Braudel’s Mature Mediterranean: : Civilization and Capitalism

This paper identifies the mature form of Braudel’s conception of the Mediterranean within the broader context of his Civilization and Capitalism: 15th–18th Century, where it is only indirectly represented. While the Mediterranean as a historical protagonist—albeit to different degrees—appears in parallel fashion in the unfolding of all his three major books, The Mediterranean hosts only a nascent and fuzzy form of the tripartite schema of Civilization and Capitalism which Braudel derived from the study of the Mediterranean region and then generalized. Hence, Mediterranean specialists who focus on The Mediterranean exclusively miss the additional role of the Mediterranean as a world-maker; a salient point made in Civilization and Capitalism.