HIST 4620 - Early North America to 1754

Credit Hours: (3)

Description: This course introduces students to the political, economic, and social processes that shaped early North America prior to the era of revolutions. Students will examine European colonizers, Native Americans, and enslaved and free people of African descent, focusing on how they interacted and influenced each other, and how geography, demography, and disease shaped their lives, creating a “new world” for all. Students in this course will consider how power was shaped by ecology, technology, gender, and race and how the struggle for power resulted in conflicts among different groups of European colonists, Native people and colonists, and between colonists and various European crowns.

Throughout this course, students will read, think, and write critically about the materials presented, and engage in discussions with their peers as they develop an awareness of the wide range of experiences and the diversity of viewpoints encompassed in the term “colonial America.” Successful completion of this course will give students a deeper understanding of the unique role that the American colonial experiences has had in shaping both the United States and the modern world.