Hugh Thomas gave an update on his progress through his three volume history of the Spanish Empire. He has recently published volume two: the Golden Age, in which he examines the reign of Charles V and the conquest of South America.
Aptly named the Golden Age because he refers to an age of amazing discovery during which the Spanish were afflicted with an insatiable hunger for gold and two thirds of Spain’s income was mined from South America. Thomas had chosen to focus mostly on what the Spanish brought to South America, namely writing, domestic animals, the wheel and Christianity. He asserted that Christianity had been gladly welcomed by the natives, who had until then put up with a religion of human sacrifice. He even went so far as to suggest that the increasing scale of human sacrifice in Mexico was a measure taken to curb the exploding population.
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