The Geography of The Atlantic World

Comparisons between different regions, nations, and cultures will be a central part of this course.  Pay attention to similarities and differences between regions when you’re taking notes.

Within the Spanish Empire, the five major regions match up to the four eighteenth-century viceroyalties.  These are:

• New Spain: Mexico and Central America
• Peru: Until the 18th century, the Viceroyalty of Peru encompassed everything from Panama southward, but Peru mainly means the High Andes, present-day Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
• New Granada: the northwestern part of South America, including present-day Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama
• Rio de La Plata: the Southern Cone, encompassing present-day Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay
• The Caribbean was the fifth region of Spanish America.  An early focus of activity, it faded somewhat in importance over time.  It was technically part of New Spain and was administered from Mexico City.

Some other geographical axes to be aware of when studying the Atlantic world:

• British Empire: North American mainland vs. Caribbean
• Portuguese Empire: Brazil vs. Portuguese Africa; Brazilian coast vs. interior of Brazil
• French Empire: Quebec vs. Louisiana vs. Caribbean (especially St-Domingue).  Quebec and St-Domingue might as well have been different planets.

And some cultural axes to be aware of:

• Spain vs. France vs. Britain vs. Portugal vs. Holland: Each of these countries had its own personality and its own trademark style of imperialism.
• European vs. African vs. Native American: Remember that there was VAST diversity within each group.

Periodizing Atlantic World History

We will discuss chronology throughout the year, but you won’t be expected to learn as many specific dates as you did in U.S. History.  DO pay attention to relative time: knowing which events happened earlier or later than others, and placing economic and social shifts in the correct century or half-century.  Throughout the year, we will discuss several thematic timelines that will help you conceptualize when and how change happened in the Atlantic World.

There were big, sweeping changes in the Atlantic world c. 1492-1530s and again c. 1650-1680.  Then there was a long era of revolutions, with the first burst of activity c. 1763-1789 and the second burst of activity c. 1810-1825.  You might use a scheme like this one to periodize the Atlantic world:

• Before 1492: The Atlantic World Begins to Take Shape.
• 1492-1530s: Contact between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.
• 1530-1650: Development of the Atlantic World, Stage 1.
• 1640s-1680s: Major Reorganization (Why?).
• 1680s-1760s: Development of the Atlantic World, Stage 2.
• 1763-1789: Age of Revolutions, Part 1, followed by a short intermission.
• 1810-1825: Age of Revolutions, Part 2
• The Nineteenth Century
• The Twentieth Century