TRENT UNIVERSITY
Fall 2014-Winter 2015
HIST 3600Y
THE AGE OF EXPLORATIONS, 1300-1650
DR. IVANA ELBL
Office: Lady Eaton College, S114
Phone: 748-1011 x 7833 (office), 705-876-1358 (home office)
E-mail: [email protected] Fax: 705-876-8904
Secretary: Trisha Gayle Pearce
Office: LEC, S 101.3
Phone: 705-748-1011 x 7706
E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: Wednesdays, 13-13.50 and 16-16.50, and by appointment. I will be available for special
appointments most Tuesdays, 12-13.50 (when not in meetings) and Wednesdays, 12-12.50 (except for two firstyear lectures).
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Why Study the Age of Explorations?
Before the establishment of globe-spanning maritime links in the sixteenth-century the
Americas, Australia, much of Africa and parts of the Pacific remained separated from the Old
World (Eurasia) by chasms of uncharted distance. In Eurasia itself, transcontinental and longdistance communication relied on fragile trade links, infrequent diplomatic missions and the
occasional shock of conquest. Yet even within the much smaller confines of the Old World,
territorial, spiritual and economic separation was the rule and all else an exception.
By opening up the world's oceans, the Age of Explorations created a sustained
communication system that for the first time spanned the entire globe. It made and broke both
individuals and empires, transformed economies, changed daily life in many parts of the
world, triggered large-scale demographic shifts, and set the stage for the emergence of the
short-lived Western hegemony. In the long-run, it inadvertently set humankind on a difficult
and often painful road to the global civilization that is now beginning to emerge and the roots
of which we should take care to understand.
Course Description:
The course examines the renaissance oceanic explorations, with emphasis on the
accompanying human tragedies and triumphs, the resulting massive ecological changes, the
establishment of European seaborne empires, and the emergence of a sustained global
network open to exchanges of goods, germs, ideas, and to the often involuntary mixing of
cultures.
Course Goals and Outcome:
The course aims at providing students with a solid overview and command of issues
surrounding one of the key historical processes of the early modern world. In a broader
sense, it hopes to contribute to their intellectual development and their ability to deal with and
reason about broad and complex historical issues both in time and space, while able to zoom
in selected aspects and micro-aspects and put them in the requisite context. Aimed at
nurturing both history-specific abilities and transferable general skills, the course
requirements foster and hone students’ research capacity, critical thinking, historiographical
analysis, and the ability to communicate concisely both verbally and in writing.
Course Organization:
The course is organized into three thematic groups: “Shaping the “Age of Explorations”,
"The Last Frontier? ... The Oceanic Sea and Beyond", and "The World the 'Age of
Explorations' Made". These themes are explored in twenty-four weekly units that combine
two-hour lectures and one-hour tutorials. The lectures provide an overall survey and analysis
of each topic.
The lectures are a key to the course. They present original scholarship and ideas that are
essential to securing full grasp of the subject. The tutorials look at selected problems and
issues linked to the lecture topics, and incorporate work with both primary sources and
secondary literature. Tutorial questions serve to not only to bring the readings into focus but
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also to derive clear conclusions from each unit. Students are able to focus on specific
readings and questions according to their interests, as long as they read c. 60 pages per
week.
The research paper allows students to engage their own interests involving the overseas
expansion. The mid-term take home exam tests the command of material covered in the first
five weeks. The final exam helps students to draw conclusions about the key aspects of the
overseas explorations, their causes and consequences, and their historical significance.
SCHEDULE
Lectures (two hours weekly):
Wednesdays 10.00-11.50
SC 215
Tutorials (one hour weekly):
Wednesdays 14.00-14.50
Thursdays 15.00-15.50
BL 401
BL 401
Please check http://www.trentu.ca/admin/mytrent/AcademicTimetable.htm to confirm
times and locations.
EVALUATION
Participation:
Class Participation I (Units 1-12):
Class Participation II (Units 13-24):
15%
15%
Exams:
Fall Take-Home Exam
Final Exam:
10%
30%
Assignments:
Option 1:
Tutorial Journal 1
Tutorial Journal 2
Short Research Essay
10%
10%
10%
Option 2: Research Project
Research Paper Outline
Research Paper, Final Draft:
10%
20%
Note: Evaluation components scheduled to be marked before Dec. 31 (the end of the Fall Term) are:
Option 1: Class Participation I (15%), Tutorial Journal 1 (10%), and Fall Mid-Term Take-Home Exam (10%)
Option 2: Class Participation I (15%), Research Paper Outline 1 (10%), and Fall Mid-Term Take-Home Exam
(10%),
The total for both options is 35% of the final grade.
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ASSIGNMENT DEADLINES
FALL TERM
Option Section:
Option 1:
Tutorial Journal 1.1 (Units 1-4):
Tutorial Journal 1.2 (Units 5-8):
Tutorial Journal 1.3 (Units 9-12):
Option 2:
Research Project Question Selection:
Research Paper Outline:
September 12
Fall Take-Home Exam:
December 12
October 3
November 7
December 5
September 19
November 14
WINTER TERM
Option 1:
Short Research Essay Question Selection:
Tutorial Journal 2.1 (Units 13-16):
Short Research Essay, First Draft (Optional):
Tutorial Journal 2.2 (Units 17-20):
Short Research Essay, Final Draft
Tutorial Journal 2.3 (Units 21-24):
Option 2:
Research Paper, First Draft (Optional):
Research Paper, Final
January 9
January 30
February 27
March 6
March 27
April 3
February 6
March 20
SUBMISSIONS
All assignments should be submitted on the due day, at 11.59PM. Being late for a good
reason is not a capital sin. Extensions up to a week are possible. Make sure you ask for one if
necessary. However: 1) Extensions longer than a week will be granted only on very serious
grounds and will require documentation; 2) Late submissions for which extension was not
granted or which abuse the extension privilege will see a deduction of 5% per day.
All assignments should be submitted as Blackboard Learn attachments, using MS Word
(.doc, .docx or .rtf), Wordperfect (.wpd), Open Office (.odt) or Adobe Acrobat (.pdf).
Assignments written in Microsoft Works (.wps) or Mac (pages) are not compatible and will not
be accepted. Comments and marks will also be available on Blackboard Learn.
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Tutorial write-ups and discussion contributions should be submitted on the
Blackboard Lean Discussion Board.
Please do not email your work, except in an emergency.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
LECTURES AND TUTORIALS:
The weekly lectures & tutorials are essential. The tutorials are compulsory. One unexcused
tutorial absence per term is allowed, without penalty. Students may make up for up to three
tutorial absences by submitting a substantial write-up (250-400 words) on the tutorial
questions for the missed tutorial unit, and post them on the BL Discussion Board. They
cannot address the same questions as Tutorial Journal entries. Those who wish to
demonstrate their ability to the fullest are welcome to post Discussion Board write-ups in
addition to class participation. Command of the lecture material and basic knowledge of the
readings must be demonstrated in tutorial work, and the exams.
Class Participation feedback will be posted on BL (“Grade Centre”) by December 8 and
April. 3.
WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:
Option 1:
Tutorial Journal 1 and 2: Please choose one of the questions posted under
each tutorial unit and answer it in the form a mini-essay (350-500 words), plus
footnotes. Each answer must have a clear introduction, discussion, conclusion, and
reflect command of the lecture and tutorial readings. Answer one question from each
unit in the following groups of Units 1-4, 5-8, 9-12 (Fall Term -Tutorial Journal 1), 1316, 17-20, 21-24 (Winter Term - Tutorial Journal 2 ). See the deadline schedule
above.
Short Research Essay:
Research Question Selection: Submit a list of your four top choices from the list
posted on Blackboard Learn or propose your own research question, by January 9.
will then review your submissions and assign you a research question, by Jan.12. You
have to write on the assigned question, unless I agree to change it.
Short Research Essay Requirements:
a) Length: The paper must be 1,750-2,000 words long (in addition to bibliography).
The bibliography is not included in the word count.
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b) Approach and Structure: The paper must be analytical (as opposed to
descriptive), organized clearly into an introduction, discussion, and conclusion. It must
be written in full sentences and contain proper transitions.
c) Introduction: The paper must contain a clear introduction stating the
hypothesis/argument about the research question and end with a clearly stated
thesis/answer to the research question.
d) Research support: at least 8 directly relevant scholarly works (books,
chapters in collected volumes, articles in scholarly journals), in addition to readings and
primary sources accompanying the assigned research question. Each work listed in the
bibliography must appear in the notes at least once, to document its use.
e) Writing and Presentation: The paper should be well written (style, grammar,
spelling) and well presented.
f) Historiography: The paper must contain a critique of the representative
secondary literature (historiography),
g) Primary Sources: The paper should include work with primary sources, unless
otherwise agreed.
h) Evidence and Interpretation: The argument must be rigorously supported by
evidence and avoid speculation, overstatement, over-generalization, and failure to
interpret the evidence presented.
I) Documentation: The paper must be properly supported by documentation, including
footnotes and a complete bibliography. The documentation must comply with the
Chicago Manual of Style, Footnotes and Bibliography Format.
See http://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/documentation/chicago.php.
Short Research Essay, First Draft (Optional): The draft must constitute a full
research essay, both in content and in form. It will receive a mark as if it were the final
version, to be later substituted by the final version mark (or the higher of the two, in the
unlikely case that the final version is marked lower than the first one).
You are not required to submit the first draft and may proceed directly to the final
version. There is no need to inform me of you choice – if the first draft is not submitted
by the deadline, I will assume you will not be submitting it. Due: Feb. 27.
Short Research Essay, Final Version: The final version should address the
Requirements listed above. If it was preceded by a first draft, it should address the
suggestions and criticisms raised in my comments. If you do not to submit a final draft
but have submitted the first draft the mark on the first draft will stand for both.
Due: Mar. 27.
Option 2: Research Project
‘Research Question Selection: Submit up to four choices from the list of research
paper questions posted on Blackboard Learn, or propose a research question (or
alternative research questions) you would want to address in your research paper.
Due: Sep 19.
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‘I will then review your submissions and assign you a research question, by e-mail,
by Sep. 22. You have to write on the assigned question, unless I agree to change it.
Research Paper Outline:
The outline takes the form of an expanded proposal, based on the assumption that c.
40% of the research requirements have been completed, enough to support the
following requirements:
a) Hypothesis (Preliminary Argument) on the assigned research question and a
justification/explanation of the argument.
b) Outline of the structure of the paper, as dictated by the hypothesis.
c) Comments and questions regarding the Requirements in the context of your specific
project, highlighting any problems or issues.
d) Full research bibliography
Due: Nov. 14
Research Paper Requirements:
a) Length: The paper must be 4,500-5,000 words long (in addition to bibliography).
The bibliography is not included in the word count.
b) Approach and Structure: The paper must be analytical (as opposed to
descriptive), organized clearly into an introduction, discussion, and conclusion. It must
be written in full sentences and contain proper transitions.
c) Introduction: The paper must contain a clear introduction stating the
hypothesis/argument about the research question and end with a clearly stated
thesis/answer to the research question.
d) Research support: at least 20 directly relevant scholarly works (books,
chapters in collected volumes, articles in scholarly journals), in addition to readings and
primary sources accompanying the assigned research question. Each work listed in the
bibliography must appear in the notes at least once, to document its use.
e) Writing and Presentation: The paper should be well written (style, grammar,
spelling) and well presented.
f) Historiography: The paper must contain a representative critique of the
representative secondary literature (historiography),
g) Primary Sources: The paper should include work with primary sources, unless
otherwise agreed.
h) Evidence and Interpretation: The argument must be rigorously supported by
evidence and avoid speculation, overstatement, over-generalization, and failure to
interpret the evidence presented.
I) Documentation: The paper must be properly supported by documentation, including
footnotes and a complete bibliography. The documentation must comply with the
Chicago Manual of Style, Footnotes and Bibliography Format.
See http://www.trentu.ca/academicskills/documentation/chicago.php.
Research Paper, First Draft (Optional): The draft must constitute a full research
paper, both in content and form. It will receive a mark as if it were the final version, to
be later substituted by the final version mark (or the higher of the two, in the unlikely
case that the final version is marked lower than the first one).
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You are not required to submit the first draft and may proceed directly to the final
version. There is no need to inform me of you choice – if the first draft is not submitted
by the deadline, I will assume you will not not submitting it. Due: Feb. 6.
‘Research Paper - Final Version: The final version should meet Requirements listed
above. If it was preceded by a first draft, it should address the suggestions and
criticism raised in my comments. If you do not to submit a final draft but have submitted
the first draft the mark on the first draft will stand for both. Due: Mar. 20.
FALL TAKE-HOME EXAM:
Students will be asked to answer five questions from a list of ten, dealing with subject matter
and readings covered in the Fall Term. The questions will be available on Blackboard Learn
from Dec 5.
Each answer should be least 250 words long and worth 20% of the exam mark. All answers
must be analytical and offer a central argument clearly proposed in the introduction, examined
in the discussion, and stated in the form of a final answer in the conclusion. They must reflect
command of the lecture material. Due: Dec.12.
FINAL EXAMINATION:
The course will conclude with a three-hour in-person written examination that aimed at
ascertaining the students’ ability to reason about the main aspects of the early overseas
expansion and offer arguments about its origins, progression and context, and consequences,
engaging critically the lecture material.
Students will be asked to write one short essay (c. 500 words), one longer one (approx. 750
words) and answer 5 identification questions out of 10, c. 50 words each. The Short Essay
will be worth 30% of the exam mark, the Long Essay 45%, and the Identification 5% each (to
the total of 25%)
The Short Essay will deal with a question chosen from a short list, and the Long Essay will
address a common overarching theme. The exam questions will not be available ahead of
the exam but an example list will be provided in the last tutorial. The exam answers must be
analytical and offer a central argument clearly proposed in the introduction, examined in the
discussion, and stated in the form of a final answer in the conclusion.
All answers and identifications must reflect command of the lecture material.
TEXTS
1) Glenn Ames, The Globe Encompassed (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007)
(available in the Trent University Bookstore)
2) The History 3600Y Coursepack: “The Age of Explorations, 1300-1650” (available in the
Trent University Bookstore)
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3) Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ.
Press, 2006)
4) On-line readings: Articles can be accessed by through TOPCAT by searching for the title
of the periodical title and then volume and issue number. The alternative is to search on the
titles of the articles in Historical Abstracts/America: History and Life and clicking on “Get it at
Trent”.. Chapters in ebooks can be accessed by searching for the title of the book in TOPCAT.
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UNIVERSITY POLICIES
Academic Integrity:
Academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism and cheating, is an extremely
serious academic offence and carries penalties varying from a 0 grade on an
assignment to expulsion from the University. Definitions, penalties, and procedures
for dealing with plagiarism and cheating are set out in Trent University’s Academic
Integrity Policy. You have a responsibility to educate yourself – unfamiliarity with
the policy is not an excuse. You are strongly encouraged to visit Trent’s Academic
Integrity website to learn more:
www.trentu.ca/academicintegrity.
Access to Instruction:
It is Trent University's intent to create an inclusive learning environment. If a
student has a
disability and/or health consideration and feels that he/she may need
accommodations to succeed in this course, the student should contact the Student
Accessibility Services (BH Suite 132, 748-1281,
[email protected]) as soon as possible. Complete text can be found
under Access to Instruction in the Academic Calendar.
______________________________________
Note: Teaching Evaluations will be available on-line, through BL.
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LECTURES AND TUTORIALS
Knowledge of the lecture material must be evident in tutorial work.
NOTE: You are expected to read ca. 60 pages per week.
In a number of
units the readings exceed this length. This is to allow you a choice and permit you to
focus on what is of most interest to you, picking readings and questions accordingly.
However, be ready to report on the work you have done each week.
FALL 2014
Unit 1 (Sep. 10):
Lecture:
Introduction to the Age of Explorations
Tutorial:
Getting acquainted and discussing the course, its requirements, and the
“Age of Explorations”
Reading:
Glenn Ames, The Globe Encompassed (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall,
2007), Introduction, 1-23.
Question:
How does Glenn Ames introduce and organize the Age of Explorations, and why?
Shaping the “Age of Explorations”
Unit 2 (Sep. 17):
Lecture:
Medieval and Renaissance Views of the World
Tutorial:
Knowledge and Ideology as Factors in Shaping European Perceptions of
Asia in the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance
Readings:
Donald F. Lach, “Medieval View of Asia (300-1300)” and “The Revelation of Cathay
(1240-1350),“ in Donald F. Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe (Chicago and London:
Chicago University Press, 1994), vol. 1, pp. 20-48 (Reprotext #1)
Surekha Davies, “The Wondrous East in the Renaissance Geographical Imagination:
Marco Polo, Fra Mauro and Giovanni Battista Ramusio,” History & Anthropology 23 (2)
(2012): 215-24 (On-line, through Historical Abstracts –> Get it at Trent)
Primary Sources:
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The World Map of Fra Mauro (google an image)
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, edited by George R.T. Kimble
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1937), 9-20 (Reprotext #2)
Questions:
1. What respective roles did religion and knowledge transfer play in shaping of
perceptions educated European may have had of Asia?
2. What does Davies mean by “Wondrous East” and what are the roots of that idea?
3. What does the the World Map of Fra Mauro (c. 1450) tell is about his image of the
world?
4. How and on what basis does Duarte Pacheco Pereira, an experienced Portuguese
sea captain but also an educated courtier, describe the world?
Unit 3 (Sep. 24):
Lecture:
Europe and the World on the Eve of the Age of Explorations
Tutorial:
The Indian Ocean and the Late Medieval Images of Calicut, a Spice Trade
Centre on the Malabar Coast of India
Readings:
Archibald Lewis, “Maritime Skills in the Indian Ocean 1368-1500,” Journal of the
Economic and Social History of the Orient 16 (2/3) (1973): 238-64 (On-line)
Sebastian Prange, “The Contested Sea: Regimes of Maritime Violence in the PreModern Indian Ocean,” Journal of Early Modern History 17 (2013), 24-28 (“Maritime
Claims and Codes in Malabar and Melaka”) (On-line)
Sebastian Prange, first part of “A Trade of No Dishonor: Piracy, Commerce, and
Community in the Western Indian Ocean, Twelfth to Sixteenth Century,” American
Historical Review 116 (5) (2011), 1269-80 (On-line)
Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta, a Muslim Traveller of the Fourteenth
Century * Chapter 10 (Malabar and the Maldives, paragraphs 505-657 [pp. 212-237].
(On-line, through TOPCAT)
Primary Sources:
Ma Huan, “Iing-Yai Sheng-Lan—The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores (1433),”
Doc. 7 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford:
Oxford Univ. Press, 2006),115-6, 120-6.
'Abd al-Razzāq al Samarqandī, “Narrative of a Journey to Hindustan (1442-1444),” Doc.
8 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford
Univ. Press, 2006), 129-34.
The Travels of Niccolò di Conti in the East, Conti, Niccolò de', ca. 1395-1469, in
Medieval Travel Writing [electronic resource, access through TOPCAT], 19-20.
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Questions:
1. What place did late medieval Calicut hold in the Indian Ocean trade, and what roles
did it play?
2. What impressions do the four foreign accounts (Moroccan, Chinese, Central Asian,
and Italian) present of Calicut?
3. Both Lewis and Prange argue, against long-held opinions, that the Indian Ocean and
its sea lanes were hotly contested before the European arrival on scene, both in poltical
and commercial sense, and piracy was an accepted and respected tool. What is your
position, and why?
Unit 4 (Oct. 1):
Lecture:
The Disasters and Troubles that Shaped the Beginning of the Age of
Explorations
Tutorial:
Portugal: Squeezed between Troubles and the Oceanic Sea
Readings:
Anthony Disney, Chapter 7 “The Making of Avis Portugal”, in Anthony Disney, A History
of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, Vol 1 Portugal (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2009), 122-42 (Reprotext #3)
Malyn Newitt, Chapter 1 “The Origins of Portuguese Expansion to 1469” in Malyn Newitt,
A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion (Florence, KY: Routledge, 2004), 1-35
(On-line book, access through TOPCAT)
Questions:
1. What key problems did late medieval Portugal face?
2. How does Newitt see the origins ot Portuguese Expansion? Do you agree with his
explanation?
3. What was it about the Avis Dynasty that helped to make the Portuguese the
pioneers of the Age of Explorations?
The Last Frontier? ... The Oceanic Sea and Beyond
Unit 5 (Oct. 8):
Lecture:
“The Sea of Darkness”: Late Medieval Explorations in the Atlantic
Ocean
Tutorial:
“A Point of No Return”?: Venturing into the Atlantic
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Readings:
Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonization from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229-1492 (Philadephia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press,
1987), Chaps 6 and 7 (169-202) (Reprotext # 4)
Anthony Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire (Cambridge:
Cambridge Uniiv. Press, 2009), 27-33, 84-87, 92-97, 99-103 (Reprotext # 5)
Primary Sources:
Gomes Eannes de Azurara, The Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea
(London: Haklluyt Society, 1896), Vol. 1, 27-43 (chapters VII-XII) (Reprotext # 6)
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, edited by George R.T. Kimble
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1937), 61-65 (Chapter xxii “How God revealed to the virtous
Prince Henry that he should discover the Ethiopias of Guinea, and how his discoveries
began at this point.” (Reprotext # 7)
Questions:
1. Why were the late medieval explorations in the Atlantic and the colonization of the
Canaries and Madeiras so slow, with the Azores even slower to emerge and attract
settlers?
2. Why did both Azurara and Pacheco Pereira eulogize Prince Henry so strongly,
imputing divine inspiration or even direct divine intervention?
3. Analyze and critique the motives that Azurara ascribed to Prince Henry.
Unit 6 (Oct. 15):
Lecture:
In Search of Gold, Spices and Christians: European Explorations
and Trade in Fifteenth-Century Africa
Tutorial:
Explorations in the African Atlantic
Readings:
Chapter 2 “Portuguese Expansion, 1469-1500, in Malyn Newitt, A History of Portuguese
Overseas Expansion (Florence, KY: Routledge, 2004), 1-57 (On-line book, access
through TOPCAT)
Primary Source:
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, edited by George R.T. Kimble
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1937), 1-8 (“Prologue) Reprotext # 8)
Questions:
1. What do you see as the most important aspects of the Portuguese explorations in the
African Atlantic and coastal West and West-Central Africa in the second half of the
fifteenth century, and why?
2. What does Pacheco Pereira's “Prologue” reveal about the contemporary perception
of the historical significance of the fifteenth-century Portuguese explorations?
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Oct. 22: Reading Week
Unit 7 (Oct. 29):
Lecture:
Tutorial:
1492: Columbus's Westward Journey ... not to Asia but Into History
Books
Exploring (with) Columbus
Readings:
William Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus
(Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992), 1-12, 136-196 (Reprotext # 9)
Primary Source:
Christopher Columbus, “The Letter of Christopher Columbus to Luis de Santángel,
Announcing His Discovery (1493),” Doc. 15 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives
from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 207-14.
Questions:
1. What accounts for the historical significance of Christopher Columbus' 1492 voyage?
2. Why was Columbus so determined to sail westward across the Atlantic?
3. Why were the 'Catholic Kings' and their officials prepared to believe Columbus's
report about the results of his voyage?
4. What are the key themes and assertions of Columbus 1493 letter?
Unit 8 (Nov. 5):
Lecture:
1498: The Other Big One -- Vasco da Gama Arrives in India ... via
the Oceanic Sea
Tutorial:
Vasco da Gama's First Voyage: Perceptions and Realities
Reading:
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama (Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997), 79-94, 112-163 (Reprotext # 10).
Primary Sources:
“A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama (1497-1499,” Doc. 1 in Peter C.
Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford:
Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 61-6.
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, edited by George R.T. Kimble
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1937), 166-7 (Bk. 4. Chap.ii) (Reprotext # 11)
Questions:
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1. How does Subrahmanyam represent Vasco da Gama, the circumstances that led to
his first voyage to India, his performance as a leader, and the outcome of the
expedition?
2. What do you see as the most important realities of his voyage?
3. Duarte Pacheco Pereira called Gama's voyage “this holy enterprise.” Why?
Unit 9 (Nov. 12):
Lecture:
The Magnificent East: The Portuguese in Asia
Tutorial:
Explorations, the Indian Ocean, and King Manuel I's Dream of Universal
Empire
Readings:
Glenn Ames, The Globe Encompassed (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall,
2007), chap. 1 (The Portuguese Empire in Asia and Brazil,. c. 1500-1700), 24-59;
Anthony Disney, A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire (Cambridge:
Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009), Chap. 19 (119-144) (Reprotext 12);
Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, edited by George R.T. Kimble
(London: Hakluyt Society, 1937), 163-8 (Reprotext 13);
Questions:
1. Why was the Indian Ocean so Important to King Manuel and what did it have
to do with his sobriquet “The Fortunate”?
2. The documents in Ames's chapter reflect a darker side of the the Portuguese
presence in the 1500s and 1500s. Identify the most significant elements.
3. Duarte Pacheco Pereira, who was a knight of King Manuel's household at the time
he wrote his Esmeraldo, portrays him and the results of the expedition into the Indian
Ocean in the most superlative colours. What are his main themes, why did he stress
them?
Unit 10 (Nov. 18):
Lecture:
Inventing the Americas
Tutorial:
European Perceptions of a “New World” in the Ocean Sea
Readings:
Joan-Pau Rubiès, “Travel Writing and Humanistic Culture: A Blunted Impact?” Journal of
Early Modern History 10 (1-2) (2006): 131-68.
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Surekha Davies, “Depictions of Brazilians on French Maps, 1542-1555,” Historical
Journal 55 (2) (2012): 317-48 (On-line)
Primary Sources:
Amerigo Vespucci, “Mondus Novus (1504),” Doc. 16 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel
Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 214-23.
Jean de Léry, “History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil” and “Pictures of Brazil,” Doc. 23
in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford
Univ. Press, 2006), 256-80.
Hans Stade, The Captivity of Hans Stade of Hess among the Wild Tribes of Eastern
Brazil (1547-1555),” Doc. 22 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the
Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 256-63.
André Thevet, “The New Found Worlde, or Antarctike (1568),” in Peter C. Mancall, ed.,
Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 281-7.
Questions:
1. Avid as European educated audiences were for news and travel accounts from the
newly encountered lands, they had trouble taking them in, as Rubiès points out. How
and why?
2. Why did Thevet call Brazil “Antarctike”?
3. Why were are the native people of Brazil descrived in the manner they were in the
sixteenth-century?
4. Explain European fixation on nudity and cannibalism.
Unit 11 (Nov. 26):
Lecture:
Empires of Gold for the Taking: The Fall of the Aztecs and the Incas
Tutorial:
Conquerors' Perceptions of the Conquered
Readings:
Glenn Ames, The Globe Encompassed (Upper Saddle River: Pearson
Prentice Hall, 2007), Chap. 2 (“The Spanish Empire in the New World, c. 1480-1700”),
60-96;
Alessandra Russo, “Cortés Objects and the Idea of New Spain,” Journal of the History of
Collections 23 (2) (2011): 229-52.
Primary Sources:
Hernan Cortés, “Letters from Mexico,” Doc. 17 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel
Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 224-233;
Pedro Cieza de León, “Chronicles of Peru,” Doc. 21 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel
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Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 247-56.
Questions:
1. What problems did the conquest of Mexico and Peru create for its conquerors?
2. How important was the use of imagery for Cortés to create a favourable impression in
Spain and the court of Emperor Charles V?
3. What dangers did Cortés' successful but unauthorized conquest of Mexico put in and
why? Pay particular attention to the images in Russo's article.
4. What does Cieza de León's description of Cuzco reveal about his values and his
attitudes toward the defeated Incan nobility and civilization?
Unit 12 (Dec. 3):
Lecture:
“Kingdoms of Gold, Cities of Silver, and the Fountain of
Youth”: The Search for Wealth, Power, and Legends in the
Americas
Tutorial:
Conquistadors and Adventurers: Building Empiree our of SelfInterest
Readings:
Curt Lamar, “Hernando de Soto before Florida: A Narrative,” in Patricia Galloway,
ed. The Hernando de Soto Expedition. History, Historiography, and “Discovery” in the
Southeast (Lincoln and London: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 2005),182-206 (Reprotext #
14)
George E. Buker. “The Search for the Seven Cities and Early American Exploration,”
The Florida Historical Quarterly 71 (2) (1992): 155-68.(On-line)
Mary C. Fuller, “Ralegh's Fugitive Gold: Reference and Deferral in The Discoverie of
Guiana,” Representations no. 33 (Special Issue: The New World) (1991): 42-64.(Online)
Primary Sources:
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, “Journey to the Country of Cībola Newly Discovered,”
Doc. 19 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford:
Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 240-3.
Walter Raleigh, “The Discovery of the Large, Rich and Beawtiful Empyre of Guaina
(1596) and “Picture of Guiana,” Doc. 29 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from
the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 332--40.
Questions:
1. What motivated Spanish adventurers, such as Henando de Soto and his
contemporaries?
2. What role did legends and myths play in stimulating the overland expeditions in the
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south of North America.
3. Walter Ralegh was a very intelligent man. Why then did he feel compelled to
overstate and misrepresent Guiana and insisted of an imminent discovery of rich
deposits of gold?
4. What are the key themes of Ralegh' description of Guiana and why did he stress
them?
WINTER 2015
Winter Term Background Reading:
Glenn Ames, The Globe Encompassed (Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall,
2007), chap. 3 (“The Dutch Empire in Asia and the Atlantic World, ca. 1600-1700”) and
Chapter 4 (“The English and French Empires in the New World and Asia, ca. 16001700”), 97-172.
Unit 13 (Jan. 7):
Lecture:
The Latecomers: The Italians, French, English, and Dutch Explorers
in a World Divided between Spain and Portugal
Tutorial:
In the Service of Foreign Masters?: John and Sebastian Cabot
Readings:
John L. Allen, “From Cabot to Cartier: The Early Explorations of Eastern North
America, 1497-1543,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82 (3)
(1992): 500-21 [Note: concentrate on the information ot the Cabots, skim the rest]
(On-line)
Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli, “John Cabot and his Italian Financiers,” Historical Research
85 (229) (2012), 372-93 (On-line)
Alison Sandman and Eric H. Ash, “Trading Expertise: Sebastian Cabot between Spain
and England,” Renaissance Quarterly 57 3 (2004): 813-846 (On-line);
Questions:
1. Why did the Cabots place themselves in service to England, although the elder
Cabot was financed heavily by Italians?
2. What were the results of Cabots' early voyages for England?
3. Why was Sebastian Cabot able to move between employers so easily and achieve
such prominent positions?
4. How significant was Sebastian Cabot's role in ensuring a place for Tudor England in
the overseas explorations?
Unit 14 (Jan. 14):
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Lecture:
The Arctic Ocean as a Passage to Asia
Tutorial:
Exploring the Arctic Ocean Routes
Readings:
Margaret Small, “From Jellied Seas to Open Waterways: Refining the Northern Limit of
the Knowable World,” Renaissance Studies 21 (3) (2007), 315-39 (On-line)
T. Armstrong, “In Search of a Sea Route to Siberia, 1553-1519,” Arctic 37 (4) (1984):
429-40. On-line)
Bernard Saladin d'Anglure, “The Route to China: Northern Europe's Arctic Delusions,”
Arctic 27 (4) (1984): 446-52 (On-line)
Eleanora Gordon, “The Fate of Sir Hugh Willoughby and His Companions: A New
Conjecture,” Geographical Journal 152 (2) (1986): 243-7. (On-line)
Primary Source:
Richard Johnson, “Discoverie of Vaigatz and Nova Zembla (1556), Doc. 32 in Peter C.
Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from th Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press,
2006), 369-73,
Questions:
1. What role did received knowledge play in lending or denying support to Arctic
explorations and the search for Arctic passage to Asia?
2. What were the most significant risks of the Arctic explorations?
3. If we discount finding a passage to Asia as the key motivating factor, what other
incentives were there for explorations in European and Asian Arctic?
Unit 15 (Jan. 21):
Lecture:
The Search for the North-West Passage
Tutorial:
Martin Frobisher in Search of Wealth and the North-West Passage
Readings:
J. McDermott and D. W. Waters, “Cathay and the Way Thither: The Navigation of the
Frobisher Voyages,” in vol 2 of Thomas H. B. Symons, Meta Incognita: A Discourse of
Discovery. Martin Frobisher's Arctic Expeditions, 1576-1578 (Hull: Canadian Museum of
Civilizations, 1999), 353-99 (Reprotext # 15)
Bernard Allaire and Donald Hogarth, “Martin Frobisher, the Spaniards and a SixteenthCentury Northern Spy,” Terrae Incognitae 28 (1996), 46-57.(Reprotext # 16).
Primary Source:
Dionyse Settle, “A True Reporte of he Laste Voyage into the West and Northwest
(1577),” Doc. 25 in in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of
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Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 287-99.
Questions:
1. What drove Martin Frobisher and his backers, and with what results?
2. Why were the Spanish gathering Intelligence on Frobisher's efforts – what was the
perceived significance of Meta Incognita?
3.Write a summary of Settle's account and place his observations in historical and
geographical context.
4. Was Frobisher trying to find a way to China (Cathay)?
Unit 16 (Jan. 28):
Lecture:
The Encompassing Sea: From A Barrier to A Highway
Tutorial:
Magellan/Solis and Francis Drake: The First Two Circumnavigations of the
World
Readings:
Scott M, Fitzpatrick and Richard Callaghan, “Magellan's Crossing of the Pacific,” Journal
of Pacific History 43 (2) 145-65 (On-line)
Mary C, Fuller, “Writing the Long-Distance Voyage: Hakluyt's Circumnavigators,”
Huntington Library Quarterly 70 (1) (2007): 37-60 (On-line)
Raymond Aker, “Sir Francis Drake Discovered Cape Horn,” Mariner's Mirror 84 (1)
(1998): 81-4 (On-line)
Primary Sources:
Antonio Pigafetta, “Magellan's Voyage,” Doc. 9 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel
Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 138-145;
“The Famous Voyage of Sir Francis Drake into the South Sea,” Doc. 26 in Peter C.
Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press,
2006), 299-305.
Questions:
1. What is the significance of Magellan's/Solis' voyage and why is the second-incommand who, after Magellan's death, completed the first circumnavigation of the globe
so easily forgotten?
2. Why was the existence of the Pacific Ocean so difficult to accept in the sixteenth
century?
3. What was the significance of Strait of Magellan in the Age of Explorations?
4. Why did Hakluyt leave out the voyage of the Golden Hind out of his collection?
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5. What was the significance of Drake's circumnavigation of the globe, and why?
The World the “Age of Explorations” Made
Unit 17 (Feb. 4):
Lecture:
Wonders of the World: Culture of Travel, Information Gathering, and
Exploration
Tutorial:
Travelogues and Collections: Information and Misinformation
Readings:
Deanna McDonald, “Collecting the New World: The Ethnographic Collections of
Margaret of Austria,” Sixteenth-Century Journal 33 (3) (2002): 649-663.
William H. Sherman, “Bringing the World to England: The Politics Of Translation In the
Age of Hakluyt, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 14 (2004): 189-207. (Online)
Micah True, Travel Writing, Ethnography, and the Colony-Centric Voyage of the Jesuit
Relations from New France,” American Review of Canadian Studies 42 (1) (2012): 10216 (On-line)
Primary Sources:
Thomas Platter, “Travels in England (1599),” Doc. 37 in Peter C.
Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press,
2006), 400-3.
“The Voyage Set Forth by M. John Newton and M. John Bird,” Doc. 3 in Peter C.
Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press,
2006), 75-78.
“The Adventures of Andrew Battel,” Doc. 4 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives
from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 78-90.
Questions:
1. What explains the interest of Margaret of Austria in “New World” objects?
2. What were the reasons for the collecting and translating travel accounts and
description in Elizabethan England?
3. Travel descriptions were always centric but were they necessarily also self-serving?
4. What role did sensationalism play in the interest in travel literature?
5. Analyze and interpret Mr. Cope's collection of overseas exotica.
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Unit 18 (Feb. 11):
Lecture:
The Latecomers (English, Dutch, French) against Spain ... and Each
Other
Tutorial:
Business (Mostly) Does not Know Friends: Northwestern Europeans
Overseas
Readings:
Arun Saldanha, “The Itineraries of Geography: Jan Huygen van Linschoten's Itinerario
and Dutch Expeditions to the Indian Ocean, 1594-1602,” Annals of the Association of
American Geographers 101 (1) (2011): 149-77 (On-line).
Derek Massarella, “ 'Ticklish Points': The English East India Company and Japan, 1621,”
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 11 (1) (2001): 43-50. (On-line)
Karen Chancey, “The Amboyna Massacre in English Politicsm 1624-`632,” Albion: A
Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 30 (4) (1998): 583-98 (On-line)
Primary Source:
Jan Huygen van Linschoten, “Discourse of Voyages into ye Easte and West Indies
(1598), Doc. 14 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery
(Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 187-204.
Questions:
1. Why was Jan Huygen van Linschoten so important to the Age of Exploration?
2. Linschoten's information served both the Dutch and the English: why were the Dutch
try to monopolize the data?
3. Why were the Dutch able to push the English out of East and South-East Asia?
4. What was the response to the Amboyna Massacre in England and why were the
Dutch able to contain the fallout?
Feb. 18: Reading Week
Unit 19 (Feb. 25):
Lecture:
Ocean Power and Europe
Tutorial:
European Ocean Power
Readings:
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Elizabeth Mancke, “Early Modern Expansion and the Politicization of Oceanic Space,”
Geographical Review 89 (2) (1989): 225-37.(On-line)
George Raudzens, “Military Revolution or Maritime Revolution? Military Superiorities or
Transportation Advantages as Main Causes of European Colonial Conquests to 1788,”
The Journal of Military History 63 (3) (1999): 631-41.(On-line)
Sebastian Prange, selections from “The Contested Sea: Regimes of Maritime Violence
in the Pre-Modern Indian Ocean,” Journal of Early Modern History 17 (2013), 9-12, 2833. (On-line)
Sebastian Prange, second part of “A Trade of No Dishonor: Piracy, Commerce, and
Community in the Western Indian Ocean, Twelfth to Sixteenth Century,” American
Historical Review 116 (5) (2011), 1280-1293 (On-line)
Questions:
1. In her seminal 1989 article, Mancke, building on Kirti Chaudhuri's monumental work,
argued that the politicization of the oceanic space was the result of European overseas
expansion and European ocean power. Prange disputes the theory strongly in his
work on late medieval and sixteenth-century Indian Ocean. Take a position on the issue
and substantiate it.
2. Raudzens argued that the European superioty in the Asian waters was the results of
their growing transportation advantages over traditional Asian vessels, rather than
military ones. Take a position on his key arguments and support it by evidence.
3. Prange argues that the Portuguese did not disrupt the traffic in the Indian Ocean as
badly as it may have appeared and that it merely restructured itself to accommodated
their intrusions. Do you agree or disagree?
Unit 20 (Mar. 4):
Lecture:
Europeans and the Magnificent East in the Age of Explorations
Tutorial:
Asian Powers and Sea Barbarians: Contempt, Cooperation, Hostility
Readings:
Adam Clulow, European Maritime Violence and Territorial States in Early Modern Asia,”
Itinerario 33 (3) (2009): 72-94 (On-line)
Sanjay Subrahmanyam, “Taking Stock of the Franks: South Asian Views of Europeans
and Europe, 1500-1800,” The Indian Economic and Social History Review 42 (1) (2005):
69-100 (On-line)
Barbour, Richmond, “Power and Distant Display: Early English `Ambassadors' in Moghul
India,” Huntington Library Quarterly 61 (3/4) (1999): 343-69 (On-line)
Robert Batchelor, “The Selden Map Rediscovered: A Chinese Map of East Asian
Shipping Routes, c. 1619,” Imago Mundi 65 (1) (2013): 37-63.(On-line)
Questions:
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1. How did the Asian states react to the European conduct at sea and their attempts to
dominate maritime traffic?
2, How did South Asians view Europeans and Europe during the Age of Exploration and
its aftermath?
3. The Mughal Empire was the most powerful but not the only important state on the
Indian Subcontinent. How were the early English ambassadors received at the Mughal
court, and why?
4. Older historiography argued that Ming China lost interest in maritime affairs after the
cancellation of the Zheng Ho expeditions. Yet the so-called Selden Map suggests that
the Chinese kept themselves remarkably well informed. What is the importance of the
map in relation to European maritime presence?
Unit 21 (Mar. 11):
Lecture:
Landmasses: The Endless Frontiers
Tutorial:
Struggling with Otherness: European Descriptions of New Lands and
People
Readings:
Victoria Dickenson, “Cartier, Champlain, and the Fruits of the New World: Botanical
Exchange in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” Scientia Canadiensis: Canadian Journal of the
History of Science, Technology and Medicine 31 (1-2) (2008): 27-47 (On-line).
Alden T. Vaughan, “Ser Walter Ralegh's Indian Interpreters, 1584-1618.” The William
and Mary Quarterly. Third Series, 59 (2) (2002): 341-76.
Eugenia Vanina, “Roads of (Mis)understanding: European Travellers in India (Fifteenthto Seventeenth Century),” Indian Historical Review 40 (2) (2013): 267-84. (On-line)
Clive Wilis, “Captain Jorge Álvares and Father Luís Fróis S.J.: Two Early Portuguese
Description of Japan,” The Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, Ser. 3, 22 (2) (2012): 391438 (On-line)
Primary Source:
Duarte de Sande, “An Excellent Treatise of the Kingdom of China (1590),” Doc. 12 in
Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of Discovery (Oxford: Oxford
Univ. Press, 2006), 165-75.
Questions:
1. How does one describe and promote something new, even as basic as garden
produce? Yet both Cartier and Champlain had considerable success in promoting
botanical exchange between Europe and North America. Why were they able to?
2. Both Vaughan and Vanina bring our attention to the importance of languages and
linguistic barriers. What are their key arguments and what is your position on them?
3. Clive Willis undertook a remarkable project in presenting two Portuguese attempts to
understand Japan through their comparison of the “other” with the familiar (their and
25
their reader's world). How well did it work? Read the excerpt from Sande's work on
China through the same prism.
Unit 22 (Mar. 18):
Lecture:
The “Columbian Exchange”: Pandora’s Box and the Horn of Plenty
Tutorial:
Unequal Exchange: Transoceanic Movement of Diseases and Foodstuffs
Readings:
Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian, “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food,
and Ideas,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 24 2 (2010):163-188 (On-line);
Felipe Fernández Armesto, “The Ecological Revolution of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Centuries,” Chap. 17 in Felipe Fernández Armesto, The World, A History
(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2007), 564-97 (Reprotext #17).
Questions:
1. Compare the impact of the “Columbian Exchange” in the Eastern and Western
Hemisphere.
2. What were key short- and long-term consequences of the cross-oceanic exchange?
3. What were the most important foods exchanged between the Old and New World, and
what impact did they have (and continue to have)?
4. What were the key environmental consequences of the Columbian Exchange?
Unit 23 (Mar. 25):
Lecture:
The Demographic Disaster and the Emergence of Latin America
Tutorial:
Depopulation and Racial Mixing in the Emerging Latin America
Readings:
Massimo Livi-Bacci, The Depopulation of Hispanic America after the Conquest,
Population & Development Review 32 (2) (2006): 199-232. (On-line)
Linda A. Newson, Medical Practice in Early Colonial Spanish America: A Prospectus,”
Bulletin of Latin American Research 25 (3): 367-91 (On-line)
Robert C. Schwaller, "Mulata, Hija de negro y india": Afro-Indigenous Mulatos In
Early Colonial Mexico,” Journal of Social History 44 (3) (2011): 889-914 (On-line)
Primary Source:
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala, [In English] “El primer nueva corónica y buen goberno
(1615-1616), Doc. 30 in Peter C. Mancall, ed., Travel Narratives from the Age of
Discovery (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006), 341-61.
Questions:
26
1. Livi-Bacci argued that the role of diseases in the sixteenth-century depopulation of
Spanish America has been overstated and does not match contemporary primary
sources, Take a position on his argument and substantiate it.
2. Newson shows that the realities of early colonial Spanish America demanded that
medical care be complemented by traditional healing practice that the Church and the
Inquisition frowned upon but was compelled to tolerate. What practices were they and
where did the originate? Do they provide evidence of racial mixing?
3. Swaller's article offers a compelling insight into an aspect of racial and cultural mixing
by examining the problems faced by descendants of native people and enslaved
Africans. What can we learn from Francisca and her husbands' story about racial and
cultural mixing in early colonial Mexico?
4. What was the advice of Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala to his King about racial
mixing, and for what reasons?
Unit 24 (Apr. 1):
Lecture:
The Mixing of Cultures
Tutorial:
Religious Syncretism
Readings:
Paul Axelrod and Michelle A. Fuerch, “Flight of the Deities: Hindu Resistance in
Portuguese Goa,” Modern Asian Studies 30 (2) (1996): 387-421.
Javier Villa-Flores, "To Lose One's Soul": Blasphemy and Slavery in New Spain, 15961669,” Hispanic American Historical Review 82 (3) (2002) 435-469. (On-line)
John K. Thornton, “Afro-Christian Syncretism in the Kingdom of Kongo,” Journal of
African History 54 (1) (2013): 53-77.
Primary Source:
Duarte Lopes, “A Reporte on the Kingdom of Congo (1597),” Doc. 5, 90-6.
Questions:
1.Despite the jargon of their article, Axelrod and Fuerch make a very valuable argument
about the lack of success of the attempts of Portuguese authorities to stamp out
Hinduism in Goa. What is meant by “flight of deities” and why is it important in
discussing religious syncretism?
2, Imagine yourself enslaved on a strange continent, co-opted into a religion you do not
understand well, and then find ourselves charged with blasphemy and in great danger.
Explore and describe the situation and the feelings it might generate.
3. What are the key points of Thornton's article on Afro-Christian Syncretism in Kongo?
Explore them in connection with Lopes' report.
Final Examination Information
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