Between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic: Sevilla

The European Expansion offered the old world new opportunities in the Atlantic. At the same time the new worlds challenged the structures of the old. Recent studies stress the importance of the southern Atlantic areas and their greater weight with respect to the Northern Atlantic. In addition, scholars showed that European culture, technology and state building were lacking behind similar developments in Asia until the 18th century. Furthermore, there is still an ongoing debate concerning the influence of European expansion on Europe itself and on the fate of the Mediterranean in this process. The present research programm investigates the influences between the new Atlantic and the old Mediterranean areas as it could be perceived at the city of Seville during the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. Especially the development of merchant networks in this region is of great interest. It offers further insight in the relationship between the different Habsburg territories and the Ottoman empire on the eve of the Thirty Years War.

The European Expansion offered the old world new opportunities in the Atlantic. At the same time the new worlds challenged the structures of the old. Recent studies stress the importance of the southern Atlantic areas and their greater weight with respect to the Northern Atlantic. In addition, scholars showed that European culture, technology and state building were lacking behind similar developments in Asia until the 18th century. Furthermore, there is still an ongoing debate concerning the influence of European expansion on Europe itself and on the fate of the Mediterranean in this process. The present research programm investigates the influences between the new Atlantic and the old Mediterranean areas as it could be perceived at the city of Seville during the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century. Especially the development of merchant networks in this region is of great interest. It offers further insight in the relationship between the different Habsburg territories and the Ottoman empire on the eve of the Thirty Years War.