Essay about The Atlantic System

The interactions experienced by the Europeans, Native Americans, and Africans changed the economy and the society in many ways. The period more commonly known as the Columbian Exchange, which was set in motion by Christopher Columbus, a Spanish explorer who settled the Americas in 1492. The Americas, Africa, and Europe, began to trade back and forth between themselves, creating triangular trade. With this new method plants, animals, diseases, technology, ideas, populations, and culture were introduced and dispersed throughout one another.

The Battle of the Atlantic During WWII, the Germans attempted to force Britain into surrender by preventing vital supplies from reaching her across the Atlantic Ocean. Explain why by mid 1943, the British had gained the upper hand in the Atlantic. The Battle of the Atlantic was a key event in deciding the outcome of WWII. The Atlantic was Britain's lifeline, the only route to the great 'factory' that was the USA with it's vast production capabilities.

Meanwhile in the Americas, European empires were growing, and they realized that they needed a more efficient work force. They had tried using Native Americans, but they usually died from European diseases. Europeans couldn’t work because of the diseases that the tropical climate gave them. It seemed like Africans would be the perfect solution to their problems. They were used to the tropical climate and immune to its diseases, had experience in agriculture, and there was already a market for them. This introduced the slave trade to North America, and in 1619 the first New World slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia. Most of the earlier slaves to journey the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade were from Windward Coast and Senegambia (Present-day Mauritania), but later expanded all along the coast of Africa. The Atlantic Slave Trade was also given the name “Middle Passage”, since it was the middle leg in the Triangular trade.

The Slave Ship by Marcus Rediker is a great fiction novel that describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, seamen, and captains on their journey through the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage marked the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves provided a great economy for the European countries due to the fact that these African slaves provided free labor while cultivating sugar cane in the Caribbean and America. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). This tells us that African enslavement to the Americas causes a complete

There were many changes and continuities within the Atlantic world. The first and biggest change was the change in the caste system in Mexico. The next big change was the slaves in which they exchanged in the Americas. The final change was the change mercantilism to capitalism in Europe.

The study of the Atlantic as an interwoven community is a relatively new theory. Historians are beginning to see Atlantic History as “a sudden and harsh encounter between two old worlds that transformed both and integrated them into a single New World” , and not just separate entities with detached pasts. Atlantic History: Concept and Contours by Bernard Bailyn lays the framework for what Atlantic History is and how it should be studied. Bailyn states that the reasoning behind writing the book is that previous historians focus too much on the imperial history of the Atlantic world, when in fact the colonized areas had just as much of an effect on European powers as Europe had on their colonies. In this concise two part book, Bailyn’s main argument is that the concept of Atlantic History was inevitable because it is impossible to look at any major event of this time period without seeing its effects ripple throughout the entire Atlantic world.

What if you were never born because America never broke away from England, or because the French never revolted, or because women never questioned their rights? Had any of the Atlantic Revolutions never happened, the lives that we live today would have been very different. If the Atlantic Revolutions never happened, the likelihood of us having empires, instead of nations, would be much higher. These were all results of the Atlantic Revolutions. The Atlantic Revolutions all stemmed from the American revolution. Because of the American Revolution, the French revolted against the crown, and people started to think more about equality. And because of both those revolutions, women began to question

in the economic continuities and changes that occurred in the Atlantic World as a result of new contacts

“The Slave Ship: A Human History” written by Marcus Rediker describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, and captains, and ship crewmen on their journey through the Middle Passage, the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves to cultivate crops in the Caribbean and America offered a great economy for the European countries by providing “free” labor and provided immense wealth for the Europeans. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). African enslavement to the Americas is the most prominent reason for a complete shift in the

One of the continents widely affected was the Americas. Whenever European adventures arrived in the 15th century A.D, scholars estimate that

[x] France for example has created New France in Canada and also down into Florida and Spain had a large portion of Mexico and Southern America. [xi] These new colonizes helped create trade between the New and Old World. Government ventures lended money for explorers to set forth and trade in the West and elsewhere.[xii] This also led to the role of mercantilism in the Atlantic as well. They helped promote overseas trade between a country and its own colonizes.[xiii] As they controlled more trade, different trading companies began to emerge in response to mercantilism. The Dutch West Indian Company and the royal African Company chartered by their motherlands all participated in a system which included other non- European countries as well. This system was known as the Atlantic Circuit which was a clockwise network of trading links that moved goods, wealth and people around the Atlantic system.[xiv] This helped make the slave trade more efficient because now a vast amount of slaves could be transported to their specific destinations as requested by a country. As document 8 shows, the slaves which came from Africa each followed a specific route in the Atlantic Circuit. [xv] tying in with document 4 the work that had to be done on the plantation was a lot and that is why with the help of city ports in Africa they were able to get a large number of slaves to help in the Americas. An example of the type of work they did can be

In John K. Thornton’s book, A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250 – 1820, Thornton describes the exploration of the western world by powerful European nations. Early on in the text Thornton details the ways early European merchants and explorers discovered the routes across the Atlantic to what would eventually become the Americas. He then lays out the formation and expansion of the slave trade between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Throughout all of this Thornton very effectively communicates and disproves any common mistakes or false presumptions readers may have. He continues to do this when he switches his focus from the discovery of the Atlantic world to the colonization of it. Thornton explains how the two major European powers in the Atlantic world at that time, England and Spain, “conquered” and colonized the new world. He especially focuses on the relationships between the native peoples and the incoming Europeans. He explores the ways both groups effected each other. He goes on to state that the way in which the social structure of the European colonies was determine in large measure by the social structure of the indigenous people at the time of European arrival. This serves as Thornton’s thesis of the text and he provides evidence to support his claim. He also mentions that most of the time the story of the Atlantic World is told from an exclusively European perspective. And while he does try to include all aspects in the narrative I’m not totally

This essay will briefly define and describe the Atlantic slave trade and analyse what, and how much, African political and economic interests shaped the trade up to 1807/8, the point when the United States and Great Britain abolished the trade; also contending that because the suppliers for the slaves i.e the Africans themselves, had as much of a significant role in the trade as the demanders (the Europeans), numerous African political and economic interests as well as social structures had an almost pivoting role in shaping the nature and expanse of the Atlantic slave trade. This piece of writing will also attempt to illustrate the changes over the period of slavery before 1807, where European influence and pressure likely increased in the later period, after the first century and a half; contending that the Africans had more significant part to play in the initial stages of the trade, but as it enlarged the Europeans conceivably had a more significant role in the exploitation and manipulation of African slaves due to several factors, primarily through arming of Africans and inciting war within the continent.

In this paper, we examine one of the channels through which the slave trade may affect

During the 1500’s Innocent Africans went from being free civilians to slaves in a matter of seconds. Starting in the late 1600’s Portuguese travelers began exploring Africa, this is when they began kidnapping Africans. The Portuguese continued acquiring slaves for nearly 300 years, this ensured that plantations in Europe and South America would be able to grow exponentially, because of the constant flow of free labor that was provided by the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Atlantic Slave Trade was a turning point in history because of the mass exploitation of Africa by the Europeans. During the transport many Africans died or got PTSD due to the atrocious conditions, when the slaves, arrived they would be forced to perform rigorous labor. This is called the Spanish Encomienda system. The impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade can still be felt all around the world, it is a prime example of human exploitation.