ABSTRACT
The European maritime expansion that began in the fifteenth century was a highly complex historical phenomenon, catalyzing profound changes not only within Europe, but throughout the world. Central to these transformations was the shift from predominantly agrarian, local European kingdoms to vast, global commercial and imperial powers. The establishment of commercial networks and empires of such unprecedented scope critically relied on long-distance sea voyages and control over maritime routes. Indeed, it was control of vast oceanic areas (before the exploration of land and continents) that enabled the formation of Western empires. In the case of the Portuguese imperial project, although land-based fixed points (such asfeitorias, entrepôts, and military camps) were essential, maritime voyages were still more crucial. As historians have long pointed out, the Portuguese typically installed themselves in preexisting entrepôts; their novel contribution was the maritime route. Other European empires of the period—particularly the Spanish, English, and Dutch—were similarly reliant on stable oceanic commercial routes, even when engaged in the territorial domination of vast swaths of land. The creation and command of sea routes was therefore of paramount importance, and few documents provide greater insight into the technical efforts involved than rutters and ships’ logbooks. The need to exercise dominion over the seas presented Europeans with the challenge of confronting nature on an unprecedented spatial scale. Rutters and ships’ logbooks lend a singularly immediate view of practitioners’ engagement with this new, planetary field of operation.
