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The Interconnected Atlantic World Douglas Egerton, Alison Games, Donald R. Wright, Kris E. Lane, Jane G. Landers. The Atlantic World: A History, 1400-1888. Wheeling: Harlan Davidson Incorporated, 2007. 500 pp. $48.95, paper, ISBN 978-0-88295-245-1. Reviewed by Gene R. Tucker Published on H-TGS (April, 2010) Commissioned by Thomas Adam (The University of Texas at Arlington) Using the Atlantic Ocean as an organizing jor historians who frst used the Atlantic as a uni‐ principle has become very popular among histori‐ fying concept. The book focuses on “the societies ans in the last decade. Whether called “Atlantic transformed by the convergence of cultures fol‐ history” or “transatlantic history,” the study of the lowing Christopher Columbus’s momentous voy‐ linkages between peoples across the Atlantic age in 1492” (p. 1), which includes civilizations far basin has led to numerous essay collections, con‐ from the Atlantic’s shore, such as the Inca in Peru, ferences, an H-Net discussion network, and even a Amerindians along the Great Lakes, or Africans popular coffee-table book titled Atlantic Ocean: deep in the interior. The authors stress direct en‐ The Illustrated History of the Ocean That counters between people and even the indirect ef‐ Changed the World (2008). This work, The At‐ fects of events on discrete peoples in the four con‐ lantic World: A History, 1400-1888, is the frst tinents touching the Atlantic. These connections comprehensive textbook geared to the increasing and encounters pay little heed to political bound‐ number of college courses (and programs) dedi‐ aries. The fve authors note that historians “fre‐ cated to the history of the peoples of the Atlantic quently force transnational sagas into artificial world. The book successfully portrays the inter‐ political frameworks” (p. 2), and that they will in‐ connectedness of people, commodities, and events stead “explore commonalities and convergences, across the Atlantic, much as Fernand Braudel did seeking larger patterns derived from the interac‐ with the Mediterranean decades ago, though, like tions of people around, within, and across the At‐ any textbook of such breadth, there are some mi‐ lantic” (pp. 2-3). The authors choose to begin their nor weaknesses. narrative around 1400 and fnish with the end of The authors begin with a short historiograph‐ slavery in the Western Hemisphere in 1888. ical introduction, defining the Atlantic world, the Chapter 1 presents a geographical, political, scope of the textbook, and (all too briefly) the ma‐ and socioeconomic overview of the Atlantic on H-Net Reviews the eve of Portugal’s expansion and Columbus’s ertheless, often the protagonists in the Atlantic 1492 voyage. The authors decide to stress the sim‐ story. ilarities among peoples in Africa, Europe, and the In chapters 3 and 4, the authors explore the Americas, not the “superficial differences that of‐ repercussions of European expansion into the ten shocked contemporaries” (p. 17). Their no‐ Americas and Africa. Chapter 3 discusses the ear‐ tions of what these societies had in common, how‐ ly empires of Spain and Portugal in the New ever, are decidedly vague. The authors say each World. The authors place due importance on Eu‐ society engaged in agriculture, trade, politics, and ropean use of mixed-race and multilingual people religion. This is true of every civilization. In chap‐ as cultural mediators, from Afro-Portuguese on ter 2 the authors lay the basis for an “Atlantic Sys‐ the east side of the Atlantic to people like Mal‐ tem,” noting that the European desire for exotic intzin on the western shores. These cultural and trade goods like spices and sugar led to explo‐ ethnic mestizos facilitated trade, political al‐ ration in the Atlantic. They also correctly note liances, and conquest throughout the Atlantic, of‐ that there were ordered states and civilizations ten becoming successful in two worlds. The au‐ ready to greet the Europeans in the Americas and thors also note that the Spanish and Portuguese Africa such as the Kongo and the Inca--the Euro‐ were successful in the New World because they peans did not simply dictate to or oppress bar‐ placed themselves at the top of existing imperial barous natives; they negotiated with similarly ad‐ structures. The Spanish did not dismantle Aztec or vanced peoples. Still, the second chapter ends Incan states and replace them with Spanish mod‐ with Columbus in the Caribbean, and the third be‐ els; they reaped the benefits of extant political gins with Spain’s expansion into the Americas-- and labor hierarchies, creating a new, hybridized not an Aztec discovery of Spain or a Beninese dis‐ society. Iberian success in the Americas prompted covery of Brazil. The authors emphasize why Eu‐ other Europeans, such as the English, French, and ropeans sought to explore beyond their horizons: Dutch, to try their hand at extracting value direct‐ commercial expansion (“it could well have been ly from the wider Atlantic world, transferring Eu‐ about cod in Newfoundland rather than gold in ropean competition to both Africa and America. the Caribbean,” p. 73), but they fail to explain how The role of unfree labor in this process is dis‐ it was that Europeans, and not Amerindians or cussed in chapters 5 and 6. Disease and slavery Africans (or Asians, for that matter), were capable played havoc on the numbers and structures of and willing to explore beyond their shores. Sever‐ several Amerindian groups and the concurrent in‐ al fairly recent, and popular, books offer prospec‐ crease in the use of African slave labor dramati‐ tive answers, from the geographical-biological ex‐ cally changed the continent of Africa, as African planations of Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and polities struggled to continue the lucrative and ad‐ Steel (1997) to the sociopolitical musings of David vantageous trade in humans with the Spanish, Landes in The Wealth and Poverty of Nations Portuguese, and, increasingly, the British and the (1998). Even older works such as Frederick Turn‐ Dutch (a trade that was carried out on African, er’s Beyond Geography (1983) proffer “spiritual” not European, terms). The authors also discuss and religious motivations for European expan‐ European migration to and settlement in the sion. The weight that the fve authors give to simi‐ American continents and the changing, but ever- larities among Africans, Amerindians, and Euro‐ present, trading and political accommodations peans perhaps leads them to ignore a fundamen‐ with native American nations. The fve authors tal difference, namely that although Europeans highlight that unfree labor systems existed not were never unbridled, omnipotent masters in only among the Europeans (slavery and inden‐ their dealings with other peoples, they were, nev‐ 2 H-Net Reviews tured servitude) but among Amerindians and In chapter 13, the fve authors discuss, only Africans as well. too quickly, the industrial revolution and the rise Chapters 7 and 8 underscore the role played of capitalism. Market revolutions, new industrial by trade and “racial and cultural mixture” in the technologies, and the associated increase in Atlantic world. Trade, many Europeans found, transatlantic immigration and trade is presented was more transformative than religion in chang‐ as a result of an interconnected Atlantic society. ing the habits of natives. Commodities such as to‐ Textile production in Britain is tied to cotton bacco forged not only new relationships between farming in the U.S. South; the cessation of the disparate peoples but altered societies across the transatlantic slave trade is tied to vast internal mi‐ Atlantic, as everyone from English plowmen and grations of slaves in the Americas; new commer‐ African slaves in Brazil all clamored for the won‐ cial tastes in Europe and less slave labor are tied derfully “noxious weed.” The authors also note to changing African farming practices; advances the rise of new cultures in the Atlantic world: “De‐ in transportation in the northern Atlantic are tied spite attempts to create a ‘New’ Spain--or France, to the lack of industrial growth Latin America. All Holland, Sweden, or England--in the Americas, the of these trans-oceanic changes spotlight the con‐ linking of the Atlantic world resulted in the cre‐ nected nature of societies across national fron‐ ation of numerous mixed and creole, or locally tiers and highlight the narrowness of strictly na‐ born, populations with distinct, often non-Euro‐ tional histories. Chapter 14, the last in the book, pean cultural characteristics” (pp. 256-257). Chap‐ takes the story to 1888, when the Empire of Brazil ter 9 details the “shrinking Atlantic” as political legally abolished slavery. The economic impera‐ and military upheavals in one area (often Europe) tives of capitalism and new social sensibilities in had repercussions in the Americas and Africa. Europe and the United States are the primary fac‐ These events call attention to the very intercon‐ tors in the story of abolition, though the end of nectedness of the Atlantic region, as Abenaki Indi‐ slavery brings about new questions in the labor ans, for instance, attacked English settlements in market and engenders a change in the political re‐ North America as allies of the French in a war lations between peoples on both sides of the At‐ concerning the succession to the Hapsburg lantic. throne. Chapters 10, 11, and 12 discuss the revolu‐ For scholars of German migrations to the New tions that rocked the Atlantic world, from Ameri‐ World, the book offers only a paucity of refer‐ ca to France, Haiti, and Latin America. Again, ences. The index provides only one reference to stress is placed on the notion that these revolu‐ Germans and two to pre-1492 Germanic peoples. tions were not merely “national” in scope, but Though a table on “European Migrants to the that they all had intense and important reverber‐ Americas, 1500-1800” (p.
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