In a sweeping account, Atlantic Wars explores how warfare shaped
the experiences of the peoples living in the watershed of the
Atlantic Ocean between the late Middle Ages and the Age of
Revolution. At the beginning of that period, combat within Europe
secured for the early colonial powers the resources and political
stability they needed to venture across the sea. By the early
nineteenth century, descendants of the Europeans had achieved
military supremacy on land but revolutionaries had challenged the
norms of Atlantic warfare. Nearly everywhere they went, imperial
soldiers, missionaries, colonial settlers, and traveling merchants
sought local allies, and consequently they often incorporated
themselves into African and indigenous North and South American
diplomatic, military, and commercial networks. The newcomers and
the peoples they encountered struggled to understand each other,
find common interests, and exploit the opportunities that arose
with the expansion of transatlantic commerce. Conflicts arose as a
consequence of ongoing cultural misunderstandings and differing
conceptions of justice and the appropriate use of force. In many
theaters of combat profits could be made by exploiting political
instability. Indigenous and colonial communities felt vulnerable in
these circumstances, and many believed that they had to engage in
aggressive military action-or, at a minimum, issue dramatic
threats-in order to survive. Examining the contours of European
dominance, this work emphasizes its contingent nature and
geographical limitations, the persistence of conflict and its
inescapable impact on non-combatants' lives. Addressing warfare at
sea, warfare on land, and transatlantic warfare, Atlantic Wars
covers the Atlantic world from the Vikings in the north, through
the North American coastline and Caribbean, to South America and
Africa. By incorporating the British, French, Spanish, Dutch,
Portuguese, Africans, and indigenous Americans into one synthetic
work, Geoffrey Plank underscores how the formative experience of
combat brought together widely separated people in a common
history.
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