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Academic Year 2000/2001


Africans, Americans, Europeans and the Making of the Atlantic World, 1500-1800
HIST 309 FA

Columbus's 1492 voyage to the Bahamas inaugurated a new era in world history. The European conquerors and settlers who followed in Columbus's wake carried strange diseases and deadly weapons. Millions of Native Americans died. Over the course of the next three centuries, Europeans created a flourishing Atlantic trade that unsettled native societies and relied on the labor of millions of African slaves. This course will explore several aspects of this early modern Atlantic world: the European empires in the Americas and the new worlds they created; slavery and the slave trade; and the age of revolution that began in 1776 and ultimately dismantled the structures and institutions of European imperial rule. We will also try to discern the extent to which the patterns and characteristics of the early modern Atlantic world have left imprints on its inheritors. Course assignments will consist of oral presentations, short papers, and a final research essay.

MAJOR READINGS

D.W. Meinig, ATLANTIC AMERICA, 1492-1800
John Thornton, AFRICA AND AFRICANS IN THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1400-1800
Olaudah Equiano, THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE AND OTHER WRITINGS
Bernal Diaz Del Castillo, THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF MEXICO, 1517-1521
Lester D. Langley, THE AMERICAS IN THE AGE OF REVOLUTION, 1750-1850
Bernard Bailyn, THE PEOPLING OF BRITISH NORTH AMERICA: AN INTRODUCTION
V.S. NAIPAUL, A WAY IN THE WORLD: A NOVEL.

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

Oral presentations, short papers, final research essay

Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Discussion

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

SECTION 01

Instructor(s): Lucas,Joseph S.   
Times: ..T.T.. 02:40PM-04:00PM;     Location: BTFDC210
Reserved Seats:    (Total Limit: 18)
SR. major:    Jr. major:
SR. non-major: 5   Jr. non-major: 5   SO: 4   FR: 4

Special Attributes:
Curricular Renewal:    Writing
Links to Web Resources For This Course.

Last Updated on MAR-26-2001


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