Undergraduate Menu

• Introduction
• Why Study with us?
• Degree Schemes
• Part I
• Part II Modules
• Study Abroad
• Funding
• Our Students Say
• Visit Us
• Careers
• FAQs
• How to Apply
• Current Students

HIST231: Mapping Terra Incognita: Travel and Exploration of the Americas and the Pacific 1492—1780

This module introduces the most important journeys of exploration to the Americas and the Pacific from 1492 until 1780. While the journeys of Christopher Columbus, Pedro Fernández de Quirós, Ferdinand Magellan and James Cook illustrate the ‘mapping of the world’ from the late 1400s to 1780, the course also focuses on the main incursions into American lands during the sixteenth century, including the conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires. These are contextualised within the rise of mixed-race Creoles, the role played by missionaries and the development of a colonial urban culture. The course is taught through lectures and seminars, making extensive use of films and documentaries. The following topics are studied:

• Introduction: Past and Present, Iciar Bollain, Tambien la lluvia/Also the Rain (2010)
• Mapping Iberian Expansion: Christopher Columbus
• Indigenous Cultures of 15th-century America: Aztec and Inca empires
• Conquistadors and explorers: Cortés, Pizarro, Coronado, Orellana and Cabeza de Vaca
• Missionaries
• Cities, convents and creoles
• Spices and Early Exploration of the Pacific: Magellan, Quirós
• Pacific exploration from the seventeenth to the eighteenth centuries
• Age of Scientific Exploration: Cook
• Exploration in Film and Documentary

For further information on HIST231 visit the Lancaster University Online Courses Handbook.

Save this page: Del.icio.us Digg It Reddit Facebook Stumble It!