pbThe first comparative treatment of settlers' trading, pirating, and colonizing activities in the CaribbeanbppBrimming with new perspectives and cutting-edge research, the essays collected in iThe Torrid Zone iexplore colonization and cultural interaction in the Caribbean from the late 1600s to the early 1800s--a period known as the long seventeenth century--a time when these encounters varied widely and the diverse actors were not yet fully enmeshed in the culture and power dynamics of master-slave relations. The events of this era would profoundly affect the social and political development both of the colonies that Europeans established in the Caribbean and the wider world.ppThis book is the first to offer comparative treatments of Danish, Dutch, English, and French trading, pirating, and colonizing activities in the Caribbean and analysis of the corresponding interactions among people of African, European, and Native origin. The contributions range from an investigation of the ind