HIST 171 PZ -Race, Religion, and Empire in Early Modern Spain

Institution: Pitzer College

Description: This course examines the intersection of religious identity, racialization, and the consolidation of the Spanish Empire in the 16th century. It does so by placing the Spanish conquest of the Americas within its historical context, namely, the expulsion of Spain’s Jewish population in 1492 and the forced conversion of its Muslim population to Christianity shortly thereafter. To what extent were the Spanish Empire’s policies in the Americas an extension its domestic religious policies? Within this particular historical period, what was the relationship between religious identity and the development of racial categories? Over the course of the semester, students will read primary and secondary source texts on international legal theory, cultural and linguistic history, and consider the political theories that form the foundation of modern notions of national and racial identity.