South Pacific

Pacific Sperm Whaling, 1790-1900

Contacts

Email:4oceans@fcsh.unl.pt
Av. de Berna, 26 C 1069-061 Lisboa.

Over the last two millennia – prior to the industrial age, societies have diverged significantly in their use or non-use of the ocean. For instance, the vast coastlines of Brazil reveal extensive indigenous use of coastal ecologies, where communities relied heavily on marine resources for sustenance and cultural practices. In contrast, the first inhabitants of the Canary Islands and Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, abandoned nautical technology after colonizing these islands, focusing instead on other resources. The discovery of the Great Banks in the North Atlantic spurred European sailors to seek immense wealth; between 1550 and 1650, they extracted fish and whales in quantities equivalent in value to the silver mines of Latin America. Similarly, the colonization of South America by the Portuguese and Spanish facilitated the transfer of coastal whaling practices from the Iberian Peninsula to this new region. By the early 16th century, whaling and the trade of its products had become a transoceanic and globalized practice.