Abstract
The Routledge Companion to Marine and Maritime Worlds, 1400–1800 consists of 25 impressive contributions (including the introduction) and covers a vast area of research fields connected to marine and maritime worlds from the late Middle Ages to the modern period. The period from 1400–1800 is described as being important for the development of European aspirations to exploit, control and conquer oceans and seas. At the same time, non-European maritime nations and peoples already had long-standing maritime traditions. The volume aims to cover both of these fields within global contexts and ‘to provide authoritative, fresh assessments of these traditions, as well as new understandings of the interconnections between them’ (1). The type of book (a companion) suggests a certain uniformity, general comprehensibility and, above all, representativeness of the contributions brought together, and indeed most of the chapters are easily understandable without in-depth knowledge. While some of the chapters offer a general overview, others are specialized case studies about more or less narrow topics. All of the contributions close with an extensive bibliography and many include manuscript sources (and new research based on them). The volume concludes with an index, which facilitates handling.
The introduction includes an overview of the questions tackled in the volume (2). The topics of the book are widespread. Both macro-historical questions, such as the impact of shipbuilding on state finances or the role of privateering in maritime worlds, and micro-historical themes, such as the use of navigational instruments, shipboard cultures or questions concerning the lives of members of maritime societies, are covered. Whereas some chapters provide a general overview of key topics, others offer new research and attempt to set agendas for future studies (4). Beyond this, one learns little about the guidelines of the companion in the introduction, and it would be interesting to know why certain aspects were included and others were not. Furthermore, the introduction refrains from giving a definition for terms like ‘Age of Discovery’, ‘maritime worlds’, ‘maritime societies’, ‘paramaritime’, ‘global’ and ‘transnational’. Instead, the historiographic overview and the different definitions are picked up in different chapters (for example, 50–9, 126–30, 177–9). Recent or important research debates about the historiography of maritime history – centring on works such as David Armitage, Alison Bashford and Sujit Sivasundaram's Oceanic Histories; Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell's The Corrupting Sea; and Fernand Braudel's The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Phillip II – are summarized in several chapters, but this is not directly mentioned in the introduction. Perhaps some of the contributions dealing with the historiography or the questions of the periodization and definition of maritime spaces would have been better placed at the beginning, as they reflect fundamental problems and are of great interest to the reader.
The general introductory words are followed by a detailed overview of the individual contributions (4–17). The 24 articles are divided into four parts. Part 1 – ‘Historiography and the Premodern Sea’ – deals with the question of how the seas were understood and experienced in different historiographical traditions, covering late medieval and early modern Europe up to recent global historical approaches. Part 2 is about ‘Material Seas’ and seafaring. This encompasses the spaces of maritime activities, including the coastal regions and ports, as well as the aterial culture per se, which includes shipbuilding, ships’ instruments and warship decoration. The third part – ‘Social and Political Seas’ – explores social and political dimensions of life at sea. Different aspects, such as maritime law or the engagement of specific social groups (seamen, shipmasters, women, pirates) in maritime activities, are addressed. The last section of the book – ‘Cultural Seas’ – focuses on cultural works that centred on late medieval and early modern oceans and seas, or, put another way, how literary writers dealt with oceanic spaces and proximity to the sea.
The strength of this very heterogeneous approach is that the editors have managed to focus attention on topics that are not normally in the spotlight. As shown, literary contributions, which are not usually included in books about maritime history, can profitably be used for this topic. To give another example, several chapters (Chapters 5, 7, 8 and 9) rightly emphasize the importance of hard-to-trace seasonal shipping, coastal trade and activities in subregional maritime districts. Another topic is the micro-historical analysis of testaments of fishermen, which reveals the entanglement of different business sectors in maritime societies. These and many other interesting findings open up important new perspectives, if not on entirely new topics, then on recent research discourses. The volume focuses on these topics rather than big narratives (such as the Atlantic triangular trade), which are covered in a few overview chapters (for example Chapters 3, 6, 10 and 17).
One minor concern regards the title of the book. For this reviewer, the title is slightly misleading, as the maritime worlds addressed are mostly connected to the activities or ideas of European nations (that is, primarily the British, Portuguese, French and Dutch). Only a few contributions deal with non-European actors. Maritime worlds such as Persian networks in the Indian Ocean are only addressed in some of the broader overview chapters (for example, Rila Mukherjee’s noteworthy contribution ‘Global Networks in Maritime Worlds 1400–1800’). Most of the more specific chapters – for example, about warship decoration, music on board ships or health care for mariners – are concerned with case studies from European marines. This in no way diminishes the value of the interest of these chapters, but one would like to know more about these topics in relation to seafaring in the Arabian Sea or Red Sea on board non-European ships. Since the development of transcontinental relations was initiated from Europe, a focus on European seafaring nations may seem justified. In general, however, more space could have been given to non-European societies. It is hoped that the contributions will provide an impetus for further research on these topics, which are worthy of debate.
No summary or conclusion is given at the end of the volume. It would have been helpful to point at some general ideas that are tackled in several chapters with some concluding remarks. Nevertheless, some trends in recent research are identifiable when reading the entire book. In my view, for example, the new perspectives on maritime history, such as small-scale coastal shipping or the close entanglement of local communities in global trading networks, are some of the most interesting observations. The various topics enable the reader to think about overlapping problems from different perspectives. The merit of the volume lies in the broad panorama offered by the contributors from different disciplines of maritime history (historiography, literary studies, social and economic history, and Ottoman history, to name a few). Here, important work has been done in compiling such a broad overview of different aspects of maritime history for both students and scholars.
Regardless of the minor criticisms raised, the reviewed publication lives up to its title and indeed offers a compelling ‘companion to marine and maritime worlds’. In all, a read of this volume is rewarding, as one obtains an insight into the multifaceted recent research on maritime history.