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In 1972, historian Alfred W. Crosby Jr. published a book called “The Columbian Exchange.�� If I understand correctly, it attempted to map the impact of the world-wide trade routes that arose after Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Mann reports he bugged Crosby to update the book so many times that Crosby finally snapped at him “you do it.�� 1493 is that update. It tells the tale of the world’s transformation into one integrated financial, cultural, and biological system.

The general shape of the story is well known. Mann fleshes out a lot of details. Brutally summarized, it comes down to “it was worse than I knew and faster.��
Among other things, I learned:

�� Scotland finally joined the United Kingdom after England agreed to pay Scottish debts related to a failed colony in Panama.
�� Many British investors in Jamestown believed it was only a few days march from the Pacific and were quite peeved the colonists hadn’t gotten there so they could get on with the serious business of trading with China.
�� Sir Francis Drake led a raid on a Spanish mule train carrying silver that would have been terribly successful except for one drunk French guy.
�� But for malaria, the North likely would have won the Civil War so fast that there would not have been the political will for the Emancipation Proclamation or the 14th Amendment.
�� 17th Century Chinese tax policy led directly to massive deforestation and loss of top soil despite royal decrees that would have stopped the land management systems that wrecked so much havoc.
�� An African princess and general, sold to Portuguese slavers, escaped and founded a military settlement in Brazil that controlled a large area of the coastal mountains for decades.
�� Cortes fathered children on several of Moctezuma’s daughters. He also successfully petitioned the pope to legitimate a child he fathered on his interpreter.
�� Pizarro fathered several children on different Inca princesses. One married his brother.

The book is sprawling and occasionally self-indulgent but utterly engrossing. Well worth the time.