History

FINAL PAPER (180 points)

Sources: Traditions & Encounters Ch. 22, Christopher Columbus’s “Letter on the First Voyage,” and at least TWO additional sources from the course Archive and/or your own research.

Using Christopher Columbus’s letter from his first voyage (1493) as your key primary source and Chapter 22 of Traditions & Encounters as your key secondary source, analyze the similarities and differences between Latin Europe’s imperialism of the 15th & 16th centuries and at least one other imperial power that we have studied in the second half of the semester (e.g. Indian, Chinese, Islamic, Mongol, Aztec, etc.).

What does the language in Columbus’s letter reveal about European motives, ambitions, and attitudes toward the world? How do these attitudes and cultural assumptions compare with those of other imperial powers? What does your comparison tell us about the nature of empire in world history?

Requirements:

1. Paper must be 4 pages (min) in length. Your name and paper title at the top (no other header information). One inch margins. Double-spaced. Times New Roman, 12 point font.

2. Your paper must be based on the Traditions and Encounters textbook, Columbus’s “Letter on the First Voyage,” and a minimum of TWO additional sources. These sources may come from the course Archive and/or your own research outside of the course Archive. For this final paper, your two additional sources may be primary or secondary. All secondary sources must be from a scholarly book, journal article, or website. No wikipedia or non-academic sources!

3. Make sure to properly cite all of your sources in MLA or Chicago style format. Guides to MLA and Chicago style citations can be found in the “Course Information & Resources” module. There also, you will find some handouts on primary source analysis and thesis, which you may find useful in thinking about your paper. And make sure to watch the short video called Doing History: Citing Sources (link in the “Course Information & Resources” module) for an overview of proper citations.

The Christopher Columbus “Letter of the First Voyage” is attached.

Link to the textbook: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ln0eadu27dghb10/Traditions%20and%20Encounters%20-%20A%20Global%20Perspective%20on%20the%20Past%206th%20Edition.pdf?dl=0