AIIS 4900

New World Encounters, 1500 - 1800

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2021-2022.

The discovery of the Americas, wrote Francisco Lopez de Gomara in 1552, was "the greatest event since the creation of the world, excepting the Incarnation and Death of Him who created." Five centuries have not diminished either the overwhelming importance or the strangeness of the early encounter between Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Taking a comparative approach, this course will conceptualize early American history as the product of reciprocal cultural encounters by assessing the various experiences of Spanish, French, and English newcomers in different regions of the Americas. Critical interpretation of primary source material will be emphasized in the course, as will the development of students' ability to reflect critically on these documents, taking into account the perspective of both the colonizers and the colonized. 

When Offered Fall.

Distribution Category (CA-AG)

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