Maritime history: A new version of the old version and the true history of the sea

Abstract

The article provides a new version of Frank Broeze’s definition of maritime history by putting it in a framework of a sea. It gives a critical approach to the various histories of the seas and oceans that use the sea as a setting and not as a dynamic agent of change. It argues that the true history of the sea is a maritime history that entails maritime activities: on the sea (seamen, ships, navigation, sea trade, war, piracy); around the sea (maritime communities, islands, port cities, shipping, shipping-related, fishing and touristic businesses); in the sea (fishing, maritime resources, environment); because of the sea (maritime transport systems and entrepreneurial networks, maritime empires, international and national maritime institutions and policy); and about the sea (maritime culture and heritage, the ideology, myths and poems of a sea, the impact of the sea on art).