History 461/561: The Spanish Conquest                                 Spring 2010
Optical Sciences 422  Tues/Thurs 
12:30-1:45

Instructor:

Kevin Gosner 
kgosner@u.arizona.edu

Office Hours:
Tuesday and Thursday:
11:00-12:15 and by appointment.
215 Social Sciences
621-1168/621-1586

Required Books:

 

Susan Austin Alchon, A Pest in the Land: New World Epidemics in a Global Perspective.

Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain.
James Lockhart and Enrique Otte, Letters and People of the Spanish
Indies: The Sixteenth Century.

Charles C. Mann, 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus.

Matthew Restall, Maya Conquistador.

William D. Phillips, Jr. & Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus.

Geoffrey Symcox and Blair Sullivan, Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief History in Documents.

Requirements: 

461

  • Two five page take-home essays on lectures and assigned reading (65%)
  • One four page writing exercise on primary source and related secondary literature (25%)
  • Attendance and class participation (10%).

561 

  • Two five-eight page take-home essays on lectures and assigned reading (45%)
  •  One five page writing exercise on primary source and related secondary literature (25%)
  • Attendance and class participation (20%)                

Instructions for Primary Source Writing Assignments:

461: Choose one of the primary sources assigned in the class, find at least two journal articles that can inform your understanding of the background of the document and its interpretation, and write a short essay.

561: Choose one of the primary sources assigned in the class, find at least four journal articles that can inform your understanding of the background of the document and its interpretation, and write a short essay.

Attendance Policy: 

Attendance will be taken at every class; more than 3 unexcused absences will result in the lowering of your final grade by one grade level.

Late Assignment Policy:

Unexcused late assignments will be penalized one letter grade; any individual requests for an extension or a change in date or time for turning in an assignment should be directed at the teaching assistant and must be made prior to the due date for the assignment.

Code of Academic Integrity:

Students are responsible for compliance with all University policies regarding academic integrity as well as with American Historical Association standards for historical scholarship. Please read:

 UA Code of Academic Integrity: (http://deanofstudents.arizona.edu/policiesandcodes/codeofacademicintegrity) and

AHA Statement on Plagiarism (http://www.historians.org/pubs/free/professionalstandards.cfm)

Schedule of Topics, Readings, and Assignments

 

Part One: Global Perspectives on 1492

 

January 14: Introduction

Mann: Start Part One

 

January 19-21: Ancient America

Mann: Finish; Part One; Alchon: Chapter 1.

 

January 26-28: Tributary Empires in Mesoamerica and the Andes

Mann: Part Two; Alchon: Chapter 2.

 

February 2-4: Iberia and the La Reconquista
Phillips & Phillips: Chapters 1-3; Ibn Abd-el-Hakem:
The Islamic Conquest of Spain; "Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain", Kenneth Baxter Wolf ; James I of Aragon: The Barcelona Maritime Code.

 

February 9-11:  Europe and the World
Phillips & Phillips: Chapter 4;
On Prester John; ; Marco Polo: Description of Kinsay [Hangchow]; Sidi Ali Reis: Mirat ul Memalik.

 

Part Two: Columbus and the Spanish Caribbean

 

February 16-18: Background to 1492
Phillips & Phillips: Chapters 5-7;
Symcox & Sullivan: pp. 1-60

February 23-25: Columbus and the First Colony

Phillips & Phillips: Chapter 8; Symcox & Sullivan: pp. 60-176.

 

March 2-4: The Spanish Caribbean
Phillips & Phillips: Chapters 9-10; Laws of Burgos, 1512-1513.

 

FIRST TAKE-HOME ESSAY DUE TUESDAY MARCH 9

 

Part Three: The Conquest of Mexico

 

March 9-11:  The Origins of the Mexica    
Bernal Díaz : 6-126;

 

 March 23-25: The Triple Alliance
Bernal Díaz: 126-244.

 

March 30-April 1: The Conquest
Bernal Díaz: 245-411; Lockhart and Otte: Chapter 5.

April 6-8: Native Accounts of the Conquest

Restall: Complete

 

Part Four: Other Conquests

 

April 13-15: The Far North and the Andes

Lockhart and Otte: Chapters 1-4; 6-10

 

PRIMARY SOURCE WRITING EXERCISE DUE TUESDAY APRIL 20

 

April 20-22: Disease and Conquest in Comparative Perspective
Alchon: Chapters 3-5;
The New Laws of the Indies

 

Part Five: The Early Colony

 

April 27-29: The Spiritual Conquest

 

Lockhart and Otte: Part Three; MacCormack, Sabine, “The Heart Has Its Reasons: Predicaments of Missionary Christianity in Early Colonial Peru,” Hispanic American Historical Review  65 (3) 1985: 443-466; Clendinnen, Inga, “Disciplining the Indians: Franciscan ideology and Missionary Violence in Sixteenth Century Yucatan,” Past and Present 94 1984: 27-49.

 

May 4: Life in Sixteenth Century Spanish America

Lockhart and Otte: Part Two; Terraciano, Kevin. “The Colonial Mixtec Community,” Hispanic American Historical Review 80 (1) (2000): 1-42; Ida Altman, “Spanish Society in Mexico After the Conquest,” Hispanic American Historical Review (1991) 413-445.

 

FINAL TAKE-HOME ESSAY DUE NO LATER THAN THURSDAY MAY 13