The Atlantic Connection

A History of the Atlantic World, 1450-1900

Anna Suranyi

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317500650
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Focusing on the interconnections of the Atlantic world from 1450-1900, The Atlantic Connection examines the major themes of Atlantic history. During this period, ships, goods, diseases, human beings and ideas flowed across the ocean, tying together the Atlantic basin in a complex web of relationships. Divided into five main thematic sections while maintaining a broadly chronological structure, this book considers key cultural themes such as gender, social developments, the economy, and ideologies as well as:

- the role of the Atlantic in ensuring European dominance

- the creation of a set of societies with new cultural norms and philosophical ideals that continued to evolve and to transform not only the Atlantic, but the rest of the world

- the contestation over rights and justice that emerged from the Atlantic world which continues to exist as a significant issue today.

The Atlantic Connection is shaped by its exploration of a key question: how did Europe come to dominate the Atlantic if not through its technological prowess? Adeptly weaving a multitude of events into a larger analytical narrative, this book provides a fascinating insight into this complex region and will be essential reading for students of Atlantic history.

Part I
Explorations and first contacts

1 The Atlantic world before 1492

Prior to 1492, the human world was divided into several realms. Although there are many ways to define the environmental and cultural divides among human societies of the time, in the most basic form these comprised three main geographic regions: the connected continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa – the “Old World” – which were somewhat separated by geographical obstacles but were also in constant and increasing contact with each other by the fifteenth century; the South Pacific, which had sporadic interaction with Asia; and the Americas, which, despite a few minor and infrequent contacts, had been essentially separate from other human-inhabited regions since they were cut off from the rest of the world some 13,000 years ago. Each of these regions contained many thousands of individual human societies. It should be immediately apparent, however, that the Americas were far more isolated than other parts of the world. In some ways, this made little difference – there were a number of parallel developments that made human cultures translatable to foreigners, even as each society also retained unique and sometimes mutually incomprehensible characteristics. This pattern of similarities and differences prevailed in all parts of the world. It meant that, often, human societies encountered foreigners as enemies or invaders, but also as allies and trading partners. However, the isolation of the Americas resulted in some very significant biological differences, especially in human disease ecology and in diversity of animal and plant life that would have very important consequences for the peoples of these continents when they were reunited with Europeans and Africans in 1492.

As a whole, human societies in the Americas, Africa, and Europe followed similar trajectories. They exhibited a great variation in lifeways that ranged from settled civilizations with entrenched social hierarchies; complex systems of exchange, transportation, and religion; and large-scale architectural infrastructures to village-based societies that engaged in agriculture or animal herding and, more rarely, to less sedentary societies that subsisted by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild foods. As urban centers developed, an increasing trend all over the world during the fifteenth century, they often dominated the surrounding countryside, a trend exacerbated by the increasing consolidation of large national states or empires in many areas.

The shape of interactions among regions in the Old World was based on a combination of geography, availability of resources, and historical events. During the Middle Ages, the centers of economic activity lay in two great commercial nexuses: the Indian Ocean, which connected East Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, and the Mediterranean Sea, which connected southern Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and, to some degree, West Africa. The regions that were far away from these two epicenters of commercial activity were relative backwaters, including southern Africa, eastern and northern Europe, northern Asia, and the South Pacific. However, this would change when Western Europeans developed ships that were capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic would prove to be a basis for wealth and power that surpassed the capacity of previously established commercial hubs.

Although it was not obvious during the early Middle Ages, Western Europeans turned out to have been geographically lucky. They occupied a temperate zone that is suitable for agriculture and possesses adequate water. Much of the Old World in general was suitable for animal husbandry, a factor that greatly increased the transmission of epidemic diseases but that also, over time, decreased the biological susceptibility of the peoples of the Old World to many bacterial and viral infections. In addition, Western Europe was geographically oriented toward the Atlantic. During the Middle Ages and earlier, this factor was not a significant benefit, as the Atlantic was turbulent and unnavigable, but by the fifteenth century, it was stimulating Europeans to develop more efficient shipping and navigation. European sailing ability became more important after 1453, when the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople and cut Europeans off from the Indian Ocean and some Mediterranean ports. It was the gradual advances in shipbuilding and navigational technology that made Columbus’ voyage possible and thus enabled Western Europe’s subsequent accumulation of great wealth. West-facing European regions such as Spain, Portugal, Britain, France, and the Netherlands were fortuitously located on the western fringes of the known world, giving them greater access to the Atlantic and an incentive to develop sophisticated nautical and navigational technologies. On the other hand, West Africans, although also located on the Atlantic rim, did not benefit from the same opportunities, as the coasts of their region were hampered by south-going Atlantic currents that made ocean navigation difficult. They also remained connected to overland commerce with both the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, creating less of an incentive to establish advanced navigational technologies. Centuries later, Western Europe’s aggregation of capital from the Atlantic, coupled with its possession of navigable rivers and its large and conveniently located deposits of coal, would enable its rapid industrialization.

2 Europe

A new age of trade and travel

Europe was at a time of transition in the fifteenth century during which Europeans were experimenting with new ideas and leaving behind some aspects of medieval life while at the same time clinging to traditional values. Europe was primarily agricultural in the Middle Ages, and social interactions were based on deeply entrenched hierarchies. In Western Europe, the Catholic Church controlled many aspects of cultural mores, with the Orthodox Church taking that role in eastern Europe. Yet at the same time, changes were developing in technology, educational possibilities, political ideology, and international connections. At the end of the medieval era and the beginning of the early modern period, the Atlantic encounter of 1492 would permanently reorient European society.

Traditional values persisted in Europe and would continue to do so for centuries. Most people were peasants, and society was based on a system of privileges based on birth, determining social roles based on whether one was born a noble or a commoner and, if the latter, a peasant or perhaps someone born into a family of artisans or merchants. However, new opportunities were also appearing. In the growing urban areas, there were increasing numbers of professionals such as doctors, lawyers, university professors, clerks, and public officials, as well as expanding roles for artisans and merchants. In addition, there was a greater presence of the working poor, including porters, dock workers, sailors, hired laborers, peddlers, domestic servants, washerwomen, seamstresses, prostitutes, and the like.

There were approximately 80 million people in Europe in the year 1500, with about three quarters of the population concentrated in Western Europe. The nuclear family predominated, with people marrying relatively late in life, usually in their mid-twenties or later, once both partners had established the wherewithal to set up an independent household. Noble families followed a different pattern in which youths were married off early to cement family alliances. Men were seen as the heads of households, and fathers were owed deference and obedience by wives, children, and servants. There were few restrictions on the power of fathers and husbands, who were expected to discipline their subordinates, even by violence, though at the same time consideration and companionate marriage were also urged by religious institutions and, to some degree, expected by peers. Women’s autonomy was actually decreasing during the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, because as the state became more centralized and adopted Roman law instead of customary traditions, women’s roles were increasingly circumscribed by legal strictures that had not been clearly defined during the Middle Ages. Women had few rights and often did not possess independent adult status, in many areas lacking the rights of owning property, retaining custody of children, representing themselves in court, restraining abusive husbands, or running a business. However, the reality was more complex, with many women evading such restrictions through skillfulness, family connections, or wealth.

Despite traditional expectations, society was not entirely static, especially in Western Europe. The most dynamism was occurring in coastal regions, either in the Mediterranean, such as in the case of Italy, or in Atlantic territories such as Portugal. Incentives for change included increasing contact with other Mediterranean cultures, especially in the Middle East, and renewed knowledge of pre-Christian classical literature. New economic developments included growing urbanization; the growth of large-scale industry; an increasingly money-based economy, with financial innovations in banking and lending; the rise of long-distance trade; and economic competition. Cultural changes also included a growth in literacy, a new acceptance of individualism, and an increase in skepticism. One of the most important innovations was the development of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg in the 1450s, which allowed the rapid accessibility and dissemination of ideas. These factors occurred in tandem with increasing centralization of the state, advances in weaponry, and the intensification of national tensions.

A further important change developed shortly after 1492 as new vistas opened to Europeans after Columbus “discovered” the Americas (a region often called the “New World” to distinguish it from the better-known “Old World” of Africa, Asia, and Europe). Beginning in 1519, Europe experienced the Protestant Reformation in which long-standing religious grievances; the disruption of the Papal Schism of a few decades before; the growth of money-based markets that created economic disruption; and the growth of humanistic ideals promoting literacy, free speech, and intellectual inquiry led to an increasing desire for theological innovation. Earlier heretical movements led by John Wycliffe in England and Jan Hus in Bohemia had been suppressed, but in the early sixteenth century the printing press allowed rapid distribution of Protestant ideas, while the threat of the Ottoman Empire initially prevented German rulers from containing the new theology. Frederick, the ruler of Saxony, protected Protestant innovator Martin Luther from retribution by the Catholic Church, both for spiritual reasons and because he saw Luther’s ideas as a way to bolster his regional interests. The Reformation amplified increasing distrust and eventually warfare between emerging European nations in the sixteenth century.

Prior to 1492, Europeans were beginning to develop a number of new technologies that enabled Columbus’ historic voyage, especially a series of innovations in shipbuilding and navigation. If the Americas had not been reached accidentally, putting all of their valuable resources in the hands of Europeans, these technological developments would likely have created subtle alterations in the balance of power within early modern Europe and between European states and the Ottoman Empire. It is doubtful, however, that these new capabilities alone would have been sufficient to propel Europe to the level of global political domination that it began to achieve by the mid-nineteenth century.

The voyages of discovery

A number of factors came together to start Western Europeans on the path to the Atlantic voyages of discovery. During the late Middle Ages, economics were a powerful stimulant, particularly the drive to gain access to the Asian spice trade. Spices, especially salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, were extremely important to the European economy. They were used as a preservative for meats from the annual fall slaughter of livestock, as flavorings for otherwise bland foods and, most importantly, as medicines. Salt mainly came from Portugal, but the other spices came from Africa, India, China, and the islands of the East Indies. They were prohibitively expensive because of the logistics of transporting them, traveling with Muslim merchants across the Indian Ocean and overland through the Ottoman Empire and thence to Venice and were also difficult to purchase because Europeans produced few trade products of any value for the more sophisticated Asian empires. However, commerce continued because the potential profits were enormous – up to six times the value of the original investment.

At the same time, increasing contact with other regions meant that Europeans were beginning to gain knowledge of the rest of the world and develop a sense of their own distinctiveness. In particular, there was a sense of antagonism toward the Islamic regions abutting Europe to the east and south, which dated from the crusading movement of the twelfth century, and extended to economic competition with the Ottoman Empire. There was also a need to guard against Ottoman encroachment in eastern Europe, while Spanish Christians sought to drive the Muslims out of Spain. Once the Reconquista (or reconquest) of Spain was completed in January of 1492, the Spanish monarchs undertook supporting Columbus’ initial voyage. In the meantime, while Spain had been preoccupied with its war with the Muslims, Portugal had established control over the sea routes along the coast of Africa, which pushed Spain and other countries to look westward in their attempts to gain access to the lucrative spice trade.

There had already been some attempts to explore the Atlantic Ocean during the Middle Ages, particularly from coastal areas. The earliest Europeans to reach the west side of the Atlantic were eleventh-century Vikings sailing with Leif Erikson from the Norse settlement of Greenland to the briefly settled site of L’Anse aux Meadows on the Newfoundland coast. The Greenland settlement itself only survived into the fifteenth century but during its existence may have continued to send some expeditions to North American shores in search of timber. The Vikings were followed two centuries later by the Vivaldi brothers, who were lost at sea after they sailed from Genoa in 1291 intending to sail to Asia, though it is unknown whether they aimed to sail south along the African coast or west across the Atlantic. There were also many medieval stories about voyagers such as the Irish monk Saint Brendan, who reportedly found a mysterious island in the Atlantic. The reality of such tales is discounted by scholars, but they were widely believed in the late Middle Ages and inspired the curiosity and interest of other explorers. During the fourteenth century, the first sustained movement into the ocean occurred with Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the Atlantic islands off the coast of Africa. In addition, beginning in the 1480s, expeditions sailed from the English port of Bristol in search of mythical islands like Atlantis, the Fortunate Isles, and Hy-Brasil, likely bolstered by the many reports of actual islands encountered during the previous century. During the same period, a more practical cohort of fishermen from Bristol were returning to England with large stores of codfish from unknown northern regions. These sailors were likely traveling to fishing grounds off the coast of Iceland, Greenland, or even Newfoundland. There were also tales, which Columbus may have heard, of Basque fisherman frequenting mysterious cod fisheries in the North Atlantic. All of these stories contributed to a European desire to explore or even cross the Atlantic Ocean, but this was always tempered by the knowledge of the vast reaches of open water that a ship would have to traverse.

Portugal and Africa

Although it was ultimately the Spanish who sponsored Columbus’ historic voyages, it was Portugal that led in the voyages of discovery. Bracketed on one side by the Atlantic Ocean and on the other by its competitor, Spain, Portugal was by necessity oriented toward the ocean. The fish and salt trades were major supports of the Portuguese economy, and the Portuguese were becoming advanced seafarers, interested in expanding into other profitable ventures made possible by their close proximity to Africa such as commerce in spices, gold, ivory, and slaves. Development in this realm was supported by a member of the royal family, Prince Henry (1394–1460), known as the Navigator for his encouragement and financing of voyages of discovery and his promotion of the study of navigation, astronomy, cartography, and shipbuilding and the development of navigational instruments, all of which were necessary for sailors and explorers to venture into the ocean out of sight of land. Prince Henry was interested in promoting Portuguese interests by increasing trade and exploring the African coastline for possible sources of wealth, as well as gaining access to the sources of the fabled trans-Sahara trade routes. He was also impelled by crusading ideals, hoping to circle around Muslim territories, convert non-Christians, and ally with the mythical Christian ruler Prester John, who was rumored to live in the heart of northwest Africa.

Portuguese expeditions along the coast of Africa began with the 1415 attack of Ceuta, a Muslim town along the Strait of Gibraltar possessing a Mediterranean harbor. Ceuta’s capture meant that the Portuguese had advanced out of Europe, establishing a foothold in Africa. Thereafter, the Portuguese gradually crept along the African shoreline, sometimes engaging in trade with African kingdoms on the coast. Initially, they were hampered by a number of difficulties, especially the inability of ships to move far from the coast and imaginary fears of the unknown, which included the belief that the southern seas would be boiling hot or filled with sea monsters. In particular, European sailors were daunted by Cape Bojador, a projection of land off the northwest coast of Africa just south of the Canary Islands, which featured dangerous winds and currents and was perceived as the boundary of the known world. In 1434, Prince Henry finally persuaded Captain Gil Eanes to sail around the cape, demonstrating that the ocean was unchanged on the opposite side, after which sailors were soon exploring much farther down the coast. In 1441, a ship returned to Portugal bearing gold and slaves, demonstrating the lucrative possibilities of continued voyages. In less than a decade, many hundreds of slaves were being brought back to Portugal, resulting in the establishment of a Portuguese trading post in 1448 for purchasing slaves from African suppliers on Arguin Island south of Cape Bojador. Initially, most of these slaves were employed as household servants for wealthy nobles or sometimes returned to Africa as interpreters for African sailing ventures.

In the early fifteenth century, both the Portuguese and the Spaniards sent voyages into the Atlantic in search of new territories. The incentives for this came from two sources: factual reports from sailors about islands they had glimpsed far out to sea and the prevalent legends about mysterious Atlantic islands. These expeditions reaped tangible rewards for Europeans, resulting in the acquisition of a number of Atlantic islands off the coast of Africa. The Canary Islands had been known to Europeans since ancient times, and their conquest by the Spanish began in 1402. However, thereafter, the Spanish monarchy became distracted by its ongoing battles with Muslim kingdoms in Spain and took little part in Atlantic expeditions until the end of the century, allowing the Portuguese to surge to the fore in the colonization of Atlantic islands. The Portuguese settled the previously uninhabited Madeira and Azores islands, the latter almost halfway across the ocean, which had been charted on maps since the mid-fourteenth century, by 1419 and 1431, respectively, and also discovered and then settled the Cape Verde Islands beginning in 1456.

Islands in the Atlantic were central to the early conceptualization of colonialism that shaped European endeavors in the Atlantic. The Canary Islands were inhabited prior to European colonization, and it was to take almost a century before they were fully under Spanish control, primarily because of the vigorous resistance of the Guanches, the indigenous inhabitants. The Spa...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• Acknowledgments
• Preface
• Introduction
• The dominance of the West
• Part I Explorations and first contacts
• Part II Colonization and conquest
• Part III Connections, journeys, and war
• Part IV The age of ideas
• Part V The paradox of modernity
• Sources for further reading
• Index