Atlantic World — LLMpedia

Atlantic World
CIA · Public domain · source
Name	Atlantic World
Region	Atlantic Ocean basin
Period	Early modern period to contemporary

Contents

Atlantic World

The Atlantic World denotes the interconnected maritime sphere linking the continents bordering the Atlantic Ocean, encompassing the Americas, Europe, and Africa and involving actors such as Christopher Columbus, Philip II of Spain, Louis XIV of France, Elizabeth I of England, Pedro Álvares Cabral. It emphasizes networks shaped by voyages like Voyage of the Santa María, enterprises such as the British East India Company, conflicts including the Seven Years' War, and legal instruments like the Treaty of Tordesillas, with cultural exchange evident in productions such as Don Quixote and institutions such as the Banco de España.

Definition and Scope

Scholars define the Atlantic World as the maritime and littoral zone connecting the Kingdom of Portugal, Spanish Empire, Kingdom of France, Dutch Republic, and Kingdom of England with polities in the Kongo Kingdom, Ashanti Empire, Oyo Empire, and polities of the Taíno people and Inca Empire; studies focus on interactions traced through voyages like Magellan's circumnavigation and maps such as the Cantino planisphere. The field covers economic networks linking entities like the Royal African Company, Dutch West India Company, Banco do Brasil, and House of Braganza; diplomatic and military episodes including the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604), War of Jenkins' Ear, and Napoleonic Wars; and cultural transmissions visible in texts such as A Journal of the Plague Year and artifacts from the Villejuif hoard.

Early modern expansion began with expeditions by Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Amerigo Vespucci, and Hernán Cortés, producing colonial regimes like the Viceroyalty of New Spain and Viceroyalty of Peru and prompting demographic shifts involving the Little Ice Age and disease events such as the Smallpox epidemic of 1520. Competitive imperialism played out through engagements such as the Spanish Armada, Anglo-Dutch Wars, Seven Years' War, and treaties including the Treaty of Paris (1763), shaping boundaries of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, New France, and Saint-Domingue. Nineteenth-century transformations involved independence movements led by figures like Simón Bolívar, José de San Martín, Toussaint Louverture, and Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla and global realignments after the Congress of Vienna and the Monroe Doctrine.

Transatlantic commerce intertwined merchants such as John Hawkins, financiers like Nathan Mayer Rothschild, shipping firms like the Black Ball Line, and institutions such as the Bank of England and Banco Nacional de Cuba through commodities including sugar from Barbados, tobacco from Jamestown, Virginia, cotton from King Cotton regions, and gold from El Dorado narratives. The triangular exchange involved ports like Liverpool, Bristol, Lisbon, Seville, Havana, Charleston, South Carolina, Recife, and markets governed by policies exemplified by the Navigation Acts, Mercantilism, and the Methuen Treaty. Industrial and financial revolutions were linked to developments at sites such as Manchester, Pittsburgh, Bordeaux, and institutions like the East India House and the Royal African Company.

Enslavement and forced migration mobilized captains and slavers associated with the Middle Passage, traders from the Royal African Company, Atlantic slave trade, and African rulers tied to the Asante Confederacy and Dahomey Kingdom; abolitionist campaigns featured activists such as Olaudah Equiano, William Wilberforce, Frederick Douglass, and revolts like the Haitian Revolution. Indentured migration included movements from Ireland and Scotland to plantations in Barbados and Virginia, while Atlantic cities such as Salvador, Bahia, Port-au-Prince, Lisbon, Amsterdam, and Boston experienced demographic shifts recorded in censuses and parish registers, and pandemics like the Yellow Fever epidemic affected labor regimes.

Religious and cultural flows involved institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church, Church of England, Moravian Church, and missions like those run by Jesuits across the Guarani territories and California mission system; print culture spread texts like Common Sense, The Wealth of Nations, Aphra Behn's plays, and newspapers from The Boston Gazette, The Times and pamphlets disseminated via port networks. Musical syncretism produced genres tied to locales such as Havana and New Orleans, influenced by performers and traditions like voodoo practitioners, Candomblé communities, and African diaspora craftspeople; cuisine blended ingredients like cassava, maize, and sugar in recipes circulating between Lisbon, Seville, Cape Verde, and Mexico City.

Imperial competition among the Spanish Empire, Portuguese Empire, Dutch Republic, Kingdom of France, and British Empire produced diplomatic crises and wars such as the War of Spanish Succession, Seven Years' War, American Revolutionary War, Latin American wars of independence, and the Crimean War's broader strategic implications; colonial governance experiments included the Encomienda system, Royal Audience, Commonwealth of England policies, and proprietary colonies like Maryland. Legal frameworks evolved through charters and statutes such as the Navigation Acts, the Code Noir, the Slave Trade Act 1807, and constitutional texts like the United States Constitution and the Constitución de Cádiz (1812), while diplomatic instruments such as the Treaty of Utrecht and the Treaty of Paris (1783) reshaped sovereignty.

Historiography of the Atlantic region brings together scholars of the Annales School, proponents of the Atlantic history paradigm, critics from postcolonial schools referencing Edward Said and Frantz Fanon, and archival projects in repositories like the British Library, Archivo General de Indias, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Library of Congress. Contemporary legacies are debated in relation to institutions such as the Organisation of American States, European Union, African Union, economic networks linked to IMF policies, and cultural memory sites like Monticello, Robben Island, Havana Vieja, and Santo Domingo; museums such as the Museo de América and the National Museum of African American History and Culture curate contested narratives.