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The Atlantic in World History
As Europeans began to move into the Atlantic in the late fifteenth century, first encountering islands and then two continents across the sea, they initiated a process that revolutionized the lives of people everywhere. American foods enriched their diets. Furs, precious metals, dyes, and many other products underwrote new luxury trades, and tobacco became the first consumer craze as the price plummeted with ever-enlarging production.
Much of the technology that made new initiatives, such as sailing out of sight of land, possibly drew on Asian advances that came into Europe through North Africa. Sugar and other crops came along the same routes, and Europeans found American environments ideal for their cultivation. Leaders along the African coast controlled the developing trade with Europeans, and products from around the Atlantic entered African life. As American plantations were organized on an industrial scale, they became voracious consumers of labor. American Indians, European indentured servants, and enslaved Africans were all employed, and over time slavery became the predominant labor system in the plantation economies.
American Indians adopted imported technologies and goods to enhance their own lives, but diseases endemic in the rest of the world to which Americans had no acquired immunity led to dramatic population decline in some areas. From Brazil to Canada, Indians withdrew into the interior, where they formed large and powerful new confederations.
Atlantic exchange opened new possibilities. All around the ocean, states that had been marginal to the main centers in the continents' interiors now found themselves at the forefront of developing trades with the promise of wealth and power. European women and men whose prospects were circumscribed at home saw potential in emigration. Economic aspirations beckoned large numbers, but also, in the maelstrom following the Reformation, others sought the chance to worship as they saw fit. Many saw their hopes dashed, but some succeeded as they had desired. Ultimately, as people of African and European descent came to predominate in American populations, they broke political ties to Europe and reshaped transatlantic relationships.
Much of the technology that made new initiatives, such as sailing out of sight of land, possibly drew on Asian advances that came into Europe through North Africa. Sugar and other crops came along the same routes, and Europeans found American environments ideal for their cultivation. Leaders along the African coast controlled the developing trade with Europeans, and products from around the Atlantic entered African life. As American plantations were organized on an industrial scale, they became voracious consumers of labor. American Indians, European indentured servants, and enslaved Africans were all employed, and over time slavery became the predominant labor system in the plantation economies.
American Indians adopted imported technologies and goods to enhance their own lives, but diseases endemic in the rest of the world to which Americans had no acquired immunity led to dramatic population decline in some areas. From Brazil to Canada, Indians withdrew into the interior, where they formed large and powerful new confederations.
Atlantic exchange opened new possibilities. All around the ocean, states that had been marginal to the main centers in the continents' interiors now found themselves at the forefront of developing trades with the promise of wealth and power. European women and men whose prospects were circumscribed at home saw potential in emigration. Economic aspirations beckoned large numbers, but also, in the maelstrom following the Reformation, others sought the chance to worship as they saw fit. Many saw their hopes dashed, but some succeeded as they had desired. Ultimately, as people of African and European descent came to predominate in American populations, they broke political ties to Europe and reshaped transatlantic relationships.
Hardcover
First published July 1, 2012
About the author
Karen Ordahl Kupperman
29 books14 followersKaren Ordahl Kupperman is an American historian who specializes in colonial history in the Atlantic world of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
She was born in North Dakota, but moved often during her childhood. She studied History at the University of Missouri, after which she obtained a prestigious Woodrow Wilson fellowship and attended Harvard University, graduating with a MA in 1962. She later attended the University of Cambridge to earn her PhD.
She was born in North Dakota, but moved often during her childhood. She studied History at the University of Missouri, after which she obtained a prestigious Woodrow Wilson fellowship and attended Harvard University, graduating with a MA in 1962. She later attended the University of Cambridge to earn her PhD.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 28, 2014
A good overview of the field of Atlantic history and as it is very accessible, I am recommending it to students.
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November 10, 2021Read for uni but I’m counting it 😂
September 3, 2020
Read this for a seminar. There are some excellent parts of this book, I particularly liked the sections on how the Old World was also profoundly affected by the New - how New World goods massively dominated the markets in Europe, or how African slaves arriving in the Americas were familiar with the foods there, as they already had them at home. Kupperman also does a good job in giving you vivid anecdotes and personal stories to illustrate the points she makes. It is also very readable, is quite short, and I did enjoy reading it.
That being said, the book never really defines what 'Atlantic' means, and it lacks any historiographical content, which would have really helped orient those like myself with little familiarity with the subject manner. It feels composite at times, in that things happening across the 'Atlantic world' are described in unison, with seemingly not much connecting them. I also don't like how it ends at the start of the 19th century, with no explanation as to why the history should stop there. Maybe having such a loose structure and no overarching narrative is what allowed Kupperman to give us personal stories and underheard perspectives in the way she does well, but that's isn't what I'd normally look for in a book like this.
That being said, the book never really defines what 'Atlantic' means, and it lacks any historiographical content, which would have really helped orient those like myself with little familiarity with the subject manner. It feels composite at times, in that things happening across the 'Atlantic world' are described in unison, with seemingly not much connecting them. I also don't like how it ends at the start of the 19th century, with no explanation as to why the history should stop there. Maybe having such a loose structure and no overarching narrative is what allowed Kupperman to give us personal stories and underheard perspectives in the way she does well, but that's isn't what I'd normally look for in a book like this.
February 2, 2023
Very barebone, but a good introduction for high school and undergraduate students to the subject.
May 13, 2014
A good overview. More textbook than deep analysis. Made me realize how much Atlantic World I include in my World Civ II classes.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews