ABSTRACT
Long before the gradual establishment of an Atlantic World in the sixteenth century, Africans, Europeans, and Americans were involved in interregional long-distance exchange systems. Even with the establishment of new Atlantic-based trade routes, these traditional trans-regional links persisted. It was, therefore, through the lens of these old world trade connections that Africans, Europeans, and Native Americans gradually entered into the emerging Atlantic World. Recognizing how these traditional networks had shaped by these societies helps us to appreciate the economic and social priorities of the Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans at the time of contact, as well as how they had previously approached outside goods and cultures. With the increased integration of ocean system of the Atlantic World these older links declined but, for a while at least, they maintained social and economic relevance in their perspective cultures. These older trans-regional networks connected with the newly emerging ones and with the rise of the Atlantic World, a Global Atlantic was born.
