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Today, citizens of the United States worry little, if at all, about the threat of military invasion. It is hard to imagine American soldiers fighting battles in, say, New York or South Carolina. During the colonial era, however, North America was a site of almost constant warfare. In the seventeenth century, Indians and English settlers fought bloody wars on the Atlantic coast, while Iroquois Indians waged a series of "mourning wars" against other Indian peoples and achieved influence over a large swath of inland territory centered in what is now upstate New York. In the eighteenth century, Britain, France and Spain competed for Indian allies in an ongoing military struggle for North American supremacy. This course will focus on how warfare shape d the societies of colonial North America, especially with regard to the relations between Indians and Europeans. How did Indians and Euro-Americans understand and experience war? How did colonial wars shape each people's perceptions of the other? Finally, we will examine the role of colonial warfare in the creation of two late eighteenth-century American identities: pan-Indianism and the American exceptionalism that emerged during the American Revolution.
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: Seminar
Level: UGRD Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: SBS HIST Grading Mode: Graded
Prerequisites: NONE
Last Updated on MAR-24-2000
Copyright Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459