Course Description
Exploration of the history of North America between 1500 and 1800, paying particular attention to the West, Native Americans, and the settlement and development of Spanish, French, and Russian colonies.
Athena Title
EARLY AMERICA
Prerequisite
Permission of Honors
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course will expose students to a new way of looking at early American history. Instead of focusing on the origins and development of the British colonies, it will explore all of the regions in North America and all of the peoples living in them. Students will gain perspective on the formative events that were occurring west of the Applachians, including the Russian colonization of Alaska and the Spanish colonization of the West and Southwest. The course will place heavy emphasis on the practice of history and therefore will draw as much as possible on primary documents. Students will be required to write a major research paper based on primary documents.
Topical Outline
Week 1: What is the subject matter of early American history? Week 2: Early Encounters in North America: The Documentary Record, I Week 3: Early Encounters in North America: The Documentary Record, II Week 4: Early Encounters: What Does Archaeology Tell Us? Week 5: The First Spanish Colonies Week 6: The First French Colonies Week 7: The First British Colonies Week 8: Mapping the Continent by Land and Sea Week 9: The Great Plains before Lewis and Clark Week 10: Russia and the Aleutians Week 11: The Colonization of Alta California Week 12: Slavery from the Southwest to the Great Lakes Week 13: Smallpox: A Continental Pestilence Week 14: Looking West: Trans-Pacific Trade