This module explores the history of the empires of Spain and Portugal during the later fifteenth and sixteenth century (c.1450-c.1600).
We follow Iberian exploration, expansion and settlement from the Mediterranean into the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. We will study the many ways in which European and non-European people became involved and entangled in the course of Iberian global expansion. Why and how were empires constructed, governed and conceptualized? How did individuals and communities who lived under Iberian rule experience, negotiate and contest imperial authority? What is the relationship between empire, religion, and knowledge? How did the Iberian empires respond to challenges and opportunities?
The module connects the history of empire with global history and the history of globalisation and includes perspectives from political, cultural, social and intellectual history as well as the histories of religion, gender and violence.