From the medieval period onwards, expansion brought Europeans increasingly into contact with diverse cultures and civilizations. This unit explores how encounters between Europe and the world were transformed from the tentative and uncertain contacts that characterised earlier periods to the self-confident imperialism of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rather than analysing the broad sweep of political history, we are interested in the leading edge of cross-cultural encounters: in travellers, diplomats, and slaves who 'crossed-over' to engage with new cultural worlds, in the tools that made these encounters possible and in the commodities that underpinned global exchange. -- Course Website
Instructor: Dr Adam Clulow
Prerequisites: First year sequence in History, International Studies or Archaeology and Ancient History or permission from the coordinator.
