ABSTRACT
The economic, political, social, and the cultural interactions between the people of European and African origin played a significant role in the history of the Global Atlantic. As we have seen, the Europeans and the Africans were motivated and influenced by their established histories in the way they approached each other. African and European understandings, priorities, and desires shaped these interactions. Biological realities as well influenced societies in Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The interactions and connections highlighted in this chapter helped to create and shape an Atlantic World that emerged as a result of the search for trade, the impact of Afro-Eurasian diseases, the Atlantic slave trade, and the colonization of the Americas. However, as we will explore in more detail in the following chapters, the Atlantic Ocean system was a complex and diverse nexus of contacts with other parts of the world.
