A reading of William McNeill’s A World History and Equiano’s Travels, written by Olaudah Equiano and edited by Paul Edwards demonstrates how development and evolution occur because of a desire for trade, a desire which catalyzes new discoveries that not only advance trade but also cultural and interpersonal communication. This is true when we look at McNeill’s explanation of how certain discoveries like the marine chronometer make travel and exploration more possible (thereby linking peoples formerly isolated). We also see it is true on the personal level, such as how Olaudah comes to interact with peoples and cultures foreign to his native African village. In Olaudah’s case, his evolution and development (including a transformation from the religious practices of his youth to a Christian) occur not only because of trade explorations but also because he was initially a trade product (i.e., a slave). The creation of the Atlantic Inter-Communicating zone between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries developed as a result of discoveries and inventions designed to enable exploration and trade. We see this quite clearly in both Equiano’s Travels and A World History. For example, McNeill (301) tells us, “Navigation remained inexact, for unto the invention of a satisfactory marine chronometer (1760) no precise method for determining longitude (east-west) was known.” Similarly, we see the crew on one of Olaudah’s expeditions make use of the chronometer just a little more than a decade from its creation, “The 30th, the captain of a Greenland ship came on board and told us of three ships that were lost in the ice. However we still held on our course till 11 July, when we were stopped by one compact impenetrable body of ice. We ran along it from east to west above ten degrees, and on the 27th, we got as far north as 800 37(; and in 19 or 20 degrees east longitude from London” (Edwards 134).
The formation of the A...