In addition to the above texts, you will have occasional photocopied reading assignments in the Learning Resource Center, and handouts in class. This course will present eye-witness accounts of the first contacts between Europeans and the people they would call Indians. In the Americas, from 1492 to the late 1500s, great battles, conflicts, transitions, and compromises occurred. This course aims to present the experiences of those involved in the events of this tumultuous time. This course will review Native American as well as Spanish accounts of the conquest period.
All papers are due at the end of class on the day indicated by the course calendar.
I will provide topics and more detailed instruction several weeks prior to the due date of each essay. These are not research papers so you will only be given about three weeks to compose each one. All papers should follow the standard conventions of good writing. If you have any questions about your writing you will want to consult guides like Strunk and White's The Elements of Style or visit the Writing Lab on campus. The due dates for the writing assignments are on the course calendar.