ABSTRACT
When writing about the early modern Atlantic, historians commonly approach their topic from the perspective of the modern nation-state. They write about the “Dutch Atlantic,” the “French Atlantic,” the “Spanish Atlantic,” and so on through the great (and not-so-great) European imperial powers of the early modern period.1 There is no doubt that this can be a useful perspective. These authors have taught us a great deal about imperial rivalries, about the commonalities between such disparate colonies as Quebec and Martinique, and about the importance of colonial exports in the economy of the metropole.
