“Im Anfang war das Gewürz”, In the beginning was the spice, that’s how the author Stefan Zweig starts his book called Magellan.
Spices, these tiny ingredients revolutionized the way we eat, and they are present in many of our favorite dishes. But not only spices. Italian tomatoes, Valencia oranges, Swiss Chocolate and potatoes for everyone… All these products have something in common. Yes, you can find them at your nearest supermarket but none of them are native to those lands.
Columbus didn’t discover the New World, but indeed in that moment, in terms of biology, the world changed. And at that moment, many things were happening. This journey wants to find out how spices shaped and modified the course of history for ever. And with this first episode called “Vanilla” we will see how it worked.
With the feat already completed, in this last episode called saccharin, we talk about the geopolitics of the trip, and how the world was changed (for better or for worse), until our days:
How the world was governed from that moment on by a Eurocentric vision. How the diversity of…
After a failed incursion in Cape Verde to try to get some food, and after a thousand fatigues and after countless problems and deaths, they finally make it, they complete the first circumnavigation of the world. Elcano and the survivors are received by the Emperor himself. The people of San Lucar have never seen…
Saffron is made up of threads, filaments that separate, as do the Victoria and the Trinidad in the Spice Islands. While the Trinidad, piloted by Gonzalo Gómez de Espinosa will try to return to the American continent in order to reach Europe again, the Victoria…
Seven is the number. Finally, Clove is here. The most precious spice that pushed this trip to be accomplished will not be easy to get. Magellan, immersed in an excess of confidence, will face the local chief Lapu-Lapu, in a battle where he pays with his life. So says Stefan…
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