The Atlantic Paradox

Brandi Feliciano

Professor Gordinier

Atlantic Voyages

3/7/2016

“The Atlantic Paradox”

        The Atlantic Ocean is narrow, shallow and also happens to be the warmest and saltiest ocean out of the four other oceans.  However, Benjamin W. Labaree describes the Atlantic as a paradox.  The Atlantic paradox is the result of the Atlantic being both a moat and a bridge for civilization.  The question is how an ocean can be a paradox when it is just a body of water separating the eastern continents from the western continents.  The answer to the question of how it is a paradox is simple: it kept Europeans out for quite some time but also served as a linkage point for any new settlers hoping to begin their new lives in the Americas.  

        The Atlantic Ocean served as a moat for centuries until the Europeans started settling and colonizing the Americas.  The Atlantic separated the eastern continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa from the western continents of North and South America, and then Australia was separated from everyone, both culturally, ethnically, and spiritually.   There were the western continents dominated by tribes of Native Americans ranging from the Iroquois to the Aztec to the Inca.  By the 1400s, Native Americans had been living in the Americas for more than 10,000 years.  These people stuck together and had a sense of community much stronger than any European had.

         In America there was communal land shared by members of each tribe who could hunt whenever they wanted.  The natives during this time knew what and how much they could hunt in order to maintain their food populations, and also to ensure they did not over hunt they used every part of the animals and made sure not to let anything go to waste.  The people of the Americas viewed the land as a place full of opportunity.  Whether they used it to grow crops or simply used it to build a temporary home on.  The people of the Americas believed they were closely linked with the land and everything that grows on it. Because of this belief, the idea of land ownership did not exist, so they lived off the land without considering themselves owners of it.  Before contact with Europeans and Africans most of the natives of the Americas lived in hunter gatherer communities of small populations of people.  The natives set up their community with an equal division of labor between men and women. The women tended to be the ones to gather crops for the tribe and the men were the ones that would go out and hunt to bring the meat home for the tribe.  These goods were considered community property with the whole tribe equally sharing what was brought back.

          The people of the Europe, had a very different way of life compared to the eastern continents.   Europeans seen land as something everyone should try and obtain and own for themselves.  The sense of community was lost and everyone just wanted as much land as they could.  Land was something to own and that’s about it because they saw property as power and high status and felt it should be exploited.  Europeans came to the Americas in search of wealth.  Unlike the natives of the Americas, Europeans were power hungry. They were in search for anything to get gain power and the Americas were the perfect place.  The Americas had a vast amount of resources untouched by the natives and the Europeans jumped right on the opportunity to exploit these resources.  

        These different cultures exchanged many things that sparked a change in the future of the world.  Trade became a huge part of society after the colonization of the Americas.  Trade items included horses, molasses, sugar, oil and bones from whales, fish, oats, butter, rice, turpentine, salt, oxen and various other crops and animals.  The Native Americans began trading with several European countries such as the French, Dutch, English, and Spanish.  The Native Americans had traded furs, fish, baskets, pottery, and various other goods for iron, axes, knives, pots, and guns from the incoming settlers.  Although the Americas would not be what they are today without the introduction of cross-Atlantic trade, it was definitely the beginning of a change unbeneficial to the natives.  

        Contact with the Europeans also brought diseases such as influenza, measles, bubonic plague, smallpox, malaria, and even the common cold.  The introduction of these diseases had sometimes wiped out entire villages and millions of natives.  Europeans had been dealing with these diseases for years and so they had been immune to many of the diseases they brought over.  Even the African slaves that the Europeans brought over were immune to most of the same diseases the Europeans were immune to since Africa and Europe were close in proximity to each other unlike the thousands of miles needed to traverse in order to get to the Americas.