Edward Wilson-Lee ends this exhilarating book wondering how it is that, as the world becomes global, the people in it have become insular. Indeed, he suggests, the further we travel, the more anxious and even aggressive we become when encountering those who look and act differently from ourselves. To feel safe, we scuttle back to assumptions and attitudes that are familiar, parochial and, in the long run, stifling. He likens it to “sitting in next-door rooms, pretending that we are in a world of our own”.
His passionate point is that it needn’t be like this, and to prove it he takes us back to Portugal in the 16th century. This might seem eccentric, but for much of the high renaissance Portugal was the primary conduit between Europe and the rest of the unfolding world. It was the merchants and missionaries from Europe’s most westerly kingdom who were among the first from their continent to meet the sheikhs of Oman, the kings of West Africa and the emperors of China. More than this, these Portuguese pioneers were careful to carry back their impressions to the motherland, painting a picture, or perhaps forging a template, that would set the parameters for global encounters over the next 500 years.
