Topics of: Early Modern Theories of History

From the 15th to the 17th centuries, European expansion projects, especially the Iberian ones, prompted new constructions of the past, present, and future. This proliferation of history writing was complicated by the fact that the various populations of the global Iberian monarchies, particularly those of New Spain, Peru, and Brazil, did not share the same concepts of historicity or temporality. In this course, students will explore a great diversity of primary sources (chronicles, reports, annals, pictographic codices, theater, paintings, feather mosaics, murals, etc.) and discover the unexpected social memories and theories of history that they created.