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The common European
Maritime Heritage as a
Challenge for Communication
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert
The Common European Maritime
Heritage – Some examples
European Maritime Day
Gijon, 19 May 2010
Outline
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The discovery of Europe via Sea
Travel and commerce in the Middle Ages
The Vikings
The Expansion of Europe
Sea Power-rivalry and Grotius‘ idea of the „mare liberum“
Navalism and Imperialism
Commerce and Tourism today
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
The Ancient world
Ptolemy‘s (ca. 100 – 175)
„geographia“ is not only the
starting point for our modern
geographical perception of the
world but also a repository for
the ancient geographical worldly
wisdom
The map clearly shows that
ancient knowledge of the
European coastlines was already
rather elaborated, whereas the
knowledge about the European
landmass still was relatively
vague
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
The Middle Ages I
Sea trade
Due to the generally bad
conditions of continental trade
routes in the Middle Ages coastal
sea trade was of utmost
importance for European
commerce.
Several port-cities developed to
become nodal points for seatrade:
-Lübeck as centre of the
Hanseatic League in Northern
Europe (Baltic and North sea)
- Venice as centre of maritime
trade in the Mediterrenean
- Byzantium (Constantinople) as
bridge between Europe and Asia
plus Black sea
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
The Middle Ages II:
The Vikings
Although the Viking-phenomenon was
relatively short-lived ( ~ 9th century) it
has to be mentioned here as well
Their image is rather bad (raiders and
looters)
But
They have also to be remembered as
founders of a multitude of towns and
smaller or larger domains (Normandy,
Naples , even on Russian soil)
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
The Expansion of
Europe
It was a combination of timetested Mediterranean and
northern European ship-building
techniques, rigging and allEuropean nautical knowledge
that formed the basis for the
European overseas expansion.
The consequences are wellknown:
-The export of the European
state-model into the world
-The emergence of a euro-centric
world-view
- the formation of European seapowers
-The rivalry of European seapowers and its impact on world
history since the 16th century
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
Sea Power-rivalry and
Grotius‘ idea of the
„mare liberum“ I
European history between the
16th and the 19th century is
characterised by the emergence
of several maritime powers
striving for hegemony in the
European, even in the global
context. Until recently this part of
European history has generally
been under research from a
national perspective. Only
recently, under the impact of
globalization, it has been realised
by a still rather small but
informed public that the rivalry of
sea-powers and ist
consequences have to be
understood as a European
phenomenon.
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
Sea Power-rivalry and
Grotius‘ idea of the
„mare liberum“ II
As early as 1609 Hugo Grotius
(1583-1645) tried to ease the
tensions between rivalling seapowers by defining the seas as
international waters, thus
horrifying the Vatican as well as
the English. Nevertheless this
definition developed into one of
the basic principles of modern
international law.
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
HMS Invincible, 1907
Navalism and
Imperialism
According to Alfred Thayer
Mahan, sea power had to be
considered as the basis for
global hegemony. Mahan used
the British example in his
famous book „The influence of
Sea Power upon history“ . The
publication of this book in 1890
is considered as the starting
point for the „age of navalism“,
ranging from 1890-1918
SMS von der Tann, 1909
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln
Commerce and
Tourism today
As 95 % of the global trade is
conducted via sea about the
same amount of all European
trade is transported on sea
routes.
Maritime tourism like cruises, tall
ship races and other maritime
events is a growth industry
The question is: how to integrate
the common European maritime
heritage into the whole chapter
of European maritime affairs and
how to raise the awareness of
the existence of such a common
maritime heritage in Europe?
© Prof. Dr. Jürgen Elvert, Universität zu Köln