Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, the connections among Africa, the Americas, and Europe transformed world history--through maritime exploration, commercial engagements, human migrations and settlements, political realignments and upheavals, cultural exchanges, and more. This book, the first encyclopedic reference work on Atlantic his "Companion to Atlantic History lives up to the promise of its title, offering its readers not only an intelligently structured and comprehensive work of reference, but a clear sense of the continuing conversation across geographical boundaries, chronological periods, and scholarly generations which stands at the heart of the enterprise known as Atlantic history."---Natalie Zacek, New West Indian Guide