Early Atlantic Interactions

The history of the early Atlantic world is one of interactions between very different societies: Western Europeans, Africans, and Indigenous Americans. Prior to the dawn of exploration, each of these societies functioned in a largely independent state of the others, and thus developed strikingly different forms of culture, language, religion, and customs. Due to these broad differences, exploration and colonization often led to conflict, and sometimes the complete annihilation of a societal group. Conflict was driven primarily by misunderstanding, while cooperation was driven by cultural curiosity which later evolved into real interest in learning more about how others live. Even if interest was driven by the novelty of purchasing goods from …show more content…
Despite obvious differences, a key aspect of these interactions was that although lacking a form of concrete political control, the Africans at Cape Verde revered status from birth and property ownership (Crone, 54). This knowledge and similarity to European reverence of social hierarchy would be essential to future establishment of trade in the region, enabling European merchants to operate in a societal system that was different from their own. Despite being a simple example, this underscores the importance for Europeans and Africans of coming into interactions with a mindset of curiosity and inquisitiveness. This mindset was because of, not in spite of, profound cultural …show more content…
A hallmark of this pre-existing culture was the presence of natural curiosity and the desire to learn and advance understanding of the surrounding world. This is evident throughout primary source accounts of interactions throughout the age of exploration, but is often buried underneath overtones of blatant racism and prejudices, which were present in all three societies. The essential point of understanding early Atlantic history is that while some actors, such as Sepulveda and Cortes, expressed brutality and the “natural slave” sentiment, widespread adoption of new ideas, foods, clothing, and tools occurred throughout the Old and New Worlds. If interactions were only taking place under the context of annihilation and with disregard for the learning about culture and biogeography of other groups, then how can European willingness to adopt the rituals of Native American tobacco and chocolate consumption, or the near obsessive documentation of African and American plants and animals be explained? Whether Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans at the time knew it or not, all interactions were taking place with a context of cultural learning and an attempt to understand how the “other” operated. This mindset would drive and define interactions that took place