Atlantic advices: the Atlantic world in the Dutch periodical press, ca 1635-1795

Abstract

This study analyses the representation of the Atlantic world in the Dutch periodical press throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. How did the periodical press cover the Dutch invasion and colonization of Brazil, the continuous warfare in the Caribbean in the latter part of the seventeenth century, the increasing confrontations between the French and the British in North America in the course of the eighteenth century, and the issue of slavery and slave revolts? It demonstrates how ordinary readers could gain knowledge of a world far beyond their daily horizons and shows how the (tone of the) coverage in the newspapers developed in correlation with the changing position of the Dutch Republic in the geopolitical constellation. Secondly, this study illuminates the news networks themselves, exploring how news travelled from one place to the next and how news networks influenced, and were influenced by, geopolitical developments. Thirdly, by taking a long-term perspective, this study also analyses the development of the periodical press and its function in the wider arena of early modern print media while also tracing the various transformations of the Atlantic world over the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.