Exploration: World Shaping Events: Maritime History with John Weaver

Join Distinguished University Professor, Dr. John Weaver for an illustrated online talk about the evolution of shipping, the “backbone of the world economy” and accounts for over 80% of the world’s trade volume. Dr. Weaver will discuss how the European shipping industry has for centuries been an exemplar and agent of modernization. In the last quarter century, giantism has emerged as the latest consequence of developments that began roughly one thousand years ago.

The illustrated lecture will pose questions to bridge the thousand years. How do merchants (shippers) arrive at connections with carriers (shipowners or masters)? Where have contacts and negotiations taken place? How is risk managed in a risky enterprise? Is the purpose of a voyage to send or retrieve? How is the resulting imbalance in a voyage managed? How important is time spent in port and how is it controlled? How is European prominence to be explained? How does East Asia fit into the current picture?

John’s interest in world history began when writing The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World. His current project ‘sails to the shores of land-rush colonialism.’