Atlantic World

The Atlantic World is the history of the interactions among the peoples and empires bordering the Atlantic Ocean rim from the beginning of the Age of Discovery to the early 21st century.

The Atlantic slave trade continued into the 19th century, but the international trade was largely outlawed in 1807 by Britain. Slavery ended in 1865 in the United States and in the 1880s in Brazil (1888) and Cuba (1886). In many ways the history of the "Atlantic world" culminates in the "Atlantic Revolutions" of the late 18th century and early 19th century.

The historiography of the Atlantic World, known as Atlantic history, has grown enormously since the 1990s.

The Atlantic World comprises the histories of Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Travel over land was difficult and expensive, so settlements were made along the coast, especially where rivers allowed small boats to travel inland. Distant settlements were linked by elaborate sea-based trading networks. Since the easiest and cheapest way of long-distance travel was by sea, international trading networks emerged in the Atlantic world, with major hubs at London, Amsterdam, Boston, and Havana. Time was a factor, as sailing ships averaged about 2 knots speed (50 miles a day). Navigators had to rely on maps of currents or they would be becalmed for days or weeks. One major goal for centuries was finding a Northwest Passage (through what is now Canada) from Europe to Asia.

Following Columbus and the earliest European voyages to the New World and the west African coast Africa and the division of the Americas between the Spanish Empire and the Portuguese Empire was effected by the Treaty of Tordesillas. The West Coast of Africa played a special role as the source of slave labor. There emerged an elaborate network of economic, geopolitical and cultural exchange—an "Atlantic World" comparable to "Mediterranean World." It linked the nations and peoples that inhabited the Atlantic litoral of North and South America, Africa and Western Europe.

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