HIST1083 Lecture Notes - Lecture 27: Atlantic Slave Trade, Atlantic World, Columbian Exchange
Beginning of Module 5
• Atlantic World in the 1th Century
o Spanish/Portuguese pioneers
o Distinct cultural zone
o Rise of the British and Dutch Empires
• Why did Europe Explore?
o Curiosity
▪ It was thought that if you went west, the first thing you would hit would be east
Asia
▪
o Economic incentive
▪ Lacking behind the Chinese empires and the Ottoman empires
▪ Lots to gain in trade in the far east
▪ Needed new global currency
o Tradition of expansion
▪
o Christianity
▪ Evangelize a pagan population→big motivation for European kings
▪ Fear that if Catholis didt get there first the Protestats ould
• Obstacles
o Legends
▪ Fear
o Geographical ignorance
▪ Thought the only thing to the west was the far east
o Danger
▪ Obviously there was lots of danger in sea exploration
o Poor conditions
▪ Not healthy, not natural conditions
• From Barrier to Bridge: The Atlantic World
o Distinct identity
o Key global zone
o Transforms slave network
▪ As Atlantic world develops, the more manpower is needed for plantation
crops→available slaves on the west coast of Africa
o Wealth, resources, potential
• American Map (1524)
o Oceanus occidentalis→Wester oea hat the Atlati as origially alled
▪ a barrier
o Maps as political tool
▪ Paint picture of positive exploration, encouraging subjects to participate and
invest in this exploration
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▪ Dot at to sho that it is ot hospitale
o Reflect knowledge of day
o Distae relatie
▪ Make it loser so it ist as dautig to sujets lookig at it
• Half-empty or half-full?
o Map of tribes in North America before Columbus got there
o None of this success of the Atlantic worlds would have happened without the help of
the natives
o Major players were Portugal and Spain at first, then England, France and the Dutch
o Lots of contradiction in the Atlantic World
▪ Zone of the most advanced democratic experimental political systems ever
known to man→rights of people paramount over rights of king
▪ Within this though, biggest crime in history was Atlantic Slave Trade
▪ Brought new systems of trade, individual rights, citizenship
▪ Redefines fundamental rights/duties of being a human
• Revolutionizes what an individual can and should do→revolutionize
society
• A New World
o Interconnected
▪ For good or for bad
▪ Globatlization =positive and negative effect ton Americans and Atlantic world in
general
o Diversity
▪ Crops become staples in both places→diversity and commonality
▪ Constant tensions between different people around same ocean, yet sharing the
same ocean
▪ GERMS→spread with all this interaction
▪ Kingdoms, states, empires that will take part→brings together 1000s of
different cultures and languages
▪ A whole series of different spaces—with time eventually becomes a single entity
i peoples ids (Atlati World)
o Slavery
▪ Slavery expansion because of growing crops→need ofr intensive human labor
on these plantations
▪ Developed a traffic of slaves form Afircato the Americas
• Africasn were not initially powerless, naïve, victims of all of this
o Some played European game ofr profit, self-interest
o Part of an equal European/African equal playing field game (at
least at first)
• Gains and Losses
o Immense material gain
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