Courses

This course considers the early modern Atlantic world, one of the most significant fields of inquiry in European, African, American studies, covering the period from the European “discovery” of the Americas until the Americas began to achieve political independence at the end of the 1700s. Many of the interactions which spanned the Atlantic were imperial, and this course considers British, French, Spanish, Dutch and Portuguese imperial Atlantic encounters. However, these encounters were not just imperial, they were also economic, environmental, intellectual, political and literary, encompassing not only Atlantic empire, but also Atlantic commodities (such as sugar and mahogany), Atlantic labour migration (including African slavery and European servitude), Atlantic merchants and consumers, Atlantic political upheaval, and Atlantic literature.