For two millennia, the principal world empires were land-based. From the Romans to the Mongols, the Aztecs and the Inca, and every Chinese Dynasty in between, the world was organized by an empire's capabilities in conquering adjacent lands and funneling the spoils of war back home. With the advent of new naval technology in Europe, including new ships, sailing mechanisms, and navigation charts, the stage was set for the maritime empires to dominate the world through trade and naval fleet superiority.
Maritime Empires Definition
The maritime empires refer to the European global dominance of territories in Asia, Africa, and America from the period 1450 to 1750 through naval power. The five main European powers that became maritime empires are Portugal, Spain, France, England, and the Netherlands.
Fig. 1- A British ship sailing into port.
Based on the economics of mercantilism, these five European countries competed with each other in accumulating extreme wealth and extending their influence into distant lands. The prospects of economic gain fueled the European discovery of America in 1492. Christopher Columbus convinced King Ferdinand II of Magellan and his wife Isabella, the rulers of Spain, that he could find a new route to India through the Atlantic Ocean. While he did not find a new route to India, Columbus's discovery did kickstart an era of new and hungry European Empires.
| Term | Definition |
| Maritime | Referring to the sea; seafaring, nautical |
| Empire | A large territory of states governed by a single central power or government |
| Mercantilism | The maximization of a nation's wealth through profitable trading, exportation of goods in exchange for silver or gold, and the establishment of global colonies that provide resources and workforces. |
Maritime Empires Location
Unlike the empires of the Middle Ages and before, the maritime empires were not landlocked. Ancient and Middle Ages empires typically saw direct land expansion from a central capital or province, like Rome for the Romans or Tenochtitlan for the Aztecs. With the introduction of new technologies for producing powerful navies, the European powers could colonize an island on the other side of the world, or reliably trade wool with places such as India and China. Therefore, maritime empires were located all across the globe.
The map below highlights a region in a specific color, signifying which European power was dominantly in colonial control. Reference the table below to see which color correlates with each European power.
Fig. 2- Maritime Empires Map.
| Country | Color | Colonized Regions |
| Britain | Red | Canada, East Coast of Modern USA, Australia, India, parts of Africa. |
| Netherlands (Dutch) | Peach (Indonesia) | Indonesia, part of South America. |
| France | Light Blue | Middle of Modern USA, Southeast Asia, Madagascar, much of Northwest Africa. |
| Spain | Yellow-green | Much of Western North America, Latin America, much of Western South America. The Philippines. |
| Portugal | Purple | Brazil, parts of Southern Africa. |
Maritime Empires Examples:
Other than the five main maritime empires discussed in this article (that of Britain, the Netherlands, France, Portugal, and Spain), there were several other maritime empires, or European powers who embarked upon global colonial efforts from 1450 to 1750. Among them was Italy (as part of the Holy Roman Empire), Russia, Belgium, Denmark, and Germany. If you were a European ruler with an awesome fleet during the age of maritime empires, you had a good chance of establishing your own global empire.
Maritime Empires History
Beyond new naval technologies, what made the Europeans so successful in establishing their maritime empires? How did they afford it? How did maritime empires even function, beyond having ships with wide sails and big cannons? Thankfully, historians have a plethora of written personal records and financial transactions that have helped us understand how Europeans came to dominate the globe.
Funding for Maritime Empires
The first major expedition of the era of the maritime empire was, as was already mentioned, Columbus's voyage to the Americas. Columbus was funded by the King and Queen of Spain, marking the first of many royally funded expeditions. Monarchs, especially the New Monarchs, soon became aware of the vast wealth available through the expansion of maritime influence.
Fig. 3- Flag of the Dutch East India Company.
Other than Monarchial support, joint-stock companies were formed to finance expeditions. To hedge your entire life savings on a single global expedition was expensive and extremely risky. But through joint-stock companies, individual investors could provide support to many different expeditions, leveraging their risk while increasing profitability. Two examples of joint-stock companies are the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company, which were very successful during the age of maritime empires.
Joint-Stock Company:
A business structure that is owned by a multitude of investors, known as shareholders.
The Methods of Maritime Empires
The expectations of Monarchs and private investors in supporting the expansion of maritime empires were directly related to Mercantilism. Simply put, they wanted to acquire wealth. Primarily this was done through trade with foreign entities like India or China, but each trade negotiation was backed up by military force.
The European powers almost always had the dominant naval force in their maritime expeditions, meaning they could establish trading posts and colonies, or finalize trade deals in their interests and against the will of the native people. In South America, the Conquistadors Hernan Cortez and Francisco Pizarro respectively toppled the Aztecs and Incan Empires to achieve glory, fame, and profit.
“Colonialism hardly ever exploits the whole of a country. It contents itself with bringing to light the natural resources, which it extracts, and exports to meet the needs of the mother country's industries, thereby allowing certain sectors of the colony to become relatively rich. But the rest of the colony follows its path of under-development and poverty, or at all events sinks into it more deeply.”
-Frantz Fanon
Supporting the expansion of maritime empires was a backbone of religious missionary work. Catholic missionaries traveled the globe, financed by the Catholic Church and other European powers to spread Christianity into new and foreign territories. Along with Christianity came European languages and customs, easing a distant country's transition into the hand of European maritime empires.
The Forced Labor Systems of the Maritime Empires
To fuel their maritime efforts, European powers often extracted natural resources from the lands they colonized abroad. But to extract those resources, they needed a workforce. Many times, the European powers forced the native populations into laboring for them. In the case of the Americas, European powers such as Spain, Portugal, and Britain shipped enslaved Africans overseas to act as a workforce in the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Fig. 4- The Atlantic Triangular Trade.
The Atlantic Slave Trade made up one arm of the Triangular Trade (depicted in the map above), a global trading system that brought extreme wealth to European powers at the expense of the African population and American natural resources (especially in South America). Forced labor systems were implemented elsewhere, within both Africa and Southeast Asia. The competition for wealth between European powers was costly to many foreign lands (although some countries did directly benefit from trade with Europe).
Maritime Empires Significance
The domination of the European maritime empires from 1450 to 1750 did not end abruptly. For decades after, even extending into the late 19th century, the colonies and trading posts established by the maritime empires continued to exploit the surrounding regions for the gain of the European powers.
The maritime empires marked a turning point in World History from land-based empires to empires of global trading networks, where a small European country such as Britain or France could extend its power across the world. The rise of maritime empires marked Europe as the center of commerce and power when moving into the modern period.
Maritime Empires - Key Takeaways
- The European maritime empires dominated global trade through mercantilism from 1450 to 1750.
- Among the dominant maritime empires were Portugal, Spain, France, Britain, and the Netherlands. Between them, they conquered territories in Asia, Africa, and America, trading with local powers, extracting natural resources, and exploiting populations as forced labor to achieve their goals of profit and influence.
- Both monarchs and joint-stock companies (a collection of individual investors) invested in maritime expeditions.
- The Atlantic Triangular Trade, which included the brutal Atlantic Slave Trade, was integral to the development of many of the European maritime empires.
- The success of the maritime empires set Europe as the center of power and wealth in the world when moving into the modern period.
References
- Fig. 2- Map of the Maritime Empires (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:European_Empires.svg) by Kathovo (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Kathovo), licensed by CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en).
- Fig. 3- Map of the Triangular Trade (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Triangular_trade.jpg) by Weson (https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Weson&action=edit&redlink=1), licensed by CC BY-SA 2.5 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/deed.en).
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