What happened from 1942 to 1519, when Columbus and the Spaniards were staking out an American Empire? Carl O. Sauer uses contemporary sources and his authoritative knowledge of land forms, vegetation and ethnography in Latin America to place the history of the early Spanish Main in a fresh context. This account of the voyages of discovery, of the early years of Spanish administration, and how the Spaniards dealt with the crises of their colonial policies, is a definitive work of historical geography as well as an exciting readable book.