HIST 226 Age of Encounters

As the early modern network of trade shifted from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean the Portuguese the Spanish the French the Dutch and the English competed for trade and for colonization of peoples newly encountered. We shall evaluate Renaissance arts and letters traveler reports and images of peoples of South America and Protestant Christianity and the Catholic Counter-Reformation with subsequent competition among missionaries and European states for converts around the globe. We shall discuss amusing short satires by the most famous Northern humanist and humorist Erasmus A Short Account of the Devastation of the Indies by protester of cruelty Las Casas and empirical scientist Bacon's scientific utopia New Atlantis. Students may petition for 300-level credit for this class with the completion of additional work arranged with the instructor.