Maritime histories are a genre I enjoy-these explorations are responsible for the state of the world as it is today, for good or bad. This book is an excellent addition to this genre.
It's the 16th Century. The Spanish and Portuguese Empires are at their heights and in fierce competition. They've carved up the lands across the Atlantic Ocean between themselves in the Treaty of Tordesillas, a deal that Spain isn't too happy with, since an effective trade route is blocked off, from the resource rich countries of the Orient. Exploration is getting more scientific, navigators are tabulating their observations and increasing a base of measurements, all carefully pored over by astronomers and mathematicians in their home countries. You could control the world if you mastered the seas, and like the Space Race centuries later, the race to conquer the oceans led to major scientific breakthroughs in measurement, navigation, mathematics, with trigonometry and logarithms developed to aid navigations, mapping the oceans themselves, and oceanic currents. The last uncharted expanse was the Pacific.
This is one of those books where just the foreword, and the footnotes alone are so beautifully written that they're worth the book. Resendez's incredible foreword takes the reader right from the formation of the oceans, and traces evolution, early migrations across the seas and how those affected the land and life on it, through oceanic travels in antiquity, right up to the beginning of the 16th Century, and excellently contextualises the exploration of the South Sea and just how difficult it was. The book goes on to describe the expeditions of Columbus and Magellan, and gives you a proper perspective of what they actually were trying to achieve, beyond the usual "stumbled upon America" and "circumnavigated the world". The main expedition he focuses on, was one to complete the "vuelta"-the hitherto unachieved accomplishment of crossing the Pacific Ocean, reaching China ,and then returning across the Ocean. The need for this was because having colonised the Philippines, the Portuguese attacked any Spanish ships that made it there, and continued to attack them all the way through the Indian Ocean. A flotilla of 3 ships was equipped, and their experiences form the rest of the book. The cast of (real-life)characters who people the book area absolutely fascinating-explorer-soldier turned monk Urdaneta, and genius astronomer/pilot/navigator Lope Martin.
Apart from working as an absolutely thrilling, page-turning adventure story that happens to be real, the book gives you an excellent perspective of how international trade developed, and everything that went into it-the politics, the finances, the slave trade, the incremental and painstaking process of observations, documentation and refining those to develop charts. This should be on all the best non fiction lists of 2021!

Many historic firsts fly under the radar. It's well known that Magellan's expedition crossed the Pacific Ocean as part of it's circumnavigation of the world. It's less well known that Spain was eager to find how to cross that ocean in both directions. Twice their ships had sailed from Mexico to the Philippines, but hadn't found a way to return from west to east. Andres Resendez has written the story of their next effort. It began in secret and had a cinematic end. Along the way he explains the challenges of such an attempt, from the state of navigation to the politics of the day and tensions among the personalities involved. Resendez finds the Pilot Lope Martin to be central to the story, but several other characters are of importance also. It's quite a story and well written. There are maps, diagrams and illustrations throughout. (The Advanced copy ebook I had didn't show most in their entirety, but they are most welcome to a reader like me.) There are also extensive notes.

There aren't that many good books on the subject, which is disappointing. That's why this title comes on time. I liked the approach of showing why the Pacific is important and what place it occupies in the minds of people, but also in the history of our planet. Exceptional range of data, including the history of exploring the area - I'm glad I read the book.

One great desire of the sixteenth century was to find a faster passage to Asia in hopes of dominating the European trade of exotic spices and goods. Ferdinand Magellan and his men made significant inroads in accomplishing this when they circumnavigated the world for Spain, but this accomplishment created a dilemma. That journey took about two years to accomplish and only eighteen of the original 270 voyagers make it home. Surely, with all her American colonies, there had to be a way to greatly shorten this timeframe and the Spanish king was determined to find the elusive pieces to the puzzle that would allow his galleons to travel from the East Indies to Mexico, where the cargoes could be offloaded, shipped across to the east coast, and embarked on galleons bound for Spain.

The dilemma sounds easy to solve, but at the time, no European knows where to find the winds and currents that will allow ships to sail from west to east. The Pacific Ocean complicates this because it is so vast that it can accommodate every continent and island the world has if gathered together in one spot. Or, if one is foolhardy enough to swim across this blue expanse from one continent to another, it will take fantastical luck and a swimmer willing to go twenty-hours a day, every day for six months to accomplish the feat.

Conquering the Pacific is the story of finding this west-east route, how it was accomplished, who was involved, and what the aftermath of opening this passage meant for the men involved and for future generations. In 1557, a cluster of ramshackle abodes dotted the landscape near a lagoon and bay on the west coast of Mexico. Secluded Navidad is a good place to build in secret, yet its remoteness makes it a logistical nightmare for getting necessary supplies and people there and the location isn’t the healthiest. Don Luis de Velasco, the viceroy of Mexico, is tasked with carrying out King Felipe II’s plan. It’s a monumental undertaking for someone with no nautical expertise; nor is he without faults. Two men, both of whom have crossed the Pacific Ocean prior to this endeavor, serve as advisors: Juan Pablo de Carrión, a resourceful and legendary adventurer, and Friar Andrés de Urdaneta, once an explorer with firsthand navigational experience and now a priest. They don’t see eye-to-eye on many points, especially when it comes to the route that will be followed. Carrión suggests the Philippines, which lies on the same latitude as Mexico, but Urdaneta favors a more southern course to land at New Guinea. And who will command this expedition? The viceroy favors neither of these men, choosing instead Miguel López de Legazpi, a scribe in charge of accountants at the Minting House in Mexico City. He’s not an explorer and has no navigational knowledge. To further complicate matters, a royal emissary investigating the viceroy’s excesses and the members of the ruling Audiencia get involved.

Finally, in the fall of 1564, the two galleons built at Navidad – 500-ton San Pedro and 400-ton San Pablo – are ready to set sail. Two other vessels complete the fleet, the San Juan, which carries forty people, and the San Lucas, a tender capable of carrying half that number. The expedition consists of 380 handpicked men of different class, nationality, and race with a variety of occupational skills. Among them is an Afro-Portuguese man named Lope Martín, an extraordinary man, skilled in mathematics, astronomy, and cartography, who is a licensed pilot. His job is to guide the San Lucas from Navidad to the East Indies and back again. All goes according to plan until the Audiencia’s secret orders are revealed and Legazpi orders the San Lucas to scout ahead of the fleet.

Reséndez weaves a fascinating account of who became the first to find the west-east transpacific route. It devolves into a race marked by human and natural hazards, exotic locales, unfamiliar customs, tenuous relations between islanders and crews, short supplies, mutinies, maroonings, and accusations of embezzlement, treason, and murder. Scientific theory and concepts are explained in easily understood language with modern-day examples readers will comprehend. He also discusses how Spain and Portugal come to “own” the lands outside of Europe, as well as how this causes a dilemma regarding ownership of the Philippines, the history of navigation, and what knowledge pilots need to go from point A to B. Twenty-five maps are strategically placed throughout the book. Also included are twenty-two illustrations, a note about dates and measurements, end notes, and an analytical index. (The last was not available for viewing in the galley I previewed.) Highly recommended for any maritime history collection that deals with the ages of exploration and sail.

Many histories have been written about the exploration and colonization of the Pacific islands/region and this one is extremely brilliant. Resendez does an amazing job of telling the story of those who literally mapped out the Pacific for colonization and exploration. The historical scholarship is enthralling and the geographic details are deeply exquisite.

nonfiction, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history-and-culture****

I requested and received a free temporary copy from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt via NetGalley. BUT. It was only available to the app on the phone screen and although I was able to only read about 25% in this manner due to vision issues, it seemed like an unusually good Publish or Perish. Written in a style that was engaging and informative, I really wish that I could have read the whole book without distress. The print copy should be well worth it whether the reader is of Spanish heritage or not. Hoping it comes out in large print.

I was not able to download this book on my Kindle. It looks interesting but I have not read this book. So sorry!

I had to read this on the small screen of my cellphone on the Netgalley shelf app, so that was kind of annoying BUT this book is full of so much intrigue and wonder that it did not bother me too much. I felt like I was there and this is a book of nonfiction! You can tell the author did a lot of careful research for this book and the effort shows. Very well written and I love when nonfiction reads like a novel.

Recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley, Andres Resendez and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 9/14/21

This book is full of so many interesting historical details that I kept going online for images, maps and 16 century navigation to dig deeper into the story.

An interesting read regarding Spain’s exploration of the Pacific. The story is well told and I found the politics behind the decisions to greatly enhance my understanding of the subject.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.