Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640

By David Wheat,

Book cover of Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640

Book description

This work resituates the Spanish Caribbean as an extension of the Luso-African Atlantic world from the late sixteenth to the mid-seventeenth century, when the union of the Spanish and Portuguese crowns facilitated a surge in the transatlantic slave trade. After the catastrophic decline of Amerindian populations on the islands, two…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640 as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

A multiple award-winning book that has given new wings to the field of early Caribbean history. Wheat’s insightful book forces to reckon with the extraordinarily close links between the Spanish Caribbean and the African slave trade in which Portuguese merchants played a crucial role. Even though local and peninsular Spaniards ruled, Afrodescendant men and women did most of the labor, cultivated most of the land, defended the colonies against other European powers, and constituted an overwhelming majority of the population, both enslaved and free. The early Spanish colonization of the region started a pattern of profound African cultural influence in…

David Wheat integrates Africa and Africans into the history of the Spanish Caribbean. Before I read this book, I knew that the Spanish relied more on native laborers than on Africans initially, and that their policies limited migration from Spain to Castilians of Roman Catholic heritage. Yet Wheat reveals how diverse and complex the early Spanish islands became, with Spanish from other regions not to mention Portuguese, Africans, and conversos (Catholics of Jewish heritage) intermixed with the approved migrants and the long-time indigenous residents.

From Carla's list on the early modern global Caribbean.

Want books like Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640.

Browse books like Atlantic Africa and the Spanish Caribbean, 1570-1640

Book cover of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492-1700
Book cover of Creolization and Contraband: Curaçao in the Early Modern Atlantic World
Book cover of Cannibal Encounters: Europeans and Island Caribs, 1492-1763

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,487

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in colonies, Spain, and West Africa?

Colonies 75 books
Spain 203 books
West Africa 27 books