Europe in the Atlantic World, 1550-1660

Geographic & Conceptual Overview of the Atlantic World

• Sea-Based Networks Dominate
  • Land travel remained costly/difficult; settlers clung to coasts.
  • Maritime routes linked three continents—Europe, Africa, Americas—forming the backbone of the “Atlantic World.”
  • Major port cities became strategic nodes: London, Amsterdam, Boston, Havana.
  • Conceptual shift: Oceans now viewed as connectors rather than barriers.
• Technological & Cartographic Foundations
  • Improved ship design, navigation (astrolabe, compass), and increasingly precise maps empowered long-distance voyages.
  • Cartographers translated imperial ambition into visual claims; maps functioned as political documents as much as geographic tools.

Early European Explorations & Imperial Divisions

• Treaty of Tordesillas \,(1494)
  • Papal-brokered line \,(\approx\ 46^\circ\,W) divided new lands: Spain got west of the line, Portugal east.
  • Set precedent for diplomatic partitioning of non-European worlds.
• Quest for a Northwest Passage
  • England, France, Netherlands launched repeated expeditions through North America seeking a route to Asia.
  • Failure of passage intensified focus on colonisation & resource extraction in the Americas themselves.
• Cartographic Power & Propaganda
  • Printed maps circulated claims far faster than physical occupation could; they legitimised spheres of influence in European eyes.

Formation of Atlantic Empires (ca. 1550\text{–}1660)

• Spain
  • Controlled vast territories: Mexico, most of South America, Caribbean, portions of North America.
  • Extracted bullion (silver, gold) that would later fuel European inflation.
• Portugal
  • Dominated Brazil; established fortified trading posts (feitorias) along African coast and in Indian Ocean.
• Britain
  • Settled North American eastern seaboard (e.g., Virginia, New England) and Caribbean sugar islands (Barbados, Jamaica).
• France
  • Early presence in Canada (St. Lawrence, Quebec); later expansion down Mississippi to Louisiana.
• Netherlands
  • Created far-flung trading empire (Dutch West India Company); settlements in New Netherland (present-day New York) and Caribbean islands (Curaçao, Aruba, St. Eustatius).

The Columbian Exchange: Trans-Oceanic Biological & Demographic Flows

• People
  • Europeans, enslaved Africans, and forcibly displaced Indigenous groups circulated around the oceanic rim.
• Plants & Animals
  • New World ➜ Old World: maize, potatoes, tomatoes, cacao.
  • Old World ➜ New World: wheat, sugarcane, horses, cattle, pigs.
• Diseases
  • Smallpox, measles, influenza devastated Indigenous populations (up to 90\% mortality in some regions).
  • Syphilis (debatably) travelled from Americas to Europe.

African Societies & the Transatlantic Slave Trade

• Geographic Sources
  • West & Central Africa (Senegambia, Gold Coast, Bight of Benin, Kongo, Angola) supplied the majority of enslaved peoples.
• Coastal Kingdoms as Intermediaries
  • Coastal polities (e.g., Dahomey, Asante, Kongo) exchanged captives for firearms, textiles, metal goods.
  • Internal warfare often intensified to meet European demand.
• Political Consequences
  • Some states gained temporary power; others collapsed under depopulation.
• Demographic & Cultural Impact
  • Forced migration of approximately 12\,\text{million} Africans by 1800 reshaped populations across the Atlantic.
  • Enslaved peoples carried agricultural knowledge, religious practices (West-Central African spirit veneration ➜ Afro-Christian syncretisms), music, and language patterns.

Economic Impact: Commerce & the Price Revolution

• Influx of Bullion
  • Silver from Potosí and Zacatecas, gold from Mexico & Colombia flooded Europe.
  • Spanish galleons moved \approx 150\text{–}200\,\text{tons} silver/year by late 1500\text{s}.
• The Price Revolution (ca. 1500\text{–}1650)
  • Graphically documented inflation: general prices rose 300\%–400\%.
  • Causes: bullion influx, population rebound after Black Death, increased monetisation.
• Mercantilism Emerges
  • States pursued positive trade balances, hoarded precious metals, used colonies as captive markets.
  • Navigation Acts, exclusive charters to joint-stock companies (e.g., Dutch VOC, English EIC) institutionalised state-backed commerce.

Social & Cultural Transformations

• Demographic Snapshot by 1700
  • European migrants: 1.5\,\text{million}.
  • African enslaved: 12\,\text{million} (trafficked, though only \approx\,10\,\text{million} survived Middle Passage).
  • Indigenous mortality: up to 90\% through disease, warfare, displacement.
• New Hierarchies
  • Casta systems (Spanish America): Peninsulares ➜ Creoles ➜ Mestizos ➜ Indigenous ➜ Africans.
  • Skin colour, birthplace, and legal status determined rights & labor obligations.
• Cultural Blending
  • Syncretic religions: Vodou (Haiti), Candomblé (Brazil), Santería (Cuba).
  • Creole languages (e.g., Haitian Kreyòl) emerged.
  • Hybrid cuisines, music, and artistic forms signalled creation of Atlantic identities.

Conflict, Colonisation, & Religious Rivalries

• European Sectarian Struggles Transplanted
  • Protestant–Catholic competition shaped settlement patterns (e.g., French Huguenots in Florida 1564, English Puritans 1620).
• Failed & Fragile Colonies
  • Roanoke Island “Lost Colony” 1585/1587 exemplified logistical and diplomatic challenges.
• Continuous Warfare
  • Naval battles (Spanish Armada 1588, Anglo-Dutch Wars 1652\text{–}1674).
  • State-sanctioned piracy/privateering (Francis Drake, Piet Heyn).
  • Indigenous alliances manipulated by Europeans (e.g., Iroquois–Huron conflicts linked to French & Dutch fur trades).

Legacies of the Atlantic World (to 1660 & Beyond)

• Prototype for Globalisation
  • Regular, sustained, multi-directional exchange of people, goods, ideas foreshadowed later worldwide networks.
• Cultural Exchange & Hybridities
  • Languages (pidgins, creoles), religious syncretism, blended artistic forms endure today.
• Economic Foundations
  • Plantation complex (sugar, tobacco) model later replicated in cotton, coffee, rubber industries.
  • Mercantile capitalism paved way for industrial-era expansion.
• Enduring Inequalities
  • Racialised hierarchies, underdevelopment of extractive colonies, and diaspora communities remain rooted in this era’s structures.

Connections to Earlier & Later Contexts

• Builds on Age of Discovery (Dias 1488, Columbus 1492) and precedes Age of Enlightenment & Industrial Revolution.
• Silver flow tied Americas to Ming/Qing China via Manila Galleons—the first truly global commodity chain.
• Philosophical debates on human rights (Bartolomé de Las Casas vs. Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda) foreshadow modern discourse on universalism, racism, and empire.

Ethical & Philosophical Dimensions

• Forced migration and genocide raise questions of moral responsibility, reparations, and historical memory.
• Religious justifications for conquest (Requerimiento, Papal Bulls) challenged by emerging critics, laying groundwork for secular concepts of natural rights.