LAS 381 - Nature, Race & Empire (c. 1492-1700)

Credits: (3)
College Curriculum: COLL 200
Domain (Anchored): ALV
Domain (Reaching Out): CSI

This interdisciplinary seminar analyzes how different agents across the early modern Hispanic Atlantic (c. 1492-1700) determined the political dispositions of different communities (‘races’) across the globe. This seminar reconstructs geopolitical models of the world first formulated by Ancient Greek natural philosophers, and examines how said models were instrumentalized by the early modern Spanish empire to justify its presence in the so-called “New World.” This seminar will analyze varied verbal and visual artifacts that endorse or question the application of said geopolitical models to reduce communities (‘races’) in the Tropics to political subordinates that must accept Spanish domination.
Cross-listed with: HISP 381