ABSTRACT
The initial stage of Europe’s thrust into the Atlantic is marks by two developments: first, the forging of lines of maritime communication in the late thirteenth century between the Mediterranean and Northwestern Europe; and second, from the early fourteenth century, the creation of a zone of navigation between the Azores in the north, the Canary Islands in the south, and the Iberian and African coasts in the east. The news from America and Africa is, nevertheless, slow to change the way Europeans viewed the world. The era of transatlantic discovery, Western Europeans contested the division of the New World between Spain and Portugal. Explorers and privateers led the way in the efforts to challenge Iberian hegemony. French and Dutch emigration numbers pale in comparison to those of the neighbors across the Channel. In sharp contrast to the early counterparts in the New World, Catholic missionaries in Congo embraced an inclusive concept of Christianity.
