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Each of the sections of this web page links to a resource that will help to remind you of this module of our Science, Philosophy and Spirituality course. Just click on the section, and you will be linked to the resource.
When you are reading an article from this website online, blocks of text in bold coloured type that make reference to an external source are “clickable”. If you click on them, you will be taken to the resource to which they refer.
Enjoy!
Link to PDF of the slides shown in the session.
The module concerned world events between 1450 and 1600, including Ottoman expansion, the Portuguese in Africa, conquest and colonisation in the Atlantic world, the Protestant Reformation in Europe, and the revival of Asian economies.
Link to Article: “Exploration and Colonisation”
An article that accompanies the material shown during this discussion session. The sequence of topics in the article mirrors the slides shown, so it amounts to a commentary on the PowerPoint presentation.
Link to Handout: Discussion questions
Link to a handout that contains the full text of each of the three questions, as well as instructions for the group discussions.
Supplementary Material
Links to seven handouts containing additional information to supplement the main “Exploration and Colonisation” article, and two informative documentary videos.
Video: The Aztec Empire
A 52-minute Get.factual documentary about the Aztec Empire.
Video: Children of the Sun
A 52-minute Get.factual documentary about the Inca Empire.
Handout: The Exploitation of Madeira
A description of how the development of sugar plantations on Madeira paved the way for our present extractive industries.
Handout: The Portuguese in the Spice Islands
An introduction to the Portuguese presence in the Spice Islands during the sixteenth century.
Handout: Aztecs and Incas Before the Spanish Conquest
A comparison between the two major American Empires conquered by Cortes and Pizarro respectively.
Handout: Spices in the Sixteenth Century
The role of spices in helping to create the entangled world of the sixteenth and subsequent centuries.
Handout: Magellan and Drake
A comparison of the two journey’s that are most closely associated with the circumnavigation of the globe.
Handout: England and Privateering
A description of the role played by state-sponsored piracy in creating the British Empire.
Handout: The Mayan Civilisation
The third indigenous Amerindian society encountered by the Conquistadores.
Handout: Rethinking Pre-Columbian Societies …
… and the Impact of 15th Century Exploration and Colonisation.
Handout: The Origins of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
How carrying slaves to the Americas evolved as a part of the triangular trade routes from Europe to West Africa to the Americas and back to Europe.
HANDOUT: The REFORMATION
A paper by Graham Carter-Brown on the history and consequences of the Protestant Reformation.
Books that Provided Material for the Session
Link to Course Home Page
Click on this link to return to the Home Page for Season 2 of the Shepway and District u3a Science, Philosophy and Spirituality programme.
