Sometime after 1492, the concept of the New World or America came into being, and this concept appeared differently — as an experience or an idea — for different people and in different places. This semester, we will read three groups of texts: first, participant accounts of contact between native Americans and French or English speaking Europeans, both in North America and in the Caribbean and Brazil; second, transformations of these documents into literary works by contemporaries; third, modern texts which take these earlier materials as a point of departure for rethinking the experience and aftermath of contact. The reading will allow us to compare perspectives across time and space, across the cultural geographies of religion, nation and ethnicity, and finally across a range of genres — reports, captivity narratives, essays, novels, poetry, drama, and film. Some of the earlier authors we will read are Michel Montaigne, William Shakespeare, Jean de Léry, Daniel Defoe and Mary Rowlandson; more recent authors include Derek Walcott, and J. M. Coetzee.

This course will introduce the student to the history of the Atlantic slave trade from 1500 to 1900. The student will learn about the slave trade, its causes, and its effects on Africa, Europe, and the Americas. By the end of the course, the student will understand how the Atlantic slave trade began as a fledgling enterprise of the English, Portuguese, and Spanish in the 1500s and why, by the mid-eighteenth century, the trade dominated Atlantic societies and economies. Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: think analytically about the various meanings of 'slave' and 'slavery' during the age of the Atlantic slave trade; identify and describe the 'triangular trade' and define the Atlantic World; identify and describe the logic for enslavement of Africans by Europeans; identify and describe the African ethnic groups enslaved by Europeans and those captives' New World destinations; identify and describe the early slaving voyages of the Portuguese and Spanish. Students will also be able to describe how the Dutch and English later inserted themselves into the trade; identify and describe the expansion of the plantation complex in the New World in the 1600s and its impact on the Atlantic slave trade; identify and analyze the rise of European empires and the parallel expansion of the Atlantic slave trade; identify and analyze slavery within African societies. They will also be able to identify and describe the trans-Saharan slave trade and the Red Sea/Indian Ocean slave trade; identify and describe the nature of the African slave market and principal slaving ports in western Africa; analyze and describe New World slave societies and their impact on the Atlantic slave trade; identify and describe the 'Middle Passage' of the Atlantic slave trade; identify and describe the causes for the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in the nineteenth century; analyze and interpret primary source documents that elucidate all aspects of the Atlantic slave trade. (History 311)

This course will introduce the student to a comparative history of New World societies from 1400 to 1750. The student will learn about European exploration and colonization as well as the culture of native peoples of the Americas. By the end of the course, you will understand how the New World evolved from fledgling settlements into profitable European colonies and how New World societies were highly varied polities. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: analyze what constituted the 'New World' in the fifteenth century; identify and describe the major tribes/native civilizations of North America, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean at the time of European contact; identify and describe the effects of European colonization on native peoples; identify and describe the reasons for the European Age of Discovery in the New World; identify and describe early New World exploration and initial settlements by Portugal and Spain; identify and describe how and why the consolidation of powerful European states in the 1600s resulted in New World exploration, settlement, and commerce; compare and contrast New France, French Louisiana, the French West Indies, and French Guiana; compare and contrast British North America (New England, Middle and Lower Colonies), the British West Indies, and British Central and South America; compare and contrast New Spain, the Spanish Caribbean, and Spanish South America; analyze and describe Portuguese Brazil; identify and describe the African slave trade and will also be able to compare and contrast the enslavement of Africans in New World societies; identify and describe inter-European conflicts and European-Native Indian violence in the New World; analyze and interpret primary source documents that elucidate the causes and effects of exploration and colonization in the New World. (History 321)

This course will introduce the student to the history of Europe from the medieval period to the Age of Revolutions in the eighteenth century. The student will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in Europe during this 800-year period including the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, European expansion overseas, and the French Revolution. By the end of the course, the student will understand how Europe had transformed from a fragmented and volatile network of medieval polities into a series of independent nation-states by 1800. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Think critically and analytically about European history in the medieval and early modern eras; Identify and describe the religious, intellectual, social, and political components of the European Middle Ages; Identify the origins and characteristics of the Italian and Northern European Renaissance, as well as describe new developments in art, philosophy, religion, architecture, and science during the era of ŇrebirthÓ; Identify and describe the causes and effects of the European Age of Discovery. Students will also be able to analyze the impact of overseas expansion on European monarchies, the world economy, and indigenous peoples; Describe and analyze the Protestant Reformation. Students will be able to identify the origins of the movement, the various inflections of the Reformation across Europe, and the Catholic Counter Reformation; Identify the era of religious warfare that plagued Europe after the Protestant Reformation. Students will analyze causes and effects of the religious conflicts that erupted in France, England, the Netherlands, and the Holy Roman Empire; Identify and explain why and how 'absolute' monarchs gained power in western Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Students will also be able to identify and describe why two nations - England and the Netherlands - embraced constitutionalism rather than absolutism; Assess how and why absolutism characterized the monarchies of Prussia and Austria in the 1600s. Students will also be able to identify and describe the development of Russia and the reign of Peter the Great; Identify the origins and characteristics of the Scientific Revolution, as well as describe its impact on European civilization as a whole; Identify the origins of the European Enlightenment and assess how this movement altered the social, political, and religious fabric of Europe; Identify and describe the social and economic changes that swept across Europe during the eighteenth century. Students will be able to assess the origin and impact of the 'agricultural revolution,' the marked increase in Europe's population, the development of 'cottage industries,' the rise of the Atlantic economy, and the changes in domestic and religious practices; Identify and describe the origins and impact of the French Revolution. Students will also be able to analyze the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte; Analyze and interpret primary source documents from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, using historical research methods. (History 201)

Studies important twentieth-century texts from Spain and Latin America that represent the principal fictional genrespoetry, theatre, short story, and the novel. Includes works by Bombal, Lorca, Neruda, Vallejo, Machado, and Garca Mrquez. Taught in Spanish. Subject offered Spring 2003 and Fall 2004.

This course will introduce the student to United States history from the colonial period to the Civil War. The student will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place in America during this 250-year period. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to: Analyze the first encounters between the Native inhabitants of North America with Spanish, French, and English colonizers and determine the effect of European colonization on Native Americans; Describe and assess the creation of English/British America; Interpret the main social, political, and economic development of colonies in British North America, including the emergence of a slave economy; Analyze how and why an independent United States was created in 1776 by interpreting the ideological, political, and economic roots of American independence as it developed through the Seven YearsŐ War, the Imperial Crisis and the American Revolution; Analyze the myriad political and economic crises that plagued the Early American Republic in the 1780s and 1790s and identify and describe the expansion of slavery, partisan politics, economic innovation, westward expansion, and the outbreak of the War of 1812; Interpret the main developments of the Age of Jackson, the Indian Removal Act, the Nullification Crisis, the rise of the Whig Party, the Bank War; Interrogate the definition of 'democracy' in 1820s and 1830s America; Analyze the era of reform in antebellum America and identify and describe the emergence of new religious groups- Shakers, Mormons, evangelicals - as well as moral reformers who sought to curb alcoholism, improve the prison system, increase women's rights, end slavery, or modify the American education system; Analyze antebellum America and the emergence of sectionalism, and identify and describe how Northerners and Southerners apparently opposing viewpoints about labor systems, political economy, and race often obscured many similarities; Analyze the impact of the ideology of Manifest Destiny on the development of the American West as it affected Native Americans and white settlers; Identify and describe the West, the California Gold Rush, the Mexican War, and the contested boundary in the Pacific Northwest; Interpret how the question of slaveryŐs expansion affected American political parties, law, and created sectional conflict - both political and ideological - between 1820 and the 1850s; Analyze the American Civil War; identify and describe how and why the federal union that was created in 1776 collapsed in 1861; and assess the major facets of the war (including military engagements, the home fronts, Lincoln's presidency, and the question of slavery). (History 211)

The Creole languages spoken in the Caribbean are linguistic by-products of the historical events triggered by colonization and the slave trade in Africa and the `New World'. In a nutshell, these languages are the results of language acquisition in the specific social settings defined by the history of contact between African and European peoples in 17th-/18th-century Caribbean colonies. One of the best known Creole languages, and the one with the largest community of speakers, is Haitian Creole. Its lexicon is primarily derived from varieties of French as spoken in 17th-/18th-century colonial Haiti; yet some of its structures seem to have emerged under the influence of African languages, mostly from West and Central Africa. And yet other properties seem to have no analogues in any of the source languages. Through a sample of linguistic case studies focusing on Haitian Creole morphosyntax, we will explore creolization from a cognitive, historical and comparative perspective. Using Haitian Creole and some of its Caribbean congeners as test cases, we will evaluate various hypotheses about the development of Creole languages and about the role of first- and second-language acquisition in such development. We will also explore the concept of Creolization in its non-linguistic senses. Then we will address questions of "Caribbean identities" by examining a sample of Creole speakers' attitudes toward the Creole language and the corresponding European language and toward the African and European components of their ethnic make-up.

This course introduces students to the political, economic, social, and cultural history of the United States of America from the first contact to 1850. Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to identify the influences of diverse global cultures on the development of an “American” culture and society; analyze the evolution of American political concepts and institutions; define the functions of government and its relationship to the citizen over different chronological periods; analyze the causes of the Market Revolution, and assess its impact on the American economy and society in the nineteenth century; identify the diverging economic, political, social, and cultural developments in the North and South by the mid-nineteenth century. This free course may be completed online at any time. It has been developed through a partnership with the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges; the Saylor Foundation has modified some WSBCTC materials. (History 001)