Dr. Ana Catarina Abrantes Garcia
Email: catarinagarcia@fcsh.unl.pt
Affiliation: Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal
Research Interests: Ports and Harbours Studies; Early Modern Archaeology; Maritime History; Underwater Archaeology; Environmental History
Prof. Dr. Michael Limberger
Email: michael.limberger@ugent.be
Affiliation: History Department, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
Research Interests: Port History, Early Modern History, Social History, Economic History, Financial History
This special issue aims to examine Atlantic ports as nodes of global interaction from the 15th to the 20th century, drawing on papers presented at the 1st International Seminar of GLOPORTS (International Network of Atlantic Seaports and Global Interactions). This new network is actively fostering discussion and exchange on both contemporary and historical port-related themes, connecting researchers, doctoral candidates, and post-doctoral scholars from across the Atlantic in a collaboration that is both novel and highly relevant for advancing transnational port studies. The issue showcases ongoing research by early-career scholars working across four continents, reflecting the network’s commitment to bridging geographical and disciplinary divides in the study of Atlantic port histories. The selected articles focus on different factors related to port dynamics, including port infrastructure and the effects of maritime circulation and exchanges. By combining micro-historical case studies with comparative and long-term perspectives, the issue aims to offer fresh empirical material and methodological reflection on port history as a field, speaking directly to current debates on global history, infrastructure studies, and heritage management, while presenting ongoing research projects, their main research questions, working hypotheses, and methodological challenges.
Building on this foundation, the proposed articles address a critical gap in the historiography of Atlantic ports by offering a transnational, interdisciplinary, and inclusive perspective on their role as engines of early globalization. Unlike existing scholarship, which often examines these ports in isolation, focusing on individual cities, periods, or colonial systems, this collection brings together comparative and connected histories of ports across Africa (Gulf of Guinea), the Americas (Brazil, Argentina), and Europe (Spain, Portugal, France) from the 15th to the 20th centuries, responding to recent calls in global history for more integrated analyses of maritime networks that account for the asymmetries of power, cultural exchanges, and environmental transformations that defined the Atlantic world.
Complementing these perspectives, another key focus for this issue is the interaction between ports and their broader environments, examining urban, social, and ecological transformations. This includes the patrimonialization of port infrastructures, how historical port sites are preserved, reinterpreted, or commodified. On another level, the environmental dimension is included, considering aspects as the enthronization of coastal areas, analyzing the long-term ecological and social impacts of port activities on surrounding landscapes and communities. The contributions also explore human agency and social relations within port environments, with a particular emphasis on the dynamics of labor, ownership, and power, highlighting the relationships between capital and labor, as well as the social hierarchies that shaped port communities. Special attention is given to gender roles and non-European actors’ agency, such as African and American merchants, workers, and intermediaries, challenging traditional narratives that often prioritize Eurocentric perspectives concerning colonial studies.
