The Atlantic World
1400-1800
It was from the city of Lisbon that the Adventurers (mugharrarun) embarked on the Sea of Darkness to see what was in it and where it ended…
Al-Idrisi, c. 1154
The very notion of the Atlantic World is synonymous with modernity and the "modern world" itself. However, our approach to the construction of both this place and time are severely delimited by convention. This course will attempt to defy convention. The Atlantic World will be explored for the possibilities of all of its participants.
This will, of course, include African as well as European, and American states. In the case of the latter, particular emphasis will be given to the activities of Native American polities in both the northern and southern hemispheres.
The intent of the course is not only to provide a more extensive examination of what we term the "Atlantic World," but also to look at the possibilities of envisioning newer and more comprehensive histories of it.
TEXTS
Popol Vuh
Lockhart, The Nahuas
Canby and Pagden, Colonial Identity in the Atlantic World
Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800
Price, Maroon Societies
Bolster, Black Jacks
I "Speculative History" (Bogumil Jewsiewicki)
Understanding the construction of the Atlantic World; constructing an Atlantic World
-Critical Thinking
-al- Idrisi
-al-Umari
-Modernity
II Historiography/Epistemology: World History
-Allardyce (e-reserve)
-McNeill (e-reserve)
-Curtin (e-reserve)
-Frank (e-reserve)
-Brooks
III Before Columbus
Europe, Africa, and Asia in the construction of the Atlantic World
-the Vikings; the Irish; the Africans
-al-Idrisi; al-Umari
-Leo Weiner; von Wuthenau; Vansertima (reserve)
-the "Old World"
-Reconquista
-Chanson de Roland (Bk I) (reserve)
-Parzival (reserve)
-Mark (e-reserve)
-the "New World"
-Hernan Cortes: Letters from Mexico (extracts/reserve)
-Popol Vuh
Paper: analytical essay. Historiographic and epistemological. Interrogation of the "Old" Atlantic World; possibilities and potentials for constructing a new history. (5 pp.)
IV Structure and Colonization
The necessities of successful colonization
-Cortes
-Lockhart, The Nahuas
-North American referents: "Iroquois Federation; Seminole Nations
-Central/South American referents: Mayas; Incas
V Creolization: Atlantic Communities and Identity
"Una creola negra"
-Canny &Pagden, Colonial identity
-communities of convention
-Lockhart, Nahuas
-Thornton, Africa, Africans and the Making of America
-Palmer (e-reserve)
VI Consolidation and Contention
-Paden
-European/Euro-American consolidation
-Benton (e-reserve)
-Francis (e-reserve)
-Price, Maroons
-Thornton, Africa
-Thornton (e-reserve)
Paper: analytical essay. Considering/reconsidering Atlantic space. (5 pp)
VII Connecting/Disconnecting Worlds
Rum, coffee, tobacco
"Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest…"
"To the shores of Tripoli…"
-Bolster, Black Jacks
-Melville, "Benito Cereno" (reserve)
-Brooks, Signares
VIII The Other Side: Dialectics and Reciprocity
-Capital/Industrialization
-Europe/Africa
-Wilks (e-reserve)
-Robinson and Smith, Sources of the African Past (ch. 5) (reserve)
-Flint (e-reserve)
-Haiti/Louisiana Purchase
-1807-1830
-1839, The Amistad
