A bustling Mediterranean port city symbolizing religious and cultural exchange in the early modern period.

The Converting Sea: How Religious Change Shaped the Early Modern Mediterranean

Samir D’Costa in Culture & Society June 2025 • 5 min read.

"Uncover the dynamic interplay of faith, culture, and power in the Mediterranean, revealing a history of conversion that goes far beyond individual beliefs."

The early modern Mediterranean was a melting pot of empires and faiths, where the movement of people and ideas across borders sparked continuous cultural renegotiations. Conversion, often viewed as a simple change of faith, was a much more complex phenomenon deeply entwined with religious change, acculturation, and cross-cultural interaction. Traditional studies have often overlooked these intricate connections, resulting in an incomplete understanding of conversion's significance in Mediterranean society.

This article broadens the understanding of conversion by examining its impact across various cultural fronts, demonstrating that it encompassed more than just switching religions. Conversion is reframed as a uniquely human ability to adapt, instigate societal change, and respond to evolving circumstances. This broader definition allows for a more comprehensive synthesis of religious changes and cross-cultural interactions that occurred in diverse areas such as literary culture, intellectual traditions, and the visual arts.

By exploring conversion in the early modern Mediterranean as a fundamental sociocultural shift, we can view the region as a "converting sea." This sea shaped the lives of its inhabitants, who, in turn, molded the cultural landscape of the Middle Sea itself. This perspective highlights the dynamic interplay between religious, political, and cultural forces that defined the era.

How Did Traditional Historiography Frame Conversion in the Mediterranean?

A bustling Mediterranean port city symbolizing religious and cultural exchange in the early modern period.

To fully grasp the implications of conversion, it's essential to recognize that all forms of conversion took place within a complex web of imperial expansion and the construction of competing religious, cultural, and political identities. Individual and collective changes in religious identity were invariably connected to institutional efforts aimed at integrating devotion and political loyalty. Venice, for example, established houses for catechumens to integrate converts through patronage networks and surrogate kinship.

This phenomenon wasn't unique to Venice, as conversionary preaching and other mechanisms for promoting and safeguarding conversions were widespread throughout Italy. The Iberian empires also sought to create ethno-religiously homogenous states, intertwining religious orthodoxy and political loyalty in the edification of converts. The Spanish, in particular, attempted to implement these tactics in their Italian holdings, especially in Naples and Palermo, strategically important administrative centers in the Habsburg's Mediterranean empire facing Ottoman encroachment.

Recognize that all forms of conversion took place within a complex web of imperial expansion and the construction of competing religious, cultural, and political identities.
Individual and collective changes in religious identity were invariably connected to institutional efforts aimed at integrating devotion and political loyalty.
The Iberian empires also sought to create ethno-religiously homogenous states, intertwining religious orthodoxy and political loyalty in the edification of converts.

While state-driven initiatives played a significant role, the evangelization efforts of the Catholic Church were also crucial to empire-building through conversion. Although often state-driven, evangelization saw missionaries originating from nations backing specific missions. Mediterranean conversion and evangelization haven't always been treated as interrelated, but early modern missionary Catholicism can be viewed as an extension of European expansion in the Americas and Asia. Thinking of evangelization and cross-confessional dialogue as Mediterranean conversionary processes places it in the same vein as the Inquisition or houses for catechumens. Catholic efforts to combat Protestantism and heresy across the Northern Mediterranean and missionary work among Eastern Rite Christians should be considered pan-Mediterranean processes of confessional and political consolidation through evangelization, tactics also applied in missions further afield. Early modern Catholicism became a global faith partly through conversionary tactics honed in the Mediterranean before and after the opening of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds.

A Sea of Transformation

This exploration of conversion in the early modern Mediterranean demonstrates that it was a process far more complex than individual or collective religious decisions. By connecting various historiographical strands, this article highlights conversion as a means of confronting religious change and cross-cultural interaction. This allows for a better understanding of the early modern Mediterranean as a dynamic space of cultural production, characterized by the creation and reshaping of religious, political, and cultural identities. Religious conversion fostered pervasive anxiety about collaboration versus confrontation, revealing the contradictory nature of phenomena such as Christian Kabbalah and Spanish anti-Morisco policies. Conversion, therefore, emerges as a multifaceted cultural problem, influencing individual beliefs, interactions, collective identities, and artistic expression.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

This article is based on research published under:

DOI-LINK: 10.1111/hic3.12512, Alternate LINK

Title: The Converting Sea: Religious Change And Cross-Cultural Interaction In The Early Modern Mediterranean

Subject: History

Journal: History Compass

Publisher: Wiley

Authors: Robert John Clines

Published: 2018-10-25

Everything You Need To Know

How did traditional studies previously understand conversion in the Mediterranean, and what aspects did they often miss?

Traditional historical accounts often portrayed conversion as a straightforward shift in religious affiliation. However, this perspective overlooks the intricate connections between conversion, religious change, acculturation, and cross-cultural interactions within Mediterranean society. The older approach didn't fully capture conversion's broader impact on cultural, intellectual, and artistic aspects of the region.

Beyond a change in religious identity, what broader implications did conversion have in the early modern Mediterranean?

Conversion in the early modern Mediterranean was more than a simple change of faith; it was a complex sociocultural shift that influenced individual beliefs, cross-cultural interactions, collective identities, and artistic expression. It acted as a means of confronting religious change and shaped the creation and reshaping of religious, political, and cultural identities. This period saw conversion fostering anxieties about collaboration versus confrontation, revealing contradictions within movements like Christian Kabbalah and policies such as Spanish anti-Morisco measures.

What role did empires play in facilitating conversion in the Mediterranean, and can you provide specific examples?

Empires, such as Venice and the Iberian empires, played a crucial role in conversion through institutional efforts aimed at integrating devotion and political loyalty. Venice established houses for catechumens, using patronage networks to integrate converts. The Iberian empires sought ethno-religiously homogenous states, intertwining religious orthodoxy with political loyalty, especially in strategically important areas like Naples and Palermo. These tactics were used to address challenges like Ottoman encroachment.

How did the Catholic Church's evangelization efforts relate to conversion in the Mediterranean, and how did they connect to broader patterns of European expansion?

Early modern missionary Catholicism can be seen as an extension of European expansion, similar to efforts in the Americas and Asia. Viewing evangelization and cross-confessional dialogue as conversionary processes places them in the same context as institutions like the Inquisition or houses for catechumens. The Catholic Church combatted Protestantism and heresy across the Northern Mediterranean and worked among Eastern Rite Christians, contributing to confessional and political consolidation.

What does the concept of the "converting sea" signify in the context of the early modern Mediterranean, and how does it reframe our understanding of the region?

The concept of the "converting sea" refers to viewing the early modern Mediterranean as a dynamic space where conversion was a fundamental sociocultural shift. It emphasizes the interplay between religious, political, and cultural forces in shaping the lives of the inhabitants and the cultural landscape. This perspective highlights how conversion influenced cultural production, religious change, and cross-cultural interaction, shaping the region's religious, political, and cultural identities.