Abstract
Abstract Historiography has paid insufficient attention to the influence of winds and currents. The rise of Western European states to global dominance and world empires from the sixteenth century is usually characterised as maritime but should more fittingly be described as Aeolian or 'wind-driven'. This article examines the role winds and currents played in influencing the outline, structure and nature of Western European seaborne empires. It incorporates the patterns of winds and currents in each ocean, and the endeavours and ventures of each major European maritime power into a single global portrait that reveals the extent of the historical influence such factors exerted in the age of sail.
Highlights
Historiography has generally paid insufficient attention to the influence of winds and currents
The great European maritime empires of the modern era depended more on wind than they did on water
Oceans might have been the highways or “marineways” of the past upon which flowed the traffic of the pre-industrial age but water is only a medium and wind constituted the primary source of energy available for long-distance transportation in the pre-industrial age
Summary
Historiography has generally paid insufficient attention to the influence of winds and currents.
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