First Encounters: Spanish Exploration of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico: Ever imagined a world of dog-faced cannibals and headless beings with mouths in their chests? Probably not, but sixteenth-century Spaniards who explored Florida and other lands fronting the Gulf of Mexico did. Few events in world history have been as momentous as when Europeans first encountered native peoples in the Americas some five centuries ago. In this course, we’ll examine the impressions that Spaniards and indigenous Americans formed of one another in the wake of these contacts. We’ll probe materials from the Age of Exploration—letters, chronicles, and artwork—to understand the cultural and political dimensions of the drive for empire. We’ll examine the spirited tales of explorers, often more fantasy than fact, that engaged the popular imagination in Europe. And we’ll consider how Aztec artists and scribes perceived the invaders. The extraordinary descriptions of hitherto unknown people and places remind us that we often see what we want to see in those who are different from us.
- Teacher: Allan Meyers