Early Modern Expansion and the Politicization of Oceanic Space^*

* This essay benefited from the comments of the participants at the Oceans Connect workshop at Duke University and from the assessments of two anonymous reviewers. The John Carter Brown Library, where I was a fellow, provided a collegial environment for completing the revisions.

Abstract

The definition of oceans as international politicized space is an integral but little analyzed aspect of early modern European expansion, which took place between about 1450 and 1800. In this essay I explore the implications of thinking about the development of European imperialism and global dominance in oceanic terms. I argue that oceanic, rather than terrestrial, dominance characterized early modern European empires, particularly in relation to Africa and Asia, where indigenous political and economic control prevailed. The long apprenticeship in mastering oceanic space contributed to the ability of Europeans to build land‐based empires in Asia and Africa in the nineteenth century. As well, the international relationships worked out by Europeans in the nonstate but militarized arena of the high seas contributed to an emergent global order.

• colonialism
• European expansion
• imperialism
• international relations

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Mancke

Dr. Mancke is an associate professor of history at the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, 44325–1902.