Time, Space, and the History of Early Modern North America¹

Abstract

This article analyzes some of the temporal and spatial categories we use to conceptualize and describe early modern North America. Some of our most significant spatial and temporal categories -in particular, "colonies" and "colonial" -are products of the historiography of the rise of the nation-state and reflect those concerns and assumptions. The shift to Atlantic history, trans-imperial histories, and the ethnic histories of non-European peoples in the Americas, both indigenous and Africans, obliges us to scrutinize these categories, recognize their specificity and descriptive power, and use spatial and temporal descriptors that reflect the continent's historical complexity and the historiographic achievements of the past thirty years.