Civilizacije
What if the Incas had conquered Europe? Arriving in 1531, Atahualpa finds a continent divided by war and religion. Binet reverses the history of conquest in a witty novel about power and empire.
In Civilizations, Laurent Binet imagines a world in which the Incas conquer Europe. The divergence begins around the year 1000, when Freydis, daughter of Erik the Red, leads Viking explorers south through the Americas. Their encounters alter the balance of future conquests by introducing horses, ironworking and resistance to diseases.
Columbus’s expedition consequently meets a different fate. In 1531, Atahualpa crosses the Atlantic and reaches the Europe of Charles V. He discovers the Inquisition, the Reformation, rival monarchies and populations exhausted by poverty and warfare. Among the persecuted and discontented, he identifies potential allies.
Combining adventure with political satire and counterfactual history, Binet turns familiar accounts of conquest upside down. European beliefs and institutions become strange when viewed through the eyes of outsiders, while the struggle for territory exposes the connections between religion, wealth and political authority.
The novel asks how much imperial success owes to circumstance rather than inherent superiority. Playful and provocative, it invites readers to imagine another modern world—and to reconsider the stories through which the victors explain their power.
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