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Rupert, Linda M., Creolization and Contraband: Curaçao in the Early Modern Atlantic World (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2012), 296 pp., $24.95, ISBN 978 0 820 34306 8.

Rupert, Linda M., Creolization and Contraband: Curaçao in the Early Modern Atlantic World... Linda Rupert has made a valuable contribution to both Atlantic and Caribbean historiography with a new study of Curaçao and nearby regions, chiefly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She has drawn on archival sources, mostly in Spain and the Netherlands, and has also synthesized a very large body of printed primary and secondary literature in English, Spanish, and Dutch. Curaçao, as Rupert demonstrates, was unusual in that in the eighteenth century it grew to be one of the largest port cities in the Caribbean archipelago without possessing a plantation economy. Rather, the island’s productive hinterland was the neighboring Tierra Firme of Spanish America, the region corresponding to today’s nation of Venezuela. Given the ease of communication between the two areas, this made sense. However, the island and the mainland belonged to different empires, and the vigorous trade between the two areas was—at least until 1778—proscribed by Spanish authorities. Consequently, the political history of Curaçao mainly involved the attempt of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) to develop Curaçao’s port, Willemstad, as a trans-shipment facility that capitalized on Spain’s relative neglect of what it perceived as a peripheral part of its empire. Taking advantage of growing markets, Dutch http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Early Modern History Brill

Rupert, Linda M., Creolization and Contraband: Curaçao in the Early Modern Atlantic World (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2012), 296 pp., $24.95, ISBN 978 0 820 34306 8.

Ebert, Christopher
Journal of Early Modern History , Volume 17 (5-6): 588 – Jan 1, 2013
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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
Subject
Book Reviews
ISSN
1385-3783
eISSN
1570-0658
DOI
10.1163/15700658-12342374
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Linda Rupert has made a valuable contribution to both Atlantic and Caribbean historiography with a new study of Curaçao and nearby regions, chiefly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. She has drawn on archival sources, mostly in Spain and the Netherlands, and has also synthesized a very large body of printed primary and secondary literature in English, Spanish, and Dutch. Curaçao, as Rupert demonstrates, was unusual in that in the eighteenth century it grew to be one of the largest port cities in the Caribbean archipelago without possessing a plantation economy. Rather, the island’s productive hinterland was the neighboring Tierra Firme of Spanish America, the region corresponding to today’s nation of Venezuela. Given the ease of communication between the two areas, this made sense. However, the island and the mainland belonged to different empires, and the vigorous trade between the two areas was—at least until 1778—proscribed by Spanish authorities. Consequently, the political history of Curaçao mainly involved the attempt of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) to develop Curaçao’s port, Willemstad, as a trans-shipment facility that capitalized on Spain’s relative neglect of what it perceived as a peripheral part of its empire. Taking advantage of growing markets, Dutch

Journal

Journal of Early Modern History – Brill

Published: Jan 1, 2013

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