131-017 Europeans and Conquest B

Usually 131-016 Europeans and Conquest A.

This subject is a study of the ways in which Europeans attempted to consolidate their control over cultural, economic and political life throughout large parts of the globe, against the background of war, revolution and mental transformations in pre-industrial Europe; and the role of European notions of civilised society in the formation of early European colonial empires. Topics will include new European mentalities under the impact of counter-Reformation and scientific revolution; the transatlantic slave trade; early English colonial settlements and relations with Amerindians; the new Netherlands republic and their seaborne Empire; and Terra Australis in the European imagination. Students who complete this subject should have an understanding of key cultural ideas in European history such as 'civilisation' and how they underpin early European colonisation.