Unit name | Spain and Portugal in the Atlantic World: 1430-1830 |
---|---|
Unit code | HISP20059 |
Credit points | 20 |
Level of study | I/5 |
Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
Unit director | Dr. Williams |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Arts |
This unit will enable students of Spanish and Portuguese to explore the nature and consequences of the process whereby the four continents bordering the Atlantic Ocean were drawn together and transformed by the Spanish and Portuguese voyages of the fifteenth century. Study of this complex phenomenon, which led to the creation of a new ‘Atlantic’ community, or ‘Atlantic World’, has been described as one of the most important historiographical developments of recent years. It has engaged historians of western Europe, Africa, and the Americas in re-evaluating the impact, for all regions and peoples affected, of the unprecedented circulation across and around the ocean of individuals and communities of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and of an exceptionally wide range of products, practices, and ideas. With an emphasis on social and cultural contact and exchange, students will be encouraged to assess the significance and usefulness of the concept of the ‘Atlantic World’, and to explore connections and draw comparisons between the experiences of members of both Iberian nations, and of the disparate peoples, enslaved and free, of their Atlantic colonies and settlements. The unit consists of informal lectures and seminar work, discussion of primary documents and secondary reading, and group presentations. It aims to:
By the end of this unit, students will have:
1 x 2-hour weekly slot, consisting of an informal lecture and a seminar
Formative: Students will be required to give one or more short presentations, normally as part of a group. Group presentations will enable students to develop teamwork skills, presentation, and oral communication
Summative: 1 x 2000 word essays (50%) and 1 x 2-hour exam, consisting of two essays (50%)
Both pieces of assessment require students to: demonstrate good subject knowledge of the field; conduct independent research; evaluate historical evidence; demonstrate skills in critical thinking and analysis; present structured arguments in appropriate language. The exam is designed to test the breadth of student understanding of the topic’s diversity while the essay requires students to research and reflect analytically on a particular aspect. Students will be required to demonstrate the ability to perform close textual analysis with appropriate attention to context in both exercises.
Bernard Bailyn, Atlantic History: Concept and Contours (Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London: HarvardUniversity Press, 2005) Caroline A. Williams (ed.),
Bridging the Early Modern Atlantic World: People, Products, and Practices on the Move (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009) Thomas Benjamin,
The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians and Their Shared History, 1400-1900 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Toyin Falola and Kevin D. Roberts, The Atlantic World: 1450-2000 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008) Marcy Norton,
Sacred Gifts, Profane Pleasures: A History of Tobacco and Chocolate in the Atlantic World (Ithaca, N.Y. and London: Cornell University Press, 2008) Stuart B, Schwartz,
All Can Be Saved: Religious Tolerance and Salvation in the Iberian Atlantic World (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008) Juan Javier Pescador,
The New World Inside a Basque Village: The Oiartzun Valley and Its Atlantic Emigrants, 1550-1800 (Reno and Las Vegas: University of Nevada Press, 2004) Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert,
A Nation Upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal's Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492-1640 (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007)