The story of the first and one of the greatest colonial empires its birth, apotheosis, and decline. Russell-Wood (history, Johns Hopkins University) approaches the history thematically rather than chronologically, thus gaining insight into the diversity, breadth, and balance among the competing interests and priorities that characterized the Portuguese culture and its expansion spanning four centuries' events on four different continents. Originally published in hardcover in 1992 by Carcanet Press Limited, Manchester, England, as A world on the Move: The Portuguese in Africa, Asia, and America, 1415-1808. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.