The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire (Spring 2017)
Long before Victorian Britain controlled an empire that spanned the globe, Spain had already ruled over one of the most expansive empires the world has ever seen. A collection of small kingdoms in the war-torn Iberian Peninsula of the fifteenth century, during the sixteenth century Spain became a truly global empire, stretching from Asia and the Americas to Europe and Northern Africa. But Spain’s rise to power was quickly followed by a slow process of decline that ultimately culminated with Spain losing its last colonies in 1898. This course examines the four centuries of tumultuous history that led to the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire between 1492 and 1898.
Among the topics covered in the course are the Conquest of the New World, the devastation of Native American societies, the expulsion of Jews and Moriscos (former Muslims who converted to Catholicism) from Spain in 1492 and 1609, the Dutch Republic’s and Portugal's ultimately successful efforts to obtain independence from Spain, Catalonia’s unsuccessful revolt for independence in the 1640s, cultural change and political transformations in the American colonies, the imperial reforms of the eighteenth century, and the almost complete dissolution of the empire after the Spanish American Revolutions. In the last part of the course, we will conclude by examining the fate of the empire in the nineteenth century. Although a shadow of its former self, Spain continued to hold the colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines until the Spanish American War of 1898.
In a nutshell, this course will examine Spain’s ambitious and pioneering, if also destructive, involvement in conquest, colonial exploitation, chattel slavery, racial and religious domination, and a mission to “civilize” the world. In exploring these topics, students will not only gain deep understanding about the place of the Spanish Empire in the history of the modern world, but will also think carefully about issues that still affect us today, including Christian, Muslim, and Jewish relations, the governance of multi-ethnic societies, the legacies of slavery and colonialism, as well as the factors that explain the rise and fall of world powers.
Latin America during the Age of Revolutions, c. 1750-1850 (Winter 2018)
During the period known as the Age of Revolutions, roughly between 1750 and 1850, Latin American territories went from being colonies of two Iberian empires to a collection of independent Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries. This course examines the tumultuous history that led to the dissolution of the Spanish and Portuguese empires and the birth of new republics and monarchies in the Americas. We will begin by analyzing the imperial reforms of the eighteenth century and their relationship to Enlightenment thought. We will also consider the many tax revolts and indigenous and slave rebellions that surfaced in reaction to imperial reforms. In this part of the course, we will pay particular attention to how subaltern peoples appropriated imperial ideals, institutions, and structures to assert their political interests.
In the final part of the course, we will examine the traumatic effects of the Napoleonic wars in Latin America, as well as the many innovative political and constitutional experiments that surfaced in many corners of the Iberian Atlantic. We then proceed to examine how and why Latin American territories began to declare independence, even though large portions of the population, including indigenous peoples and people of African descent, attempted to reconstitute and salvage both empires in the 1810s and 1820s. In the last week of the course, we will discuss whether Spanish and Portuguese colonial legacies contributed to the underdevelopment of Latin America during the nineteenth century. By the end of the course, students will have a firm understanding of the process of Latin American independence and its contribution to the formation of a new global order in the nineteenth century.
The First Age of Globalization, c. 1500-1800
As European monarchies explored and conquered vast swaths of distant territories, the world became a more interconnected place. The most transformative, though by no means peaceful or benevolent, attempts to connect the world stemmed from Spain and Portugal, whose conquest and newly established navigation routes brought the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia into close contact. Between 1580 and 1640, when Spain and Portugal were unified as a single Iberian Empire, the first age of globalization was in full throttle. However, Iberian hegemony was short-lived, as overextension and burdensome military commitments weakened its finances. It was in this context of Iberian decline that England, France, and the Dutch Republic gained ground in dominating the commercial routes that connected the world. By the late seventeenth century, globalization was no longer just a product of Iberian conquest, but also of the carrying trade of northern European commercial nations, whose merchants circulated Asian luxuries, American commodities, and African slaves in search of profit.
This course examines how, through exploration, conquest, and trade, European empires ushered the first age of globalization. In doing so, students will gain an appreciation for the early modern and imperial origins of globalization. And while we will pay close attention to the rise of European imperialism during this period, we will also explore in great detail how people from different parts of world defined the contours of the first age of globalization. While European exploration, conquest, and trade did bring the world into closer contact, Europeans did not always do so from a position of strength. More often than not, they were forced to negotiate and accommodate to local political structures.
The Atlantic World, c. 1650-1825
In 1775, the American continent was ruled by four major imperial powers: Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal. By 1825, just 50 years later, Europe’s control over New World territories had all but evaporated, as new republics and monarchies supplanted European imperial rule. This course examines how Atlantic empires were made, remade, and unmade in the long eighteenth century. Among the issues studied in the course will be origins of European imperialism in the Atlantic, the emergence of settler colonies, the institution of the plantations complex, the effects of warfare on the Atlantic world, the rise of public debt among the major European empires, eighteenth-century imperial reforms and realignments, the circulation of Enlightenment ideas across the Atlantic, the effects of the Napoleonic wars, the rise of new nations, and indigenous and enslaved peoples’ appropriation of revolutionary ideals to claim rights and freedom for themselves. In the last quarter of the course, we will pay particular attention to the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions from a comparative perspective. In doing so, we will not cover all of the major events of these revolutions. Instead we will pay most attention to points of inflection, interaction, and transformation. In the end, students will grasp why its is impossible to understand the history of the Americas in the long eighteenth century without paying close attention to its myriad links to the wider Atlantic world.
The Cultural Origins of Capitalism, c. 1500-1800
People in the modern world take it for granted that everything can be improved. Vicious habits can be brought under control by reading self-improvement books. Cures to all diseases can be found by investing in research to improve scientific knowledge. Countries and regions can achieve economic development by applying the best policies invented by economists. Nonetheless, in spite of these seemingly natural convictions, societies in the West and globally have not always welcomed improvement and innovation. In fact, this culture of improvement originated during the Scientific Revolution, which gave birth to the idea that natural knowledge could be perfected through systematic research, study, and analysis. Indeed, it was this culture of improvement that inspired the idea of material comfort and well-being, including its corollary notion of infinite economic growth. By the eighteenth century, bureaucrats, scholars, merchants, scientists, and even kings had become obsessed with improving people’s material well-being by stimulating economic growth. This development, as we shall see, played a vital role in the emergence of Western capitalism and the unparalleled levels of economic growth it generated. While not ignoring material and structural conditions, this course examines the history of capitalism through the lens of the cultural systems and the patterns of thought that gave it birth. In a nutshell, this course will explore the intellectual and cultural history of capitalism from about 1500 to 1800.
Science and Empire in the Early Modern World (To Be Developed in the Future)
What do empires have to do with the Scientific Revolution? Quite a lot! As we shall see in this course, European expansion and encounters with the wider world drove many explorers, conquerors, scholars, and bureaucrats of various ranks to rethink Aristotelian precepts and classical paradigms of knowledge more generally. In fact, Europeans began to emphasize the importance of empiricism, a central tenet of modern science, precisely as they encountered new plants, animals, and peoples that had no place or explanation in previous European categories of thought. These empirical efforts had a shock effect that drove leading natural philosophers to offer new explanations for the natural world. As a result, many began to emphasize that the world could not be understood by simply studying the classics, a transformation that upended the Renaissance’s fascination with ancient philosophers. It was on this basis that the “Moderns” began their battle against the “Ancients” and ultimately gave impetus to the trans-European culture wars of the seventeenth century.
While not the only factor that contributed to the development of modern science, Europe’s engagement with the wider world had a catalyzing effect for much of the early modern period. This course explores this catalyzing effect as well as its impact on the European scientific imagination. It also pays attention to how indigenous systems of knowledge from different parts of the world were appropriated and refashioned as quintessentially European creations. In exploring these issues, students will understand that modern science is not simply a Western invention, but a patchwork of ideas that came to fruition as people from distant parts of the world came into closer contact.
Long before Victorian Britain controlled an empire that spanned the globe, Spain had already ruled over one of the most expansive empires the world has ever seen. A collection of small kingdoms in the war-torn Iberian Peninsula of the fifteenth century, during the sixteenth century Spain became a truly global empire, stretching from Asia and the Americas to Europe and Northern Africa. But Spain’s rise to power was quickly followed by a slow process of decline that ultimately culminated with Spain losing its last colonies in 1898. This course examines the four centuries of tumultuous history that led to the rise and fall of the Spanish Empire between 1492 and 1898.
Among the topics covered in the course are the Conquest of the New World, the devastation of Native American societies, the expulsion of Jews and Moriscos (former Muslims who converted to Catholicism) from Spain in 1492 and 1609, the Dutch Republic’s and Portugal's ultimately successful efforts to obtain independence from Spain, Catalonia’s unsuccessful revolt for independence in the 1640s, cultural change and political transformations in the American colonies, the imperial reforms of the eighteenth century, and the almost complete dissolution of the empire after the Spanish American Revolutions. In the last part of the course, we will conclude by examining the fate of the empire in the nineteenth century. Although a shadow of its former self, Spain continued to hold the colonies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines until the Spanish American War of 1898.
In a nutshell, this course will examine Spain’s ambitious and pioneering, if also destructive, involvement in conquest, colonial exploitation, chattel slavery, racial and religious domination, and a mission to “civilize” the world. In exploring these topics, students will not only gain deep understanding about the place of the Spanish Empire in the history of the modern world, but will also think carefully about issues that still affect us today, including Christian, Muslim, and Jewish relations, the governance of multi-ethnic societies, the legacies of slavery and colonialism, as well as the factors that explain the rise and fall of world powers.
Latin America during the Age of Revolutions, c. 1750-1850 (Winter 2018)
During the period known as the Age of Revolutions, roughly between 1750 and 1850, Latin American territories went from being colonies of two Iberian empires to a collection of independent Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries. This course examines the tumultuous history that led to the dissolution of the Spanish and Portuguese empires and the birth of new republics and monarchies in the Americas. We will begin by analyzing the imperial reforms of the eighteenth century and their relationship to Enlightenment thought. We will also consider the many tax revolts and indigenous and slave rebellions that surfaced in reaction to imperial reforms. In this part of the course, we will pay particular attention to how subaltern peoples appropriated imperial ideals, institutions, and structures to assert their political interests.
In the final part of the course, we will examine the traumatic effects of the Napoleonic wars in Latin America, as well as the many innovative political and constitutional experiments that surfaced in many corners of the Iberian Atlantic. We then proceed to examine how and why Latin American territories began to declare independence, even though large portions of the population, including indigenous peoples and people of African descent, attempted to reconstitute and salvage both empires in the 1810s and 1820s. In the last week of the course, we will discuss whether Spanish and Portuguese colonial legacies contributed to the underdevelopment of Latin America during the nineteenth century. By the end of the course, students will have a firm understanding of the process of Latin American independence and its contribution to the formation of a new global order in the nineteenth century.
The First Age of Globalization, c. 1500-1800
As European monarchies explored and conquered vast swaths of distant territories, the world became a more interconnected place. The most transformative, though by no means peaceful or benevolent, attempts to connect the world stemmed from Spain and Portugal, whose conquest and newly established navigation routes brought the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia into close contact. Between 1580 and 1640, when Spain and Portugal were unified as a single Iberian Empire, the first age of globalization was in full throttle. However, Iberian hegemony was short-lived, as overextension and burdensome military commitments weakened its finances. It was in this context of Iberian decline that England, France, and the Dutch Republic gained ground in dominating the commercial routes that connected the world. By the late seventeenth century, globalization was no longer just a product of Iberian conquest, but also of the carrying trade of northern European commercial nations, whose merchants circulated Asian luxuries, American commodities, and African slaves in search of profit.
This course examines how, through exploration, conquest, and trade, European empires ushered the first age of globalization. In doing so, students will gain an appreciation for the early modern and imperial origins of globalization. And while we will pay close attention to the rise of European imperialism during this period, we will also explore in great detail how people from different parts of world defined the contours of the first age of globalization. While European exploration, conquest, and trade did bring the world into closer contact, Europeans did not always do so from a position of strength. More often than not, they were forced to negotiate and accommodate to local political structures.
The Atlantic World, c. 1650-1825
In 1775, the American continent was ruled by four major imperial powers: Britain, France, Spain, and Portugal. By 1825, just 50 years later, Europe’s control over New World territories had all but evaporated, as new republics and monarchies supplanted European imperial rule. This course examines how Atlantic empires were made, remade, and unmade in the long eighteenth century. Among the issues studied in the course will be origins of European imperialism in the Atlantic, the emergence of settler colonies, the institution of the plantations complex, the effects of warfare on the Atlantic world, the rise of public debt among the major European empires, eighteenth-century imperial reforms and realignments, the circulation of Enlightenment ideas across the Atlantic, the effects of the Napoleonic wars, the rise of new nations, and indigenous and enslaved peoples’ appropriation of revolutionary ideals to claim rights and freedom for themselves. In the last quarter of the course, we will pay particular attention to the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions from a comparative perspective. In doing so, we will not cover all of the major events of these revolutions. Instead we will pay most attention to points of inflection, interaction, and transformation. In the end, students will grasp why its is impossible to understand the history of the Americas in the long eighteenth century without paying close attention to its myriad links to the wider Atlantic world.
The Cultural Origins of Capitalism, c. 1500-1800
People in the modern world take it for granted that everything can be improved. Vicious habits can be brought under control by reading self-improvement books. Cures to all diseases can be found by investing in research to improve scientific knowledge. Countries and regions can achieve economic development by applying the best policies invented by economists. Nonetheless, in spite of these seemingly natural convictions, societies in the West and globally have not always welcomed improvement and innovation. In fact, this culture of improvement originated during the Scientific Revolution, which gave birth to the idea that natural knowledge could be perfected through systematic research, study, and analysis. Indeed, it was this culture of improvement that inspired the idea of material comfort and well-being, including its corollary notion of infinite economic growth. By the eighteenth century, bureaucrats, scholars, merchants, scientists, and even kings had become obsessed with improving people’s material well-being by stimulating economic growth. This development, as we shall see, played a vital role in the emergence of Western capitalism and the unparalleled levels of economic growth it generated. While not ignoring material and structural conditions, this course examines the history of capitalism through the lens of the cultural systems and the patterns of thought that gave it birth. In a nutshell, this course will explore the intellectual and cultural history of capitalism from about 1500 to 1800.
Science and Empire in the Early Modern World (To Be Developed in the Future)
What do empires have to do with the Scientific Revolution? Quite a lot! As we shall see in this course, European expansion and encounters with the wider world drove many explorers, conquerors, scholars, and bureaucrats of various ranks to rethink Aristotelian precepts and classical paradigms of knowledge more generally. In fact, Europeans began to emphasize the importance of empiricism, a central tenet of modern science, precisely as they encountered new plants, animals, and peoples that had no place or explanation in previous European categories of thought. These empirical efforts had a shock effect that drove leading natural philosophers to offer new explanations for the natural world. As a result, many began to emphasize that the world could not be understood by simply studying the classics, a transformation that upended the Renaissance’s fascination with ancient philosophers. It was on this basis that the “Moderns” began their battle against the “Ancients” and ultimately gave impetus to the trans-European culture wars of the seventeenth century.
While not the only factor that contributed to the development of modern science, Europe’s engagement with the wider world had a catalyzing effect for much of the early modern period. This course explores this catalyzing effect as well as its impact on the European scientific imagination. It also pays attention to how indigenous systems of knowledge from different parts of the world were appropriated and refashioned as quintessentially European creations. In exploring these issues, students will understand that modern science is not simply a Western invention, but a patchwork of ideas that came to fruition as people from distant parts of the world came into closer contact.