The European Seaborne Empires

Covering the period between the sixteenth century and the Age of Revolutions, this book analyzes the trajectory of the five western European “seaborne” empires: the Spanish, the Portuguese, the French, the British, and the Dutch. While the undertaking is ambitious, Gabriel Paquette proves up to the task. Based on an in-depth command of the secondary literature, The European Seaborne Empires comprehensively compares these five imperial formations' repertoires of power, violence, and forms of exploitation. The analysis benefits significantly from the fact that Paquette is himself an accomplished expert in the history of western Europe. Evidence from each empire is intertwined throughout the book—an interpretive strategy that makes this work particularly rich in comparisons and pertinent insights.Paquette's volume begins by stressing that “the European seaborne empires were dwarfed in scope and scale by the terrestrial empires of Eurasia until the dawn of the nineteenth century” (p. 30). The initial pages also include a pertinent discussion of the concept of empire, its many definitions and usage in recent scholarship. The book then discusses the development of each individual empire. After tracing their main characteristics from the sixteenth to the late eighteenth century, Paquette underscores that the five imperial states were fundamentally “seaborne,” a modifier that alludes to their mobility, the transoceanic connections they established, and their relative insignificance territorially. This book demonstrates how immense profits could be reaped without large-scale territorial conquest.In the core of the book, Paquette assesses the main features of the five empires via six factors: law, governance, and institutional frameworks; political economy; migrations (coerced, forced, and putatively free); labor regimes; creole societies and mestizaje; and collaboration and resistance. Paquette centers topics such as the overseas governments' various forms, empire as a theater of legal pluralism and syncretism (since the Europeans left unmodified many existing native systems), and the economic benefits for the metropolitan economies. Mobility within and between empires is also closely scrutinized. The book demonstrates that slavery, indentured servitude, and the forcible removal of convicts to colonies were key for imperial formation. The enslavement of native populations was widespread in all the empires analyzed, and Amerindian slavery never disappeared across the Americas and the Caribbean. However, the use of enslaved sub-Saharan Africans was considerably more intense, particularly in extractive and export-oriented economies like mining and plantation-based agriculture. The book also considers manumission in various slave societies and stresses that the late eighteenth century witnessed certain challenges to slavery, although never strong enough to end this terrible practice.Also significant is Paquette's discussion of the mestizo societies generated by Europe's seaborne empires. Colonial authorities regarded mestizaje an unwelcome though inevitable result of colonization. Paquette examines the equation by Europeans of mestizaje and cultural difference with inferiority, which often resulted in exclusion from active political participation and denial of basic civic rights. One of the most serious challenges to colonial order was the growing population of Afro-descendants, many of them freedmen. Paquette thoroughly analyzes resistance to colonial rule, highlighting that while large-scale slave rebellions were rare, marronage and everyday acts of resistance were far more common.The final section traces the five empires' main changes during the Age of Revolutions and beyond. Paquette underscores the ambiguous character of emancipatory movements and argues that independence was not inevitable, mostly because many slaveholding elites realized that greater security existed within, rather than outside, the framework of empire. Paquette also signals that independence did not necessarily enable new institutions or progressive forms of government. Most of the new constitutions barred people of indigenous and African descent from active political participation. In some countries (such as the United States or Brazil), slavery was only abolished several decades after colonial rule's end.In the last pages Paquette contrasts the “seaborne” character of the five imperial formations with the kind of rule that emerged subsequently. He stresses that nineteenth-century European empires became fundamentally terrestrial. Most adopted the Napoleonic model of “proconsular despotism” and became therefore more autocratic (p. 209).This excellent book effectively combines analysis of traditional matters—institutional history, high politics, geopolitical rivalry, and military history—with the examination of more innovative topics, including the agency of individuals from lower groups, European rule's environmental impact, and the interplay between state and private initiatives. As Paquette frequently reminds us, throughout the early modern period Europeans were far from omnipotent. They were repulsed from extra-European territories as often as they established a stable presence. Political life in Europe's seaborne empires was characterized by negotiation and compromise. This, however, did not prevent European colonists from exerting a high degree of violence, destruction, and exploitation. Moreover, Paquette makes clear that these empires were marked not just by competition but also by interpenetration and convergence.Although at times incorporating too many quotations from other scholars, Paquette conveys current developments in the field and an in-depth knowledge of the European polities and the interplay between metropolitan and colonial societies. Paquette's remarkable synthesis fully demonstrates the advantages of a global outlook when compared to nation-focused studies of empire

Archaeology · Economic history · Empire · Political science · Scholarship · Classics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History · Law

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