by germs and disease and enabled by alliances with short-sighted local powers, Europeans came to dominate vast swathes of the Earth whose peoples had before that point not even <em>heard </em>of Europe. The processes initiated by this global proto-colonial Europeanisation are usually referred to rather bloodlessly as ‘the Columbian Exchange’. What I am interested in, as I have striven to make clear repeatedly on this blog, is the world <em>before</em> this all happened — not necessarily a better world but certainly a different and less European one.</p>
<p><a href="https://indomedieval.medium.com/indonesia-in-the-lusiads-7f3cbf075234"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>