The Torrid Zone: Caribbean Colonization and Cultural Interaction in the Long Seventeenth Century

Abstract

THE COLONISATION OF THE CIRCUM-CARIBBEAN AREA BROUGHT unprecedented levels of industrial agriculture, imperial rivalry, indigenous contact, forced African migration, and subaltern resistance to that part of the world, especially in the seventeenth century. The Torrid Zone provides fresh perspectives on the importance of the Caribbean, especially as historians continue to emphasise connectivity in the Atlantic world and across the globe. The volume contains contributions from seasoned historians like L.H. Roper, Erik Gøbel, and James Robertson, in addition to a cadre of up-and-coming experts in the field. The Torrid Zone focuses on the experiences of Indigenous, African, and Jewish people in the Caribbean, the nature and nuance of imperial rivalry including the often-neglected Danish colonisation efforts, and the unique socioeconomic character of many of the Caribbean islands as they were colonised over the course of the long seventeenth century. Taken together, this broad set of themes and the wide temporal scope expand our understanding of the pivotal role that the Caribbean played in social, economic, and religious history. The book is broken into three sections that are thematically organised. The first section consists of three essays focused on the indigenous perspective. The second section, consisting of six essays, covers imperial rivalry in Jamaica, Suriname, Saint-Domingue, and the Danish West Indies. Finally, the third section contains three essays that deal with the extension of the social and cultural formations of the Torrid Zone into the wider world through the migration of people and ideas. During the seventeenth century, Indigenous people in the Caribbean held considerable power despite the relentless encroachment of European colonialisms. The first chapter by Tessa Murphy sheds light on how the Kalinago actively shaped the socioeconomic landscape of the Lesser Antilles. Murphy skilfully illustrates how the Kalinago were “a polity that sought to counter foreign incursion through a combination of diplomacy and force” (19) as they negotiated treaties and engaged in military conquests of European-held territories in the