The making and remaking of the Atlantic World, 1400–2020

The Atlantic is a newish world. Although named after one of the old pre-Olympian deities, its ocean is 30 million years younger than the Pacific. The oldest hominids sites in Africa run along its eastern rather than Atlantic side. The lack of such opportunities spurred Western Europe, and particularly its westernmost polities. The complacency of the contented and drive of the dissatisfied may represent a prologue to a process by which the Atlantic came to catch up and eventually replace the Indian Ocean as the center of global trade, free and forced migrations, cultural crossings and technological innovation. Several factors rendered Portugal the pioneer in the fifteenth-century Atlantic explorations that morphed into the first stage of European overseas expansion. Portugal’s Atlantic expansion ensued not only from internal conditions but also from external pressures, specifically the monopolistic practices of other trading powers. The Portuguese expansion continued with impressive force beyond the Atlantic islands

Ancient history · Atlantic World · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History

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