# Spain vs Portugal: The Spice Race

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dan-snow-s-history-hit-483719/spain-vs-portugal-the-spice-race
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/dan-snow-s-history-hit-483719/spain-vs-portugal-the-spice-race.md
Podcast: [Dan Snow's History Hit](https://stenobird.com/podcast/dan-snow-s-history-hit-483719)
Published: 2026-06-22T02:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/dansnowshistoryhit/episodes/spain-vs-portugal-the-spice-race
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/dansnowshistoryhit/e/6a22b8dd083acbc4185b7141/media.mp3?tk=eyJ0ayI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJhZHMiOnRydWUsInNwb25zIjp0cnVlLCJzdGF0dXMiOiJwdWJsaWMifQ==&sig=yohHkBZ9BPbCC2NZzgrG1c2ECDs5E7KlrefOW3WJsZM
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/dan-snow-s-history-hit-483719/episodes/spain-vs-portugal-the-spice-race
Duration seconds: 2250

## Resource

What happens when tiny volcanic islands become the most valuable real estate on Earth? In the 16th century, Portugal and Spain launched a deadly race to control the global spice trade, sparking an age of empire, violence and globalisation. Historian Roger Crowley joins us to tell the extraordinary story of the ruthless spice race that reshaped the entire world. Roger's book is called "Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World". Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore. You can hear our episode with Roger about the rise and fall of Venice here - https://shows.acast.com/dansnowshistoryhit/episodes/the-rise-and-fall-of-venice . We need your help! Let us know what you want from Dan Snow's History Hit by filling in our anonymous survey here: https://forms.gle/PvgayWLkWGjYT4St6 Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe . You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/dan-snow-s-history-hit-483719/episodes/spain-vs-portugal-the-spice-race/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/dan-snow-s-history-hit-483719/spain-vs-portugal-the-spice-race.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.