Europeans in Neo-European Worlds: The Americas in World History
Date
2004-10
Authors
Garner, Lydia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
In studies of World history the experience of the first colonial powers in the Americas (Spain, Portugal, England, and France) and the processes of creating neo-European worlds in the new environment is a topic that has received little attention. Matters related to race, religion, culture, language, and, since of the middle of the last century of economic progress, have divided the historiography of the Americas along the lines of Anglo-Saxon vs. Iberian civilizations to the point where the integration of the Americas into World history seems destined to follow the same lines. But in the broader perspective of World history, the Americas of the early centuries can also be analyzed as the repository of Western Civilization as expressed by its constituent parts, the Anglo-Saxon and the Iberian. When transplanted to the environment of the Americas those parts had to undergo processes of adaptation to create a neo-European world, a process that extended into the post-colonial period. European institutions adapted to function in the context of local socio/economic and historical realities, and in the process they created apparently similar European institutions that in reality became different from those in the mother countries, and thus were neo-European. To explore their experience in the Americas is essential for the integration of the history of the Americas into World history for comparative studies with the European experience in other regions of the world and for the introduction of a new perspective on the history of the Americas. The process of adaptation of laws and institutions is one among many that illustrate this adaptation.
Description
Keywords
Neo-European, English law, Slave laws, Americas, French Conseil d’Etat, Brazilian Council of State
Citation
Garner, L. (2004). Europeans in Neo-European worlds: The Americas in world history. World History Review, 2(1), pp. 35-55.