Charles M. Russell, Lewis and Clark Meeting the Flatheads in Ross's Hole, September 3, 1805

HIST 373: North American Conquest, 1500-1900

Fall 2014: Examines attempts by aboriginal, imperial, and mercantile forces to claim and control the North American continent from the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s to the surrender of Geronimo in 1886.  Lectures and readings will explore the processes of colonization from many perspectives, paying equal attention to Aboriginal, American, English, French, Russian, and Spanish ambitions and activities.

Topics: processes of dispossession and incorporation; reciprocal relationships between nature and imperialism; global linkages in imperial contests; aboriginal agendas and responses to expansionism; political and economic development; spatial and historical implications of settlement.

Course Prerequisites
45 credit hours including 9 hours of lower division history credit and one of HIST 101, 212, or permission of the department.

Required Texts
John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America (Vintage, 1994)
Michael Witgen, An Infinity of Nations: How the Native New World Shaped Early North America (Pennsylvania, 2011)
Ilya Vinkovetsky, Russian America: An Overseas Colony of a Continental Empire, 1804-1867 (Oxford, 2011)
Julie Roy Jeffrey, Converting the West: A Biography of Narcissa Whitman (Oklahoma, 1994)
Primary documents available on the Canvas website
  
Course Evaluation
Midterm exam           30%
Research paper         30%
Final Exam               30%
Tutorial                    10%