About the book: 2016 / The unification of Castile and Aragon and the creation of the Kingdom of Spain...Reconquista and expulsion of the Moors from the Iberian Peninsula...Discovery of the New World and the beginning of its conquest...In the 16th century a huge empire arose on both sides of the Atlantic, on whose possessions the sun never set. Two generations of discoverers, colonialists, rulers and missionaries paved the way for the flourishing of the Catholic state. Balboa and Pizarro, Cortez and Ponce Leon are those people whose thirst for gold, cruelty and religious fanaticism, but at the same time luck, fearlessness and enterprise ensured the prosperity of Spain for a long time. How was it? How did the rise of the Spanish Empire occur? Read about it in a fascinating study by British historian Hugh Thomas.