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In chapter seven of The Atlantic World the impacts of European culture, specifically the development of commerce/trade, are shown to have major affects on indigenous populations. What I thought was interesting was how European and indigenous ideas clashed in regards to the function of commerce. Bernado de Bargas Machura, a Spanish soldier turned estate manager and district official in the Spanish colonies, believed that natives were barbarous people in need of guidance to encourage the production of goods for sale (Pg. 217). This expressed the ignorance Europeans had toward native culture in which the belief that since indigenous people only traded for food, clothing, and weapons they were primitive. For Europeans economic gain was one of the main motivations for European transatlantic expansion. In the European mindset, if natives were taught to trade and adapted to a commercial mentality they might find enjoyment in wealth. During the 16th to the 18th centuries, trade transformed Atlantic culture for both European and indigenous peoples. European cities in colonized lands became power houses in trade. In comparison, the largest Native American states had land locked capitals instead of major cities oriented toward river or ocean trading. For African nations, those who joined with the Atlantic trade enjoyed goods and arms which helped to centralize individual states. This is similar to ideas brought up in Michael Gomez Exchanging Our Country Marks in which African nations closest to the coast and eager to trade slave with Europeans began to gain in power and wealth. While those Africans nations who did not join the trade became less developed and less adaptable to the changing outside world around them.
Chapter eight elaborates on the opposite effects that Atlantic trading had on European and indigenous culture. Instead of indigenous traditions/customs being completely dissolved under the might of European culture, an integration of cultures took hold. These ideas are discussed through the words of my colleague Marissa Cervantes. She brings up the fact that the Atlantic world was becoming culturally flexible and multilingual allowing ingenious culture to survive. Most of the mixture of culture happened at places such as trading posts along the West African coast. I found this to be ironic as the very areas in which Europeans believed indigenous people would fully assimilate into their culture instead allowed new mixed races and cultural customs to flourish.
The first part of the reading assignment was Chapter 7. The main idea here is trade’s effect on the Atlantic world, arguing that economic gain was what enabled the Europeans to dominate the Atlantic world. Along Atlantic coastlines, cities and dense urban populations built up. This was influenced by commerce, discovery of prized goods like gold, and resulted in intercultural mingling, helping to shape relations between Atlantic nations. One notable interaction is between the Europeans and African nations, by which many Africans transitioned their reliance on trade and transportation across the desert to the sea. Such examples reinforce the argument with which I would agree.
The other half of the reading was chapter 8. The main idea for this chapter is the cultural interactions within the Atlantic world, arguing culture and race created new cultures, new racial identities, and hierarchies, which I would agree with. The chapter points out how many coastal ports and cities developed mixed races, cultural practices, which ultimately challenged the cultural standards and racial identifications at the time. A few examples would be the blending of religions, languages, and world views. These interactions drove relations in the Atlantic, but they were not always friendly, with one side resisting or opposing the other. Sometimes cultural and racial blending resulted in good trade relations, other times acquisition of slaves, and other times direct conflict. Cultural and racial factors were certainly influences in Atlantic history, but I would not put it at the top. Between the two ideas , I would give trade preeminence.
Classmate Marrissa Cervantes points out the relation of this reading with the Saltwater Frontier. This is demonstrated in these chapters with the trade relations between Europeans and the Americans, coupled with the idea that native populations were equal if not more advanced than Europeans in several ways. One new example from this chapter is the use of muskets, which are often mistakenly viewed as desired by natives, but did not meet their needs, and were often faulty.
Similarly, to previous chapters, Egerton Et. AL. discuss how the vast Atlantic trade significantly altered the societal and economic conditions of the Atlantic as a whole. The Atlantic trade shifted not only the demographics of the entirety of the Atlantic, but also the locations of major cities and peoples (Atlantic World 225). As European powers realized the vast wealth that was present in the Americas, this shift happened more rapidly, specifically in areas such as Brazil where there was a discovery of gold (Atlantic World 227). In shifting the economies to be more economically valuable, the authors argue that this significantly changed the social and political landscape of the Atlantic. For instance, liquor, which became more economically valuable, significantly changed Indian tribes’ culture and caused them to be a part of the commodification of goods (Atlantic World 233).
A significant change in social and cultural traditions could be attributed to the change in trade, the authors argue. One of the first places this could be seen was on the coastal region of Africa, where Europeans began to mix with Africans as they traded with the regions more (Atlantic World 259). Through both linguistics and religion, which changed significantly after European contact, it can be shown just how much the Atlantic World as a whole was changed. Africans began to change religions, which speaks to how much contact changed the region as a whole.
This cultural shift could clearly be seen during the slave trade, which directly tied these two ideas together. While trade alone brought changes in social and cultural values, the slave trade inevitably forced them in a much more negative manner. The authors argue that slave trade, and thus trade, created a stricter hierarchy of race (Atlantic World 279). Marissa Cervantes brings up the idea that the Atlantic was “culturally flexible and multilingual,” which is a great way of describing the Atlantic that resulted from both trade and the slave trade. As the authors of this book have previously shown, slavery caused new customs and traditions to be created where old ones could not persist.
In last week’s readings, namely Atlantic History, Chapter 6 and Mintz’s Sweetness and Power, we discussed how the proliferation of sugar effected both demographic changes and consumer changes. This week’s reading (Atlantic History, Chapter 7 and 8) goes a step beyond by assessing how the mass consumption of products traded in the Atlantic world (such as tobacco, chocolate, iron, cloths, and arms) spurred urban development and the rise of a cross-Atlantic cosmopolitan culture. Egerton et. al notes how certain cities, including Seville, Buenos Aires, and Charlestown, owed their emergence due to their significance in some aspect of the Atlantic trade (such as the export of livestock in the case of Buenos Aires, owing to Argentina’s expansive cattle fields) (Egerton, 224). Similarly, the Atlantic trade proves paramount in not only dictating the rise of cities, but also the creation of their wealth and bestowing of a strategic importance. As my colleague warmturtletank states, “Quiet towns became urban trading posts and important port cities because of their access to the Atlantic Ocean.” This statement ties in nicely with the theme of the course, which emphasizes the primacy of the Atlantic trade network and its eponymous oceanic conduit in galvanizing cultural, economic, and development everywhere its appendages extended.
Furthermore, this urban development culminated in the spread of a cosmopolitan culture and diffusion of cultural customs. Egerton et al. provides an excellent example of such by giving an account of a European’s visit to Captain Assou of the Whydah Kingdom’s home (Egerton, 256). By noting the home’s cache of Bordeaux and Madeiran wine, feasts comprised of French cuisine, and Potosi silver eating utensils, as well as Assou’s own distinctively French etiquette, Egerton et al. make an excellent case for the Atlantic trade network’s responsibility for hybrid cultures and syncretic consumption rituals (Egerton, 256). Indeed, the existence of creole languages, numerous pidgins, and racial/ ethnic admixture was born out of the demographic changes caused by the Atlantic slave trade (as discussed last week).
In summation, the mass consumption brought about by the Columbian Exchange enacted very real change in the Americas, Africa, and Europe in the form of urban development and cosmopolitan culture.
Chapter Seven of The Atlantic World starts with introducing Bernardo de Vargas Machuca. He “challenged the assertions of the missionary Las Casas “due to “Spanish cruelty” (Egerton, 217). Vargas Machuca offered an idea that would lessen rebellions and allow Indians to integrate into colonial society. In order to do allow this change to happen, colonists would hold a weekly market in order for Indians to trade and start the process of “hispanicization”. In doing so, more people would be happy, and Indians would have more money to pay forward. Spaniards hoped religion would help convert Indians; however, it was the market exchange helped out much more because the Atlantic world was a world about commodities. The entire chapter focuses on the changes and demands of commodities. Europeans traveled to Africa and across the Atlantic to the Americas to get goods. Then they created the demand for labor, which resulted in the demand of millions of enslaved people for labor. Social and political changes happened as well as cities. Instead of dying due to environmental diseases, citizens continued on and thrived due to constant migration (218). Later on, the chapter focuses on tobacco. Because of religious and location reasons, it became “an ideal crop from a mercantilist standpoint” and the demand for it skyrocketed (229). Due to the high demand of product, it resulted in a high demand for labor, which changed the world.
Chapter Eight discusses the racial mixture that came about due to the Atlantic world. It mentions Dom Joao and Senhora Catarina. It parallels the nature of the Atlantic world, showing that it “resulted in the creation of numerous mixed and creole, or locally born, populations” (256). It showed the Atlantic world being “culturally flexible and multilingual” in order to “survive” and “seize an opportunity” (257). The mixture of cultured happened at places such as trading posts along the West African coast, making them “unpredictable” due to the different ways in which “they wanted to adapt to foreign ways” (258). This idea of mixture of cultures has been apparent in many readings. The most well-known is the Saltwater Frontier where colonists and Native Americans traded goods near rivers. Those areas were prosperous in trade, not just goods but ideas as well. This concept was brought up by Steven Andreen.
Egerton et al argues that human interaction with Atlantic commodities shaped the history of the area both culturally and economically. (Egerton et al, 251) The development of goods drove trade through consumer demand, in turn giving rise to the commodification of people, needed to strengthen labor forces across the Atlantic basin. Along with the increase in trade came the metamorphosis of the physical landscape. Quiet towns became urban trading posts and important port cities because of their access to the Atlantic Ocean. These new cities witnessed the rise in the buying and selling of slaves, as they provided an area to load and unload goods, namely tribal Africans being shipped to the Americas to work the plantations.
The slave trade influenced anthropological changes in African society as well. Tribes moved further inland in search of areas less accessible to European raiders. The relocation of various tribes created new ways of life, new language, and new customs through the intermingling of indigenous African cultures. This, Egerton et al also argues, was a direct result of the Atlantic trade system. Additionally, the interaction of varying cultures and peoples enhanced the view of racial difference among all involved. Egerton et al contends that, “people with skin tones and features that did not match established European categories soon challenged the very idea of racial difference.” (Egerton et al, 257)
The intensification of the commodification of people and racial difference resulted from the Atlantic trade system. This hypothesis is held by many in the field, not just Egerton et al. As Marissa pointed out, Sidney Mintz’s article, Sweetness and Power, highlighted the value of enslaved people in the Atlantic atmosphere. Trade created a platform on which consumers and suppliers of goods changed the economic background of the entire Atlantic world. The increase in the demand for goods called for a larger supply of product. The enslavement of people to fill the demand led to human commodification. Trade and slavery, in turn, allowed for the intertwining of culture, tradition, and ethnicity resulting in the ubiquity of racial difference.
Chapter 7 in Atlantic World explains the transformation in Africa during the Slave Trade within cultural changes. The reason the Americas and Atlantic Africa had strong connections regarding to trading because slave trading brought changes to African societies such as creating their own communities, growing their own food crops, growing populations, and increase amounts of free people help developed their own identity in Atlantic history. Men grew American plantations as planters in the Atlantic trade, while women produced equal or greater amounts of productivity in agricultural pursuits within the Atlantic. (Chapter 7, Page 240-242). Women’s role increased because they created their own societies, create governments, and build agricultural within the Americas. I think gender interaction shaped the Atlantic because it effected production like tea, sugar, and coffee which shaped the Atlantic’s economic history. Chapter 8 explains cultural transformation within gender interaction in the Western Atlantic because of new social relations and new mixed-race populations although created power within European men claiming rights and African women as material riches of enslaved society. One of the best examples was cross-cultural unions because European traders in African can form alliances with prominent families through marriage or other forms of unions. (Chapter 8, Page 264). One of the best examples of mixed-race families were the metis (mixed) daughters because their served as liaisons at Hudson Bay and were married to English company clerks which resulted inter-mix marriages and communities to create governments in the Atlantic. (Chapter 8, Page 266). Cultural changes became important because gender interaction created migration within a region, created work regimes, imperial governments to regulate people’s behavior in the Americas and the Atlantic, and these innovations changed the Atlantic World.
These chapters remind me of what Shelby Moore wrote explaining women’s roles in Michael Gomez’s article because women were in high regard in society and highly depending within Sierra Leone. (Gomez, Page 97). Many Native groups and Europeans continued their traditions which led to cultural change within their societies in the future. They are some societies who preferred to stay within their cultures and many of these groups like the cultural changes that are occurring in the Atlantic.
Throughout the course of the Atlantic Slave Trade approximately 12.5 million slaves had been shipped from Africa, and 10.7 million had arrived in the Americas. However, the culture and traditions amongst each African slave were hardly the same as each slave expressed their own ethnicity through their appearance, religion, and familiarity of town life. Within Michael A. Gomez, Exchanging Our Country’s Marks, the author reveals the complexity of African tribal politics. What I found interesting was Gomez’s discussion on the trade relations between coastal African nations and European traders. Beginning with the Portuguese arriving to Sierra Leone in the middle of the fifteenth century and their relations with the Sapes, or coastal African population who throughout the sixteenth century had experienced a series of invasions by interior nations referred to as the Manes or Southern Mande speakers from the Gold Coast. Looking back at George E. Brooks, “Ecological Perspectives,” we know that the migrating patterns and cultural strategies of the Mande speaking people expressed intelligence and cunning similar to that of European powers of the time. However, even the Mande speaking people were overwhelmed with the amount of warfare being brought upon them by numerous rival African nations within the area. The resulting Mane Wars would initiate the process of supplying African slaves for the Atlantic Trade. I thought it was insightful that inter group hostilities would be motivated by the Atlantic Slave Trade. This constant conflict would lead to enhanced trade relations and a mass number of African slaves being forced to migrate to the Americas.
It is an interesting concept that these coastal Africans were not always captives, but also at times willing participants/partners. As control over Sierra Leone switched from Spain/Portugal to France to finally the English, trade agreements would be created amongst local African rulers. The British would operate out of different sections of Sierra Leone (the Bunce and York Island) only after agreeing to pay fees/taxes for land use to the local Temene ruler. The British would also utilize African Portuguese to be negotiate for them, in turn they would provide wealth for the negotiators services. It is revealing then that the approximately 380,370 African slaves taken out of Sierra Leone from 1750 to 1799 would still be treated as absolute inferiors within the Americas, incapable of possessing unique identities or expressing intelligence. The truth of the matter being that the Africans were uniquely separate from each other through enthincity, yet they developed a community amongst themselves which still possessed reminiscences of their cultures. In the words of my colleague, Marissa Cervantes, “the African communities had no choice but to sacrifice their individuality to only be generalized in America.” In the end their concepts of township and community would develop a unique African American culture under oppression.
Gomez begins this chapter by discussing the Sierra Leone region of Africa and the Europeans effects on it. It is well known by now that the concept of race is one that the Europeans themselves created, however, as Gomez states, the concept of ethnicities were also formed after Europeans made contact with the Sierra Leonians, especially in regards to looks (Gomez 89). From these tribes and groups grew rivalries, which in turn led to wars and conflicts. These conflicts helped to perpetuate the slave trade, as captured tribes would be sold into captivity. It became so volatile that it was “regarded by the slave traders as a paradise” (Gomez 90). As some tribes grew together and sometimes formed polities, as in the case of Jallon (Gomez 92). This was because the introduction of trade, specifically the slave trade, had caused a change in social structure. Tribes began to form alliances, which they had not previously done.
The author also argues that in turn, the Sierra Leonians affected the New World due to their social structures. The roles of each gender varied highly depending on the society within Sierra Leone, with some, such as the Senufo, regarding women in a higher regard in society and government (Gomez 97). Gomez argues that many of these structures simply could not continue to exist in the New World for a multitude of reasons. Although tribes and groups were able to carry on some of their traditions, the drastic change in environment was not kind to the different cultures. However, one structure that did remain was the conflicts between tribes. As Gomez points out, certain groups were looked down upon in the New World, such as the Geechee (Gomez 104).
My colleague Marissa Cervantes argues that women were more sought after because of their roles in Sierra Leone societies, which I largely agree with. As previously stated, women were given more power in many Sierra Leone societies, especially the Akan society (Gomez 110). Likewise, she argues that this was because of sweeping generalizations, which I also agree with. Europeans favored certain tribes in Sierra Leone because of their generalization of knowledge useful areas, especially agriculture with the Akans (Gomez 110). Overall, Gomez argues that Europeans affected Sierra Leone, and in turn, Sierra Leonians affected the New World.