The Cape Route and the Silk Roads - (Crossroads - History of Interactions Across the Silk Routes) (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Did you know that the fan, which was used in Japan by men, became transformed into a female European accessory when it was adopted by the Portuguese Queen in Lisbon?
The Cape Route was opened in 1499 to bring spices to Europe, but the Portuguese vessels also brought other products from the lands of Asia, while European technology and science, Christianity and American silver reached every corner of Asia. The Cape Route enabled products and ideas to circulate within the Silk Roads system, involving Eurasia from West to East, and transformed Lisbon into the hub that spread new patterns of consumption and new fashions in Europe, as well as new forms of warfare, new scientific knowledge and a new religion, throughout Asia.

About the Author

João Paulo Oliveira e Costa, Ph.D. 1998), NOVA/FCSH, is professor of the Department of History at that University and the coordinator of the UNESCOs Chair "The Oceans Heritage". He was editor of the Bulletin of Portuguese-Japanese Studies (2000-2010), and has published monographs and articles on the Portuguese Overseas Expansion and Early Modern World Globalisation. His last book was Portugal na História. Uma Identidade (2022).
Carmen Amado Mendes, Ph.D. (2004), School of Oriental and African Studies - University of London, is President of the Macau Scientific and Cultural Centre (Lisbon) and Professor of International Relations of the University of Coimbra, where she established the course "China and the Portuguese-speaking Countries in World Trade". Author of China and the Macau Negotiations, 1986-1999 (HKUP, 2013) and China's New Silk Road: An Emerging World Order (Routledge, 2019), as well as other publications on China's foreign policy.