The “New World” was not new for either the Indigenous peoples who already lived in the Americas or the European merchants and explorers who thought these continents were islands en route to the Orient. Rather, the New World emerged from the respective “Old Worlds” of Europe and the pre-contact Americas. This seminar will look at the early encounters between French and Spanish missionaries and the Native peoples of the Americas in the 16th and 17th centuries. We will compare major accounts of these encounters written by the Europeans and also consider how the Indians responded to these accounts.
Seminar led by Garry Sparks, University of Chicago and Carla Zecher, Newberry Library