During the lessons, the most significant and characteristic themes of the history of the American continent in the 17th century will be developed. In this period we can follow the phases of the change of the colonial world with the intervention of new European states, Holland, England and France, different from each other and in mutual competition as well as in conflict with Spain and Portugal. The New World sees an important passage in Europeanisation, creolisation and contextualisation in a global dimension.
The course is articulated along the three axes reported in the title of the program that develop through various themes that are indicated below:
Colonization: the expansion of the geographical knowledge of the American continent; the development of the colonies of the new northern European states (New France, New England and specific colonies, New Holland; the colonies in the Caribbean area); the formation of the Atlantic world; the crisis of the seventeenth century and the American colonial economy; the diversity of institutional structures and demographic regimes; the relationship with the Indians and evangelization; the formation of the Creole society.
Conflict: the inter-European geo-political rivalries in America and the reflections in Europe; religious opposition; economic rivalry; the spread of local wars; the role of the Indians; piracy
Slavery: forced labour of the Indians (encomienda, mita); work of the Europeans (indentured servants); the introduction of African slave labour with attention to the mechanisms of the trade (in Africa and America); the formation of the plantation society in the various parts of the continent; the legal organization of the slave society; the ethnic-religious tensions of the same.
These issues will also be addressed through the reading of various sources and illustrating the most recent historiographical orientations.
The examination consists of the preparation of three texts:
compulsory:
F. Morelli, Il mondo atlantico. Una storia senza confini (XV-XIX secolo), Roma, Carocci, 2013
plus two of the following texts:
P. Butel, Pirati e corsari dei Caraibi, Milano, Res Gestae, 2012
Herbert S. Klein, Il commercio atlantico degli schiavi, Roma, Carocci, 2014
O. Pétré-Grénouilleau, La tratta degli schiavi. Saggio di storia globale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2011 (paperback edition), except chap. 7
M. Rediker, La nave negriera, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014
G. Imbruglia, L'invenzione del Paraguay, Napoli, Bibliopolis, 1987
John H. Elliott, Imperi dell’Atlantico. America spagnola e America britannica, 1492-1830, Torino, Einaudi, 2017 (paperback edition): chapters 1 to 8 only
Matteo Sanfilippo, Dalla Francia al nuovo mondo. Feudi e signorie nella valle del San Lorenzo, Viterbo, SetteCittà, 2008
Claudio Ferlan, Sbornie sacre, sbornie profane. L’ubriachezza dal vecchio al Nuovo Mondo, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2018
G. Pizzorusso, Roma nei Caraibi. L’organizzazione delle missioni cattoliche nelle Antille francesi e in Guyana (1635-1675), Roma, École française de Rome, 1995, download: https://www.persee.fr/doc/efr_0223-5099_1995_mon_207_1
Other texts and materials may be indicated during the course of the lessons
