The Atlantic world : Europeans, Africans, Indians and their shared history, 1400-1900

From ca. 1400 to 1900 the Atlantic Ocean served as a major highway, allowing people and goods to move easily between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. These interactions and exchanges transformed European, African, and American societies and led to the creation of new peoples, cultures, economies, and ideas throughout the Atlantic arena. The Atlantic World provides a comprehensive and lucid history of one of the most important and impactful cross-cultural encounters in human history. Empires, economies, and trade in the Atlantic world thrived due to the European drive to expand as well as the creative ways in which the peoples living along the Atlantic’s borders adapted to that drive. This comprehensive, cohesively written textbook offers a balanced view of the activity in the Atlantic world. The 40 maps, 60 illustrations, and multiple excerpts from primary documents bring the history to life. Each chapter offers a reading list for those interested in a more in-depth look at the period. "The Atlantic World spans four centuries with significant historical periods and transitions between 1400 and 1900; tells the story of the different peoples, societies, and cultures that used the Atlantic and addresses the relationships, connections, and exchanges, which crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean. Over this period, the Atlantic became a potential source of contacts, communications, networks, alliances and multiple ties between Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans. In the end, it transformed their societies and gave birth to new peoples, cultures, economic and social structures, and global relations. Three main themes that structure these Atlantic histories are; First, the belief that Europeans were those who pioneered the Atlantic crossing beyond their home borders. Second, that the development of Atlantic trade, colonies, economies, and empires was the outcome of a process of interactions, exchanges and engagements between Europeans, Africans, and Indians to which all of them contributed. The third theme contends that the Atlantic system vanished after having operated with a great deal of zest and dynamism for five centuries. On the basis of a wealth of primary sources ranging from travel accounts, letters, diaries, journals, and autobiographies to pamphlets, collective documents, and encyclopedias; from Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch sources to English and French ones, from sources covering the pre-Columbian period to those dealing with the modern one, Benjamin wrote a learned, profound, yet an accessible history of the Atlantic world, even to the lay history reader, and a useful textbook to the historian and student of history."--African Studies Quarterly (online journal -- March 22, 2010) (March 2, 2011) "The Atlantic World spans four centuries with significant historical periods and transitions between 1400 and 1900; tells the story of the different peoples, societies, and cultures that used the Atlantic and addresses the relationships, connections, and exchanges, which crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean. Over this period, the Atlantic became a potential source of contacts, communications, networks, alliances and multiple ties between Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans. In the end, it transformed their societies and gave birth to new peoples, cultures, economic and social structures, and global relations. Three main themes that structure these Atlantic histories are; First, the belief that Europeans were those who pioneered the Atlantic crossing beyond their home borders. Second, that the development of Atlantic trade, colonies, economies, and empires was the outcome of a process of interactions, exchanges and engagements between Europeans, Africans, and Indians to which all of them contributed. The third theme contends that the Atlantic system vanished after having operated with a great deal of zest and dynamism for five centuries. On the basis of a wealth of primary sources ranging from travel accounts, letters, diaries, journals, and autobiographies to pamphlets, collective documents, and encyclopedias; from Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch sources to English and French ones, from sources covering the pre-Columbian period to those dealing with the modern one, Benjamin wrote a learned, profound, yet an accessible history of the Atlantic world, even to the lay history reader, and a useful textbook to the historian and student of history."--African Studies Quarterly (journal en ligne -- 22 mars 2010) (2 mars 2011)