Fall 2025 - HIST 373 BLS1
Conquest in North America, 1500-1900 (4)
Class Number: 3916
Delivery Method: Blended
Overview
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Course Times + Location:
Sep 3 – Dec 2, 2025: TBA, TBA
Burnaby -
Exam Times + Location:
Dec 4, 2025
Thu, 12:00–3:00 p.m.
Burnaby
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Instructor:
Joseph Taylor
taylorj@sfu.ca
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Prerequisites:
45 units including six units of lower division History and one of HIST 101, 104, or 212, or permission of the department.
Description
CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:
A broad examination of attempts by aboriginal, imperial, and mercantile forces to claim and control the North American continent from the arrival of Spanish conquistadors in the early 1500s to the surrender of Geronimo in 1886. Explores the processes of colonization from many perspectives, including Aboriginal, American, English, French, Russian, and Spanish ambitions and activities. Breadth-Humanities.
COURSE DETAILS:
Overview: Examines attempts to claim and control the North American continent by aboriginal, mercantile, and imperial forces from the early 1500s to the Mescalero-Chiricahua leader Goyaałé’s (Geronimo) surrender in 1886. Lectures and readings explore the processes of colonization from many perspectives, paying equal attention to the aims and responses of American, English, French, Indigenous, Russian, and Spanish agents:
- Global networks of imperial contestation
- Indigenous expansionism and responses to European expansion
- Mutual constitution of nature and empire
- Spatial and historical implications of settlement
- Processes of dispossession and incorporation
Mode: Lectures will be prerecorded, and weekly quizzes and discussion of lectures and readings will occur during the normal meeting time each week. Exams and paper submissions will be administered via Canvas.
Grading
- Weekly Quizzes 10%
- Midterm exam 30%
- Research paper 30%
- Final Exam 30%
NOTES:
For Fall 2025, HIST 373 will meet in-person at AQ 6229 the first three weeks in September (3, 10, 17) to discuss readings and recorded lectures. After that meetings shift to Zoom, but both the midterm (Oct. 8) and final (early in the examination period) will be in-person, 2-hour, exam-book assessments held in AQ 6229.
Materials
REQUIRED READING:
John Demos, The Unredeemed Captive (Knopf, 1994)
Robert Morrissey, People of the Ecotone (University of Washington, 2022)
Theodore Binnema, Common & Contested Ground (University of Toronto Press, 2001)
Gray Whaley, Oregon and the Collapse of Illahee (University of North Carolina Press, 2010)
Primary documents available on the Canvas website
REQUIRED READING NOTES:
Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.
Department Undergraduate Notes:
Learn more about studying History at SFU:
History areas of study
Why study History?
Registrar Notes:
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS
At SFU, you are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all your academic work. Cheating, plagiarism, or any other form of academic dishonesty harms your own learning, undermines the efforts of your classmates who pursue their studies honestly, and goes against the core values of the university.
To learn more about the academic disciplinary process and relevant academic supports, visit:
- SFU’s Academic Integrity Policy: S10-01 Policy
- SFU’s Academic Integrity website, which includes helpful videos and tips in plain language: Academic Integrity at SFU
RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION
Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the term are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.