From the 1430s to the 1530s, a small group of European merchants transformed Macaronesia (Madeira, the Canaries, Cabo Verde) and São Tomé and Príncipe through trade, sugar plantations, slavery, and resource extraction. This seminar series examines these islands as a laboratory of early Atlantic capitalism, integrating economic, colonial, and environmental history. It traces how capital swept through them like a wave, bringing the conquest of Indigenous Canarians and the enslavement of West Africans before moving to the Americas. The four sessions also explore the agency of West African and Maghribi merchants and intermediaries, situating their role within these dynamics.
1. Capitalism in the Early Atlantic: An Introduction
2. Trade Networks and Merchant Communities
3. Enslavement, Human Trafficking, and Forced Labor
4. Environment: Non-Human Animals and Plants
