Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

Advanced

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of four semesters (or six quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

General Objective:

I. To study the image of the world in the 15th and 16th centuries and the determining factors behind the Portuguese and Castilian expansion in the Atlantic that lead to the discovery and conquest of America.

Contents:
I. Portuguese and Castilian expansion
a. Historiography of European expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries
b. Image of the world and of exotic “worlds”
c. Scientific curiosity and medieval myths
d. Expansion from a political and economic point of view

II. Discovery of a New World
a. Historiography of the discovery
b. The discovery of Columbus “ad partes Indiae”
c. How Columbus’s beliefs were received
d. The Vespucci interpretation and the geographic revolution of the world

III. The Castilian Conquistador System
a. Historiography of the conquest
b. The enterprises of conquest
c. Legal foundations and ideological guidelines
d. Conquerors and conquered: the concept of the Indian

IV. The Other Side of the Conquest
a. Historiography of the conquest
b. Indian cultures on the eve of conquest
c. The invasion of the “Gods”
d. The Mexican “Sad Ballads”

V. Spiritual Conquest
a. Medieval historiography
b. Methods of evangelization
c. Balance of the evangelization
d. Rebirth of idolatry

Methodology:
There will be class lectures except for one session per chapter set aside for analysis and discussion of the topic. The course will demand a research paper about one of the topics covered in class.

Bibliography:
1. - Gil, Juan. “Utopia del Descubrimiento”. Alianza Editorial, Madrid, 1989.

2. - Perez de Tudela, Juan. “Mirabihs in Altis: Estudio Critico del Origen y Significado del Proyecto Descubridor de Cristobal Colon”.Madrid, 1983.

3. - Friederici, Georg. “El Caracter del Descubrimiento y la Conquista de America”. Edit. F.C.E. Mexico, 1987.

4. - Redondo Diaz, Fernando. “La Organizacion de la “Compania” Indiana de Heman Cortes”. Revista “Quinto Centenario”, # 9. Madrid, 1985.

5.- Wachtel, Nathan. “Los Vencidos: Jos Indios del Peru ante la Conquista Espanola (1530-1570)”. Alianza Editorial. Madrid, 1985.

6. - Todorov Svetan. “La Conquista de America, la Cuestion del Otro”. Edit. Siglo XXI. Mexico, 1987.

7.- Borges, Pedro. “Metodos Misionales en la Cristianizacion de America (Siglo XVI)”. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas. Madrid, 1960.

8.- Gruzinsky, Serge. “La Colonizacion de lo Imaginario: Sociedades Indisenas y Occidentalizacion Mexico espanol. Siglos XVI-XVIII)”. F.C.E., Mexico, 1995.