PUBLICATIONS
April 1999 Issue
The Geographical Review
April 1999, Vol. 89 (1), pp. 215-224
SPECIAL ISSUE - OCEANS CONNECT
SEA AND OCEAN BASINS AS FRAMEWORKS OF HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
Jerry H. Bentley
Keywords: economic integration, historical analysis, maritime regions, ocean basins, sea basins, social integration.
ABSTRACT:
Since the mid-nineteenth century, historians have taken national states as the principal focus of their scholarship. Since the mid-twentieth century, they have
increasingly recognized the importance of large-scale historical processes that transcend the boundaries of national states, and they have identified large-scale zones
of interaction that help to bring these processes into clear focus. Sea and ocean basins show considerable promise as frameworks for the analysis of some historical
processes. They would not serve well as the absolute or definitive categories of historical analysis because their contours and characteristics have changed
dramatically over time with shifting relationships between bodies of water and masses of land. But they are especially useful for bringing focus to processes of
commercial, biological, and cultural exchange, which have profoundly influenced the development of both individual societies and the world as a whole.
Keywords: economic integration, historical analysis, maritime regions, ocean basins, sea basins, social integration.
ABSTRACT:
Since the mid-nineteenth century, historians have taken national states as the principal focus of their scholarship. Since the mid-twentieth century, they have increasingly recognized the importance of large-scale historical processes that transcend the boundaries of national states, and they have identified large-scale zones of interaction that help to bring these processes into clear focus. Sea and ocean basins show considerable promise as frameworks for the analysis of some historical processes. They would not serve well as the absolute or definitive categories of historical analysis because their contours and characteristics have changed dramatically over time with shifting relationships between bodies of water and masses of land. But they are especially useful for bringing focus to processes of commercial, biological, and cultural exchange, which have profoundly influenced the development of both individual societies and the world as a whole.