Between 1492 and 1700 the Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French carved out major colonial empires in the New World from Canada to Argentina.
This course looks at the three peoples who collided in this conquest—Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans—and how their interactions differed in North, Central, and South America.
The lectures begin with Columbus and Cortés in the Caribbean and move through Pizarro and the Spanish conquest of the Incas to the creation of the slave plantations of Brazil. The arrival of the English and French in the 17th century allows for a discussion of how the common experience of conquest led to different colonial systems in the New World.