The Atlantic Insular Archive as Global Memory: Insights from a Madeiran Early Modern Archival Collection (15th and 16th Centuries)

Abstract

This paper argues that the 15^th-16^th centuries colonization of the Atlantic archipelagos, particularly Madeira, was foundational to early globalization and modernity. It posits these islands provided crucial templates for the wider Atlantic and that its archives must be seen as representative of global memory. Using Madeira and its Funchal council records (Vereações) as a case study, the analysis reveals the island as a “laboratory of modernity” pioneering influential institutional, economic, and social models and solutions, intimately related with sugar production and the first early modern manifestations of the plantation complex. The study highlights the unique “topological singularity” of what we may refer to as the “Atlantic insular archive”, linked intimately to the initial humanization of archipelagic spaces. It concludes that valuing these archives is essential for understanding modernity’s origins beyond nation-centric histories, recognizing these islands as vital crucibles of global processes.

Keywords: Madeira; Atlantic Archipelagos; Modernity; Early Globalization; Island History; Insular Archives; Memory.