Tide of Empires: Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West 1481-1654

Tide of Empires: Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West Volume I 1481–1654 is the first of a four-volume history of naval warfare.

This volume deals with the period from Venetian sea supremacy and the Portuguese campaigns of discovery to the Dutch conquest of a world-wide maritime empire, and finally the emergence of England as a serious rival to the Dutch.

Padfield discards the glamorous motives traditionally attributed to the naval commanders, explorers, navigators and pioneer adventurers, attributing their motivation instead to wealth and the envy of wealth. This original view produces a stark and challenging interpretation of the rise of the West as a remorseless economic battle for world markets, during which brief intervals of ‘peace’ are determined solely by exhaustion.

Stripped of dogma, national bias and historical legend, this is a radically new view of naval history, written with all the gusto and attention to detail that has established Peter Padfield among the most readable and exciting of naval historians.


Praise for Tide of Empires: Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West Volume I 1481–1654:
’Brilliant account of the rise of western naval power. Very readable’ - Goodreads review

Peter Padfield lives in Woodbridge, Suffolk. He worked with P&O and sailed with Alan Villiers in Mayflower II in commemoration of the journey of the Pilgrim Fathers. The Titanic and The Californian won him international recognition as a writer. He is also the author of classic biographies of Hess, Donitz and Himmler and has written widely on the sea, including a work on naval gunnery.