Also, people from the Mediterranean routinely traveled to Africa, and vice versa. It wasn’t all the time but it was common. It’s like traveling between the US and Latin America. They’re different areas of the world but so close that mixing is impossible to avoid. Sicily has a measurable amount of African heritage.
Before the Caliphates happened and christendom responded by creating the north south division, it was entirely unreasonable to view any part of the Mediterranean as distinct from the greater cultural whole aside from specifics about who specifically was living where at what time.
In fact Islamic empires regularly had an irredentist idea about their right to dominate the Mediterranean granted by being the true inheritors of the Roman Empire (especially after they took Istanbul)
Even in that time of division though, the typical Venetian had far more in common with the Typical Tunisian than they did with the typical Dane. Could even be part of how the “Protestant World” ended up looking so similar to a map of “the parts of Europe that were the least integrated into the Mediterranean core of Catholicism’s historical forming grounds and institutions”
The comparison to modern travel is a bit off though… The vast, VAST, majority of humanity would never travel further than a few villages over in their entire lifetime. The ‘mixing’ of cultures isn’t nearly as pronounced as you’re suggesting. Consider that even medieval “France” was made up of over 6 distinct cultures with often different languages.
Also, people from the Mediterranean routinely traveled to Africa, and vice versa. It wasn’t all the time but it was common. It’s like traveling between the US and Latin America. They’re different areas of the world but so close that mixing is impossible to avoid. Sicily has a measurable amount of African heritage.
Before the Caliphates happened and christendom responded by creating the north south division, it was entirely unreasonable to view any part of the Mediterranean as distinct from the greater cultural whole aside from specifics about who specifically was living where at what time.
In fact Islamic empires regularly had an irredentist idea about their right to dominate the Mediterranean granted by being the true inheritors of the Roman Empire (especially after they took Istanbul)
Even in that time of division though, the typical Venetian had far more in common with the Typical Tunisian than they did with the typical Dane. Could even be part of how the “Protestant World” ended up looking so similar to a map of “the parts of Europe that were the least integrated into the Mediterranean core of Catholicism’s historical forming grounds and institutions”
The comparison to modern travel is a bit off though… The vast, VAST, majority of humanity would never travel further than a few villages over in their entire lifetime. The ‘mixing’ of cultures isn’t nearly as pronounced as you’re suggesting. Consider that even medieval “France” was made up of over 6 distinct cultures with often different languages.