The Atlantic World
The voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492 was hugely important. It led to the fall of Indigenous empires, the decimation of the Amerindian population, great wealth and power for Iberian monarchs, a new global economy of silver, and the beginning of a plantation system based on enslaved labour. At the same time, Columbus’ voyage was part of a wider story of Atlantic exchanges. The Western seaboard of Europe had long been a highway for merchants, travellers and diplomats. The West Coast of Africa, Atlantic islands such as Madeira and the Azores, and the fishing grounds of the Northwest Atlantic, were also part of the story. Even the Pacific Ocean was involved, when American silver was shipped to Asia in return for spices, porcelain, and other ‘exotic’ goods. This lecture looks at the emergence of the Atlantic Ocean as a major player in global history.
The seminar will focus on maps, especially those that combined European and Indigenous American expertise.
[To be completed Sep 2026]
ESSENTIAL READING
Gerritsen, Anne, and Anthony McFarlane. 'Expanding Horizons.' In Beat Kümin (ed.),' The European World, 1500-1800: An Introduction to Early Modern History, 4th edn. (2022), pp. 182-192
PRIMARY SOURCE QUESTIONS
GENERAL QUESTIONS
* * *
RECOMMENDED READING:
Canny, Nicholas, ‘The ideology of English colonisation’, William and Mary Quarterly, 30 (1973), 575-97
Robert Brenner, ‘The social basis of English commercial expansion, 1550-1650’, Journal of Economic History, 32 (1972), 361-84
Elliott, J.H. Empires of the Atlantic world: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830 (2006), chap. 1
Schwartz, Stuart B., ‘The Iberian Atlantic to 1650’ in Nicholas Canny and Philip Morgan (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the Atlantic world, c.1450-c.1850 (2011)
Thornton, John K., A Cultural History of the Atlantic world, 1250-1820 (2012), chap. 5
FURTHER READING:
Abulafia, D., The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus (2008)
Anderson, Virginia, New England Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century (1991)
Armitage D., and M.J. Braddick, eds., The British Atlantic World, 1500-1800 (2002)
Daunton, M., and R. Halpern, eds., Empire and others: British encounters with indigenous peoples, 1600-1850 (1999)
Hassig, Ross. Mexico and the Spanish Conquest (Harlow, 1994).
Lockhart, James. Spanish Peru, 1532-1560: A Social History. 2d ed. (University of Wisconsin Press, 1994).
Morgan, Edmund, American Slavery, American Freedom: the ordeal of colonial Virginia (1975)
Quinn, David B., England and the discovery of America, 1481-1620 (1974)
ADDITIONAL: Podcast (15 mins) on Walter Raleigh and Virginia
ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
John White's painting of a Secotan man in 1585 (see also John White | British Museum)
General:
John Carter Brown Archive of Early American Images
[Search full-text early American books, pamphlets, broadsides, government documents and rare printed materials. ]
America’s Historical Newspapers
Series 1, 1690-1876
European Views of the Americas: 1493-1750
Index and comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750 containing more than 32,000 entries. It covers the history of European exploration as well as portrayals of native American peoples
The Caribbean:
Columbus, Christopher, Journal of the First Voyage, 1492-3.
Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History with Documents, ed. Geoffrey Symcox and Blair Sullivan, Palgrave (2005). [e-book at Library]
Mexico:
Cortés, Hernán, Letters from Mexico (New Haven, 2001), pp. xxxix-lxxi; 160-281: ‘Introduction’ and ‘Third Letter’. [e-book at Library]
León-Portilla, Miguel (ed.) The Broken Spears: An Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico. Beacon Press, 2006 [e-book at Library]
Cortés's account of his meeting with MoctezumaLink opens in a new window
Peru:
Guaman Poma The First New Chronicle and Good Government (or El primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno, c. 1615).
Titu Cusi Yupanqui. An Inca Account of the Conquest of Peru. University Press of Colorado, 2005. [e-book at Library]
Francisco Xeres, Narrative of the Conquest of Peru (1547)
North America:
John White's paintings of North America 1585-6
John Smith The generall historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles [1624]