Introduction
| Undoubtedly one of the most studied and fruitful subjects of historical inquiry in recent years has been the field of Atlantic history. With origins in the attempt to capture the transoceanic nature of the Anglo-American experience in the eighteenth century, it has yielded a remarkable body of work that spans everything from the study of migration and the slave trade to the transnational history of revolution and political thought. Its center of gravity, however, has largely been the North Atlantic, with most attention paid to the ties and transferences between Britain and North America. Clearly the Atlantic world extended well beyond these northern climes. Indeed, it is at least arguable that the commerce and competition in the Caribbean basin and the South Atlantic between France, Britain, and Spain, as well as the more general traffic between Europe, Latin America, and North America, constituted one of the period’s liveliest and most contentious arenas. | 1 |
| This AHR Forum shifts our attention precisely in this more southerly direction. It also reminds us that the history of the Atlantic world is in large measure the history of empires and imperial aspirations. The three articles and comment offer us both close-up and panoramic views of the personal, diplomatic, and military entanglements that emerged as Spain, Britain, and France jockeyed for position in this Atlantic borderland. In “Politics of Colonial Sensation: The Trial of Thomas Picton and the Cause of Louisa Calderon,” James Epstein examines a cause célèbre of the early years of the nineteenth century involving the trial of the British governor of Trinidad for ordering the torture of a free woman of color. The sensational and sordid nature of the accusation served to “bring home” the realities of empire to a British public normally shielded from the day-to-day violence it entailed. As Epstein notes, one element of the case related to the recent acquisition of Trinidad from Spain and the legacy of Spanish law that still prevailed, which created the unusual situation of an English court interpreting Spanish law. Picton was ultimately spared conviction, but the long trial had repercussions beyond the legal case, bringing the issues of colonialism, torture, sexuality, racism, violence, and slavery before a public increasingly susceptible to humanitarian sensibilities. In “The Western Question: The Geopolitics of Latin American Independence,” Rafe Blaufarb provides a much broader view of the diplomatic and military history of the region, especially in the wake of the collapse of Spanish rule in the Americas. He argues, in fact, that the ensuing scramble to fill the vacuum of Spain’s imperial decline gave rise to a “Western Question,” comparable to the well-known “Eastern Question” raised in the wake of the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. France, Britain, and the new American Republic all entered the fray, sometimes as direct diplomatic or military rivals, sometimes through proxies and freelance adventurers. He suggests that the movement for Latin American independence ought to been seen in the context of the larger geopolitical realignment in the post-Napoleonic world. In “Entangled Histories, Entangled Worlds: The English-Speaking Atlantic as a Spanish Periphery,” Eliga Gould builds on Blaufarb’s vision of imperial rivalry and conflict, but also argues that the methods of comparative history are not adequate to capture imperial relations within what he calls a “hemispheric system or community.” Rather, he suggests that Britain and Spain were “entangled,” calling attention to the interconnectedness of overlapping imperial concerns as well as populations. His article takes us much deeper into the continental history of both North and South America than either Epstein’s or Blaufarb’s. Indeed, a great part of his claim for entanglement of these powers has to do with their competing relations with subject peoples. Imperial contest routinely entailed striking up alliances with subject peoples formally under the authority of the rival power, especially Native Americans. But slaves and Indians also learned to exploit the overlapping or ambiguous jurisdictions separating British and Spanish claims to their advantage. Finally, in his comment “Entangled Histories: Borderland Historiographies in New Clothes?” Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra offers some reflections on the three articles and suggests additional ways we might imagine the complex imperial relations, especially between Britain and Spain, in this period. | 2 |
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