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The Atlantic Encounter: Europe and america in the 15th,
16th, and 17th Centuries - History3308
Prof. Blaisdell
Northeastern University - Winter, 1998
charmblais@worldnet.att.net
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course focuses on the encounter
of Europe and Europeans with America and its peoples in the fifteenth, sixteenth,
and seventeenth centuries and of the natives of the new-found land with Europeans.
We will not focus on the "discovery" or the explorers explicitly
but on Early Modern Europe's role in shaping America and the repercussions
which modified the lives and thought of Europeans over time. This is a Eurocentric
course and begins in Renaissance Europe because it was the Europeans who crossed
the Atlantic and began the radical reshaping of what was going to be called
America. We will seek to understand the background and perspectives from whence
the Europeans came, the impact their "discoveries," explorations,
and colonizations had on Europe and the impact that concepts of race and gender
had on the shaping of the culture and economy of what was to them "the
new world."
This course is truly a voyage of discovery in that we will read widely together
to grasp the current, expanding scholarship of the period. As a new course
it is far from a finished product. I regard it as a "work in progress."
I may alter the assignments from time to time. I expect that this will be
a collaborative effort as we learn from each other's reading, insights, and
final projects.
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this course is to explore and understand
the Europe of the age of the great voyages; the impact of Europe on the new
world and the new world on Europe; to master a fairly recent body of knowledge
and scholarly literature; to developments research skills, to apply your knowledge
and skills to creating a finished product. Above all, I wish to help you sharpen
your powers of focused inquiry. Historical research begins (and frequently
ends) with a question. This is not a survey course in "the Age of Discovery
and Exploration." Rather, I have tried to select themes that are representative
of the new historiography. The readings are broad and suggestive; they are
designed to lead to further inquiry.
EXPECTATIONS: Students are expected to come to class having read the material
so that we can all participate in the discussion. Each student will pick a
topic or theme in conference with me no later than the third week and developments
a project around it according to your area of interest: Historical research,
Public History, or Pedagogy. Students will prepare a brief oral presentation
for the class and a written "exhibit" to be handed in to me at the
end of the quarter with a copy for each member of the class.
Graduate students are expected to be like ferrets. This is not a course where
you can dutifully and mechanically read the assignment each week. You are
expected to dig and find new material of interest to bring the class, to ask
questions, to contribute. You will probably not be able to read everything.
But it is important to handle everything! To look it over; discover its approach,
thesis, depth of scholarship, and usefulness to your work.
HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUA TED:
You will be evaluated on the quality of your class participation; your oral
presentation; and your final written project which should demonstrate the
depth and breadth of you learning in this course.
FINAL PROJECT:
1. Students preparing for the traditional M.A. degree:
Write a critical bibliographic essay on an aspect of the course. This should
include why this area is especially significant; what has been done in the
area; how are scholars dealing with the questions we have raised; what other
issues are scholars thinking and writing about; what questions does the scholarship
raise for you vis a vis content and/or methodology. What directions do you
think scholarship in the area needs to go? In terms of what you have learned,
critique the exhibits at the Museum of Fine Arts and Peabody Museum on the
basis of what you have learned.
2. Students preparing for M.A. in Public History:
Create a virtual museum exhibit on an aspect of the theme of the course. Clearly
define your public and the reason for the exhibit. Clearly define your theme.
You will be limited by the Museum director to 8 walls and space for 20 artifacts.
You will draw upon objects in the MFA or Peabody Museums or copies from art
books. Write your own wall notations in which you demonstrate your ability
to convey to your public the information you consider important in the context
of the theme of your exhibit.
3. Students preparing for an M.A.T.:
Choose an aspect of this course which could fit into a Secondary School curriculum.
Prepare a plan for a module with readings, visuals, and other materials including
the Museum of Fine Arts and Peabody Museum in Salem and the Learning Resource
Center. Make a critical statement that connects how the framework of our course
fits with the course you will be teaching and how the module you have designed
fits with the Curriculum Frameworks and course you will be teaching. Clearly
define the historical
concepts, methodologies, and content you expect to teach with this unit. Identify
specific strategies you will use to accomplish this. Identify the questions
for inquiry you expect or hope your students will raise in the process and
the end of this module.
THE FOLLOWING BOOKS WILL BE NEEDED FOR THIS COURSE:
Elliott, J.H. THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW, Cambridge University Press
Parry, J.H. EUROPEAN RECONNAISSANCE, U. Of California Press
Kupperman, Karen, AMERICA IN EUROPEAN CONSCIOUSNESS, University of North Carolina
Press
Axtell, James, BEYOND 1492
Crosby, Alfred, COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE, Greenwood Press.
Lunenfeld, Marvin, 1492: DISCOVERY, INVASION ENCOUNTER (source book) Northeastern
University Classpack
COURSE OUTLINE
Miranda: O brave new world
That has such people in't
Prospero: 'Tis new to thee.
[Shakespeare, "The Tempest"]
"The existence of America was one of the greatest disappointments in
the history of Europe." [C.S. Lewis, ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE SIXTEENTH
CENTURY. OXFORD, 1964]
"The discovery of the Indies, what we call the New World, is, excepting
only the Incarnation and the Death of Our Lord, the most important event since
the creation of the world." [Lopez de Gomara, GENERAL - HISTORY OF THE
INDIES, 1552]
1/5 INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE AND OURSELVES
INTRODUCTION TO THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD -
FILM:
1/12 CONDITIONS FOR DISCOVERY I
The Context of Early Modern European Culture
What questions for serious inquiry come up for you as a result of the of the
reading?
READ: If you did not read the assignment for January 5, please read! Elliott,
J.H. THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW (all); Chiapelli, FIRST IMAGES OF AMERICA,
Vol. 1: 1-35, (volume on RESERVE) Andrien,
Kenneth and Adorno, Roleno, TRANSATLANTIC ENCOUNTERS, Europeans and Andeans
in the Sixteenth Century, Chapter 1 "Spain in the Fifteenth Century"
(Classpack & on RESERVE). Lunenfeld, pp.11-33. Spend time surveying the
course material so that you can begin to frame your project.
FILM: Columbus' World" MV 7- 3021
Note below your assignment is for two weeks No class on January 19.
By the time we meet on January 26 students will have chosen the topic for
the project or at the very least have framed some ideas to discuss with me.
1/26 CONDITIONS FOR DISCOVERY II
Medieval Expansion of Europe
Earlier North Atlantic voyages
European ideas about the other; indigenous peoples ideas about the other Shifts
in Trade Patterns
READ: Schwartz, Stuart, IMPLICIT UNDERSTANDINGS pp. 1-96 skim to understand
the tradition of "the other" in European culture. Dathorpe? Campbell?
Eric Wolf, EUROPE AND THE PEOPLE WITHOUT A HISTORY, CH. 4, "Europe, Prelude
to Expansion."(Class Pack and RESERVE) Thornton, John, AFRICA AND AFRICANS
IN THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD, 1400-1680, pp.I-42 (Classpack and RESERVE).
Alfred Crosby, THE MEASURE OF REALITY: Quantification and Western Society,
Chapters - 1 and 11. (ON RESERVE). Lunenfeld, 33-44.
2/2 VOYAGES OF EXPLORATION
Precedents
Technology
Cartography
READ: J.H. Parry, THE AGE OF RECONNAISSANCE, 1-243; Peter Whitfield, THE IMAGE
OF THE WORLD, 20 Centuries of World Maps pp.I-87 (on RESERVE) study the maps
and text to understand some of the limitations on navigation, the sense of
the marvelous and the strange that went into pre-Columbian map-making. Also
on reserve John Noble Wilford, THE MAPMAKERS 1-110 (o.k. if you can't get
Whitfield, but "second choice." We will use Whitfield in class.)
Come with questions for further
exploration and your ideas and observations. Lunenfeld, 61-102.
NOTE: Below, I have Included reading for two class-sessions.
2/9 ENCOUNTERING "THE OTHER"; FASHIONING THE OTHER.
2/16
"Each man calls barbarism what is not his own practice" [Montaigne]
ESTABLISHING HEGEMONY
READ: Patricia Seed, CEREMONIES OF POSSESSION, Introduction and one other
Chapter that interests you. (ON RESERVE)
AMERICA ENTERS EUROPEAN CONSCIOUSNESS Responses to America: Discourse of Discovery
ART
READ: Claire Farago, REFRAMING THE RENAISSANCE, Introduction and Chapter 11
and 12 (ON RESERVE); Honour, THE NEW GOLDEN LAND. TBA
ARTIFACTS: COLLECTING
READ: Karen Kupperman, 33-195; 295-361; Stephen Greenblatt,
MARVELOUS POSSESSIONS, Chapters 3, 4, 5 (on RESERVE); READ: Schwartz, IMPLICIT
UNDERSTANDINGS Chapter 12 "Interpretations of distance made Tangible"
(on RESERVE) -
TRAVEL LITERATURE
John Mandeville
Columbus
Jean de Lery
READ: Lunenfeld, 35-40; Jean de Lery, HISTORY OF A VOYAGE TO THE LAND OF BRAZIL,
trans and ed., by Janet Whatley, Introduction and sample. (Book on RESERVE);
PROMOTIONAL LITERATURE
The Hakluyts
George Peckham
Walter Raleigh
READ: Peter Mancall, ed., ENVISIONING AMERICA: English Plans for the Colonization
of North America, 33-71; 107-127 (ON RESERVE), NOTE: I have assigned the Introduction
for 2/23. You might want to look it over now.
LITERATURE
Utopian: Thomas, More, UTOPIA (1515)
Didactic: Michel de Montaigne, CANNIBALS
Belles lettres: William Shakespeare, THE TEMPEST
(Note, one could also read OTHELLO here for a view of other 16th century attitudes)
READ: Thomas More, UTOPIA (read to identify important aspects of English culture
in Book 1; the influence of the new world on More's thinking in Book 2 (ON
RESERVE); Arthur Slavin, "The American Principle from More to Locke,"
in Chiapelli, 1: 139-64 (On RESERVE); Michel Montaigne, "Cannibals"
(On RESERVE) in THE COMPLETE ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE; Shakespeare, THE TEMPEST
excerpts TBA. (looking for influence of perceptions the New World on the ideas
Shakespeare
explores. Porter, INCONSTANT SAVAGE (XEROX of chapter in this book On RESERVE,
entitled "TheTempest;" Chiapelli, FIRST IMAGES, I: 83-89 (ON RESERVE);
Students interested in a post-modern interpretation of "The Tempest"
will want to see "Prospero's Books" (Peter Greenaway, screen writer,
1992) in the Media Center.
GENDER AND THE DISCOURSE OF DISCOVERY
This is an ever expanding topic. The article below captures the essence of
the current scholarship.
READ: Louis Montrose, "The Work of Gender in the Discourse of Discovery"
in REPRESENTATIONS 33 (1991) 1-39. Article (ON RESERVE) and in periodical
section Nl.R 2000.
TRADE
READ: Axtell, James, AFTER COLUMBUS, chapter 9 "At Water's Edge";
Lunenfeld, 127-157; 273-287.
EUROPEANS IN NATIVE CONSCIOUSNESS
READ: Axtell, AFTER COLUMBUS (on RESERVE and CLASSPACK) "Through another
glass darkly: Early Indian Views of Europeans."(Chapter 8); Calloway,THE
WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN (ON RESERVE); Introduction and Ch.l (pp.I-42); Claire
Farago, REFRAMING THE RENAISSANCE (on RESERVE), Ch1;'pters 7, 8, 13; Lunenfeld,
255-273.
2/23 CONQUEST AND COLONIZATION
America and European Aspirations Making passage Conquest
Colonies: Successes and Failures
Orinoco
Roanoke
Brazil
Florida
Canada
Mexico
Peru
Atlantic Colonies
New England
READ: Kupperman, Part III; Parry, 243-320; James Axtell, AFTER COLUMBUS, Ch.
4& 5 (Classpack AND Reserve); READ: Pagden, European Encounters with the
New World, Introduction and Chapter I (pp.I-49) Bennett, SETTLEMENTS IN THE
AMERICAS, Introduction and 1 chapter that especially interests you. Come prepared
to talk about it ( ON RESERVE ); Nobles, AMERICAN FRONTIERS, Introduction
and Chapter 1 (ON RESERVE); Axtell, THE CULTURAL ORIGINS OF NORTH AMERICA,
Introduction and Chapter I. (ON RESERVE); Peter Mancall, ENVISIONING AMERICA,
Introduction, pp 1- 31 (ON RESERVE); Lunenfeld, 157-229
3/2 EMIGRANTS AND EMIGRATION
Who came?
Why did they come?
Making passage
Race considerations
Gender ramifications
READ: Ida Altman and James Horn, "TO MAKE AMERICA" European Immigration
in the Early Modern Period, Introduction (pp.I-30) and one other chapter that
interests you. (ON RESERVE); Lockhart and Otte. LETTERS AND PEOPLE OF THE
SPANISH INDIES, (ON RESERVE); Natalie Zemon Davis, "Iroquois Women, European
Women," in WOMEN RACE AND WRITING IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD, ed by Hendricks
and Parker, (on RESERVE).and Verena Stolckem "Invaded Women" ibid.
3/9 CULTURAL CONSEQUENCES
Metamorphosis of the Americas
Crops; animals; disease; destruction
Exchange
Africans and the new World
Literature
Art
READ: Crosby, THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE; Thornton, John AFRICA AND AFRICANS IN
THE MAKING OF THE ATLANTIC WORLD, Ch 5 (CLASSPACK); Lunenfeld, 309-355.
3/16 STYLES OF COLONIAL IDENTITY
Spanish
French - Should include emigration; style of society left behind
English - Socially, politically
Dutch
German
READ: Nicholas Canny and Anthony Pagden, ed., COLONIAL IDENTITY IN THE ATLANTIC
WORLD, 1500-1800, Chapters 1 &5 [ Spanish America and British America]
(CLASS PACK and RESERVE); Lunenfeld 229-55; 287-309
© 2002 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Created November 2002.