HST3087/3088: The Invasion of America: Indian and European Encounters, 1610-1690
40 credits (semesters 1 and 2)
Module Leader: Dr. Simon Middleton
| Pre-requisites |
A pass in at least two history modules at level two.
| Module Summary |
This special subject examines early Dutch and English encounters with each other and Indian communities in what became New Netherland and New England. The Dutch came to North America in the guise of a commercial company seeking trade and profit. The English were religious dissenters intent, initially at least, upon establishing a godly commonwealth and living exemplary lives. Once the ashore, the settlers realized their own weakness and paid close attention to Indian strengths and expectations. However, in time the impact of epidemics, war, economic turmoil, and social disintegration disrupted long-established and finely-balanced Indian societies. Yet this was no one-sided transformation. The encounter and shifting imperial fortunes transformed settler and indigenous communities alike. Focusing on these changing colonial circumstances and imperial rivalries, this module examines how it was that in settling with the Indians, Europeans also learned disturbing truths about themselves and the place they came to think of as home.
| Teaching |
Seminar discussion of primary and secondary sources will help students to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the historiography of this period and of the principal varieties of primary source material available to historians. Through discussion of these primary and secondary materials students will develop their understanding of European and Amerindian encounters in seventeenth-century North America.
| Assessment |
The word limit for essays includes footnotes, but excludes the bibliography.
| Selected Reading |
To follow.
| Intended Learning Outcomes |
By the end of the module, a candidate will be able to demonstrate:
- A broad knowledge of settlement of New Netherland and New England and of European-Amerindian relations and the causes and consequences of conflict between the two communities in the seventeenth century.
- The ability to evaluate, and analyse closely a substantial body of primary source material, and to exploit it to produce independent arguments.
- Skills in evaluating and criticising the opinions of historians on the basis of their own reading of the primary sources and their acquisition of an understanding of relations between colonial and indigenous communities.
- An awareness of some of the current research issues in the field of early American history extending beyond the published literature.
- The ability to chair discussions, to present complex arguments, and to exchange views with fellow-students in a constructive and mutually-supportive manner, and to write informed and cogent essays, and commentaries on documents, under pressure of time.