Rather than undertake an almost impossible task to render a coherent history of three oceans between the years of 1500 to 1800, this chapter seeks to address three interrelated issues. It first explores the novelty of aquatic historiography and its contestations. Second, it investigates the interrelationship between imagined and physical manifestations of oceanic and terrestrial space. Lastly, the chapter considers how Europeans sought to integrate and project hegemony over oceanic space.