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2016/17 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST3352 Cultural Encounters: Spain, Portugal and the Wider World in the Late Middle Ages

40 creditsClass Size: 16

Module manager: Dr Iona McCleery
Email: i.mccleery@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

Spain and Portugal were the first European kingdoms to visit and exploit parts of Africa, Asia and the Americas during the fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. Traditionally viewed as a golden age of 'discoveries', this process of expansion is now seen as a deeply troubling period which majorly influenced later patterns of colonialism. In this module we will consider the expansion of Spain and Portugal both within the Iberian Peninsula (where Christian attitudes towards Muslims and Jews laid the groundwork for attitudes towards non-European peoples) and during voyages and conquests around the Atlantic, including Mexico and Peru, into the Indian Ocean and beyond into the Pacific. The first semester will introduce all the voyages, texts and interdisciplinary methods that are needed to study exploration and cultural exchange in the period c.1300-c.1535 with especial focus on the late 15th century and the early 16th century. We will be closely studying a variety of written sources in English translation such as log books, chronicles and letters, and also examining surviving maps and other visual images. The second semester will take a thematic and comparative approach to those same sources looking at topics such as disease, medicine, food, language, race, gender, religion and power.

Objectives

To build on and refine students' skills in debating issues, constructing and presenting arguments in both written and oral form, and interpreting a wide range of primary evidence through study of the history of late medieval Spain and Portugal, with especial emphasis on exploration exploitation and cultural contact during the 15th and early 16th centuries.

Learning outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
- Demonstrate that they can express opinion and develop and present an argument in both oral and written expression
- Identify and discuss a wide range of primary sources and problems associated with them
- Analyse the debates and methods of historians, understanding how their arguments are constructed based on the primary sources they use and their theoretical approach
- Evaluate the key factors that led to the expansion of Spain and Portugal in the late Middle Ages and critique its impact, explain social issues that shaped patterns of exploration, decode complex encounters and interpret the beliefs and practices of different cultures in contact during this period using a variety of scholarly approaches.


Syllabus

Week 1 - introduction
Week 2 - approaches to exploration and cultural encounter (overview)
Week 3 - medieval Spain and Portugal (overview)
Week 4 - tolerance and intolerance in different cultural contact zones
Week 5 - the Portuguese invasion of North Africa (1415)
Week 6 - the Portuguese in West Africa and the Atlantic islands
Week 7 - Columbus's first two voyages (1492-3 and 1493-96)
Week 8 - the Portuguese in East Africa, the Persian Gulf, India and
Indonesia (1497-1520)
Week 9 - the Caribbean and Columbus's last two voyages (1498-1504)
Week 10 - the conquest of Mexico and Peru (1519-1533)
Week 11 - the circumnavigation of the world (1519-1522)
Week 12 - dissertation presentations
Week 13 - dissertation presentations
Week 14 - maps, material culture and visual imagery
Week 15 - cultural encounters: language
Week 16 - cultural encounters: food and clothing
Week 17 - cultural encounters: race and ethnicity
Week 18 - cultural encounters: disease and medicine
Week 19 - cultural encounters: mission and crusade
Week 20 - cultural encounters: wealth and power
Week 21 - cultural encounters: gender
Week 22 - revision class

Teaching methods

Delivery typeNumberLength hoursStudent hours
Workshop41.004.00
Seminar222.0044.00
Private study hours352.00
Total Contact hours48.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)400.00

Private study

Researching, preparing, and writing assignments; exam preparation; undertaking set reading; and self-directed reading around the topic.

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Feedback on presentations; one-to-one essay feedback, one-to-one meetings as part of personal tutoring and dissertation supervision; observation in class.

Methods of assessment


Coursework
Assessment typeNotes% of formal assessment
Essay1 x 4,000 word essay due by 12 noon Monday of examination week 2, semester 140.00
PresentationVerbal presentation, format to be determined by tutor10.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated


Exams
Exam typeExam duration% of formal assessment
Standard exam (closed essays, MCQs etc)3 hr 00 mins50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 27/03/2015

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