Historiography of 17th Century Dutch & English Activity in the Mediterranean Sea
My research objective is to examine how historians have analyzed the 17th century Dutch and English maritime activity in the Mediterranean Sea, resulting in an analytical overview of the historiography with insight and practice in how to scrutinize sources and think critically about connections in historical writing. My methodology consists of collecting secondary sources from the eighteenth through the twenty-first century to analyze how historical writings on this topic have changed and influenced each other over time; many of the earlier sources I chose are scanned into online archives while the later sources have physical copies in the Wilson Library and the James Ford Bell Library. Two major themes I identified are the changing motivations of writers and the evolving focal point of historical information included in the secondary sources. The politics and patronage involved in the scholarly glorification of the northern European empires is not present in the modern academic writing. Mediterranean maritime activity is given less consideration over time with the increasing economic and political involvement in the Americas and the East Indies. Based my analysis of the 17th century maritime activities in the Mediterranean Sea, I have discovered how examining history through historiography results in an in-depth and multidimensional understanding of our past.