Civilizations (novel)

Civilizations is a 2019 novel by French writer Laurent Binet. The novel depicts an alternate history in which the Americas are never colonised by the Europeans, and the Inca emperor Atahualpa invades Europe.

Civilizations

Author	Laurent Binet
Translator	Sam Taylor
Language	French
Genre	Alternate history, Historical fiction
Publisher	Grasset & Fasquelle
Publication date	2019
Publication place	France
Published in English	2021
Media type	Print
Pages	320
ISBN	978-2-246-81309-5

The novel won the 2019 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, and Sam Taylor's English translation was awarded the Sidewise Award for Alternate History in 2021.

Plot summary

The narrative is divided into four parts, using a mixture of first-person accounts, letters, in-universe history, and poetry.

Part One: The Saga of Freydis Eiriksdottir

Around the year 1000, Freydis Eiriksdottir sails from Greenland to Vinland, the camp left behind by her brother. Her crew explores the Americas and encounter the local populations, whom they call "skrælings". The Greenlanders transmit their knowledge of extracting iron from peat and leave behind horses. Despite forming alliances, many indigenous Americans die from diseases brought by the Europeans to which they have no resilience. Gradually, however, the population develops immunity.

Part Two: The Journal of Christopher Columbus (fragments)

In 1492, Christopher Columbus and his expedition arrive in Cuba. The Taíno, who have resistance to European diseases and iron weapons, are able to repel colonisation. Many of the Spanish forces are killed in battle or die of illness, until only Columbus survives. The Niña and the Pinta are shipwrecked on the beach.

Taken prisoner by the Taíno on Hispaniola, Columbus spends his final days speaking Spanish with the princess Higuénamota, who acquires the language easily. He dies on Hispaniola having failed his mission.

Part Three: The Chronicles of Atahualpa

In 1530, in the Inca Empire, the emperor Huascar declares war on his half-brother Atahualpa, who flees with his court to Cuba. Hearing the story of the European invaders from the now-adult Higuénamota, Atahualpa is inspired to travel east to establish what will become the Fifth Quarter of the Inca Empire.

Sailing on the repaired Spanish vessels, the Incas and Higuénamota reach Lisbon on the day it is hit by a catastrophic earthquake, then travel towards Spain. They arrive in Toledo during the Inquisition. Learning about Christianity, the Incas recognise conversos, Moors, and Protestants as potential allies against the Catholic establishment.

Atahualpa goes on to ambush, imprison, and kill Charles V, and arrange the murder of the prince Philip; he is subsequently crowned king of Spain, Naples, and Sicily. Atahualpa's reign brings about a period of prosperity and religious tolerance. He allies himself with various European and North African kingdoms, repeals the Alhambra Decree, and replaces it with the Seville Edict, granting all citizens freedom of religion as long as they observe the feasts of Viracocha. Atahualpa also begins importing corn, tomatoes, and tobacco from Peru, via Cuba.

Atahualpa goes on to gain the titles of prince of the Belgians, sovereign of the Netherlands, lord of the Berbers, and Emperor of the Fifth Quarter. The Incas prevent Charles' brother Ferdinand from being elected Holy Roman Emperor by exploiting his unpopularity among Protestants and encouraging him to go to war against Selim II. Atahualpa becomes Holy Roman Emperor instead.

After Inca ships stop arriving one day, Atahualpa finds out that Mexicans are waging war in Cuba. Soon, the Mexican army led by Cuauhtémoc invades France and places it under the protection of the Mexican Empire. Converting to Christianity, Cuauhtémoc forms alliances with England and Portugal, and Atahualpa signs a peace treaty between the Incas and Mexicans.

Amid unrest in Italy among the Christian city states which have resisted the Inca religion, Atahualpa is killed in Florence by Lorenzo, a former ally. He is buried in the Alhambra next to Charles V.

Part Four: The Adventures of Cervantes

Some years later, Atahualpa's son Charles Chapac has succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor. In Spain, Miguel de Cervantes is recruited by El Greco to serve in army of Archduke Maximilian of Austria.

A naval battle at Lepanto is fought, with the Hispano-Incas against the allied Ottoman and Austrian forces. The Hispano-Incas are victorious, and El Greco and Cervantes are taken into slavery. However, they escape, and end up at the house of Montaigne in France.

El Greco aggressively argues with Montaigne about preserving the Christian character of Europe. El Greco and Cervantes are eventually apprehended by Franco-Mexican guards and shipped to Cuba, where the Mexican and Inca empires in the West are looking for painters and writers. The two men arrive in the Caribbean, feeling optimistic about their future there.

Background

Binet was first inspired to write the book after a trip to Peru, where he learned that the last Inca emperor Atahualpa was captured by the conquistador Francisco Pizarro with a force of fewer than 200 soldiers.

Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel was also a source of inspiration, both for a "specific sentence" imagining Atahualpa coming to Spain – which Binet says "gave [him] the idea for the whole book" – and for Diamond's thesis that indigenous Americans fell to the Europeans so easily because they lacked horses, antibodies, and iron. The book's English translation by Sam Taylor was published in the United Kingdom by Harvill Secker, an imprint of Vintage Books.

Awards and honours

• 2019 Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française
• 2021 Sidewise Award for Alternate History (Long Form)