It really is fundamental to understanding why people like Columbus and de Gama were the way they were from knowing the state of Europe at the time. They were violent and desparate mercenaries from a violent and desparate place, when they arrived anywhere their first thoughts were "ok, what can I immediately loot and sell here, if I don't come back with something good my debtors are gonna cut my balls off"
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackWolfFeed/comments/oj7mzt/540_its_coming_rome_feat_patrick_wyman_71221/
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Yeah it was a huge thing. I’m pretty sure this was the period when Genoa was really the financial engine of Europe; the feudal states were much more interested in physically holding territory
The genoese merchant class linked itself with the Spanish crown; the Genoese were intensely interested in circumventing Venice (who controlled most of trade from the more advanced Eastern civilizations). So Genoa provided the money, and Spain the muscle.
Except they of course didn’t find an alternative route to the East, but rather incredibly valuable precious metals in the Americas. The Genoese were well-positioned to integrate the literal tons of gold and silver into the European financial networks, and it was a huge “proof of concept” for the colonization and imperialism that sustains Euroamerica to this day!
That was one of the most surprising and memorable factoids I took from that book, really changes your perspective
I haven’t read much of Debt, but I’m pretty sure I was first introduced to this idea in Arrighi’s Long Twentieth Century