A Search for Sovereignty


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Lauren Benton describes the commercial advantages of inland river areas discovered (and fought over) by Atlantic Europeans. This book dealt with colonial European entities that feuded over various complex river systems along, or close to, the Atlantic coast. Tales of mutiny and communal corruption arise from the Mississippi and Amazon on one side of the Atlantic to the vast river valleys of West and Central Africa on the other. Both namely the Spanish and the English struggled with trying to keep loyalty among their colonial subjects intact overseas. The betrayal of Cabeza de Vaca by his military followers demonstrates the continual tradition of feuding for land and surplus in Renaissance Europe. The viceroyalties that erupted among the northwestern coasts of South America served to install a geographical checkpoint for the Spanish, still questioning whether a passage to the East was doable sailing westward from where they were at.

As a pretext to the assertion of certain Native peoples preserving riches and certain trading prospects within their habitat, the colonial powers of Europe administered laws and policies overseas to ensure competence in Native cooperation. They also adhered to Roman law to install governmental outposts among trade landmarks dispersed all over the Atlantic. As my colleague http://hist410.aloberts.com/blog/uncategorized/rivers-and-treason-the-european-way/ posted this week, they used rivers as a symbol of land ownership and as a way to show that they plan to explore more areas. “Old World” tradition and adaptation was key in visualizing the balance of power between royalty and mercantilism in Atlantic river systems.

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