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Instructor: Timothy K Fitzgerald History 8A

Description

History and development of Western Hemisphere, its history, discovery and exploration. Inter-American relations. Establishment of Spanish, Portuguese, French, British Colonies. Revolution in Spanish and British Colonies. May substitute for History 17a. Satisfies US History requirement.

Objectives

• Show history's perspective of influences important to the U S operating outside its boundaries
• Show diverse cultures contributing to our society
• Know more of history and better understand economic, social, and political problems concerning you as a citizen
• Cultural growth through challenging discussion, research and examination

Evaluation

A. (50%) - Mid-term and Final. Essay on class discussion and lecture. Map identification (20% of each test) One comprehensive essay question on the final (50 % of test score)

B. (15%) - Term Research Paper. A historical event illustrates your interpretation of history's meaning. Include foot or endnotes and bibliography.

C. (15%) - Book Review. With Instructor's approval select an American History book and discuss its context in a historical setting.

D. (10%) - Presentation. Select one weekly American History topic in the syllabus and develop research on relevant aspects for class discussion (sign up the 1st week of class)

E. (5%) - Pop thought questions. Exam of American History reading material, followed by class discussion. No makeups.

F. (5%) - Participation. Bring things to class.

The historian's job is interpretation. Reflect on history and decisions of those before you that brought you to this threshold. Opinions must be significant and valid.

Texts

A. Kern & Wasserman, A History of Latin America 4th ed, 2 Vol

B. Careless, A Brief History of Canada

C. Marcus & Burner, America First Hand, 2 Vol

Schedule

Week 1 - Introduction - Ancient American environment and culture 
Week 2 - New World Indians - Maya, Inca, Aztec, Southwest
Week 3 - Trade and Commerce in Medieval Europe
Week 4 - Forces stimulating exploration: Spain, Portugal, Britain, France compared
Week 5 - The Great Voyages: Advent of Globalization
Week 6 - Conquests: Mexico, Peru, El Dorado, Eastern North America (BOOK REPORT DUE)
Week 7 - Consequences of Conquest for Indigenous Populations
Week 8 - Colonial Life - Administration of Commerce: Mercantilism (MIDTERM)
Week 9 - Institution of the Spanish Enterprise: The Slave Trade
Week 10 - The Catholic Church in the New World, impact of Protestant Reformation
Week 11 - North American colonial forms: Britain and France (RESEARCH PAPER DUE)
Week 12 - Colonial class and caste
Week 13 - The Great Wars for Empire, Europe's struggle for supremacy
Week 14 - American Revolution, impact of Enlightenment
Week 15 - Latin American independence
Week 16 - Conclusion - What does this all mean? (FINAL)

Grades

Percent of 500 points: 90 - 100 (A) * 80 - 89 (B) * 70 - 79 (C) * 60 - 69 (D) * 0 - 59 (F)

BOOK REVIEW Reading list

Select from this list or suggest an alternative the Instructor approves.
A. Trans European
Milton, Paradise Lost
Cervantes, Don Quixote
Hobbs, The Leventhian, Ecclesiastical and Civil

B. On Mercantilism
Rousseau, The Social Contract On Mercantilism
Smith, The Wealth of Nations
Brouche, Economic History
Walter Prescott Webb, Frontier in History
Arthur Miller, The Crucible

C. British American contributions
Thomas Paine, Common Sense
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia
Benjamin Franklin,  Autobiography
John Locke, Two Treatises on Civil Government

D. Latin America
Picon - Salas, A Cultural History of Spanish America 
Haring, Spanish Empire in America
Trend, Bolivar and the Independence of Spanish America
Pike, Conflict between Church and State in Latin America

E. On the Indigenous Peoples
Zolita, Life and Labor in Ancient Mexico
Canning, Peru Before the Incas
Pre-Columbian America - I MesoAmerica
Drivey, The Americas on the Eve of Discovery

F. General Related Themes
Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave
M.________, Real Time
R Buckminster Fuller, Operation Manual for Space Ship Earth
Fernado Corcoso, Dependency Development in Latin America

G. American History Survey Readings
McAlister, Spain and Portugal in the New World
Burkholder and Johnson, Colonial Latin America
S T. and B H. Stein, Colonial Heritage of Latin America: 
    Essays on Economic Dependency in Perspective
Jones and Beatty, An Introduction to Hispanic American History
Henry Adams, America in 1800

PROSPECTUS FOR DISCUSSION One point of view

History records action in time and space. Shakespeare calls life "a tale told by an idiot," of which "there's more than is written in books, Polonius" (Hamlet) Perhaps you find this adventure closer to Stephen King or Agatha Christie. We trace the history of human enterprise in the American hemisphere, exploring its tragedy and triumph. Known and knowable disappears into the past, rediscovered in the future. There's too many missing pieces to Western history's mosaic as acted out in the Americas. Finding and settling the Americas is as much a history of pre-Industrial Europe as about the Americas. We need to know about events across the Atlantic Ocean motivating colonists and their relations with mother countries. Once the gap between Eurasia and the Americas is breached, vested interests dictate varying directions settlements take toward colonization. It's not all a history of myths and heroes of an unrelated past. Consider culture's role in development. To build a bridge to the next century we must anchor the foundation in thought and action which brought us to this juncture. Do we not, at the close of the 1900s, take all this abundance for granted? Do commitments underwrite these privileges? The making of Man is the story of culture clash between Europe and the Western Hemisphere and within Europeans here and in Europe evolving new life and a new World Order changing Man's course.

Key to the New World is the role of resources in an untamed land. Europeans thought nothing of robbing Native Americans of their heritage. Environment is important in shaping and being shaped by physical universe. Does might make right? If victors write history books how does that compare with the advent of history from the bottom up? Comment on great men in history and define their roles. Does history make them or vice versa? Archemides said, How many men have had a lever and a place to stand by which to move the world? America's discovery and settlement profoundly and permanently alters Western society and the world, forever challenging indigenous Americans. History is about ideas, sequence and place. In conquering the Western Hemisphere multiculturalism and pluralism were not the tools used in taming America's wilderness as we understand it. Gunpowder and trade governed Man's affairs as Europe emerged from the Middle Ages. Ponder whether that is a prognosis for acculturating the Global Village in the 2000s as Man concludes this phase of globalization. "The present rapidly fades to the past, the order is rapidly changing" (Bob Dylan) What does "History: the story unfolding each day" mean to you? Comment on the Italian and French saying "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

How does Catholic doctrine of absolute monarchy influence our government? Montesque's theory to curtail French King Louis XIV's extravagances was tripartate government (separate judiciary, legislative, executive) adopted for the Constitution creating a strong central government WHICH COLONISTS HAD JUST OVERTHROWN AND WAS OPPOSED BY ANTI-FEDERALISTS.