History 368: Colonial Mexico
Fall 2007
Instructor:
Kevin Gosner
Teaching Assistants:
Alex Hidalgo
Cory Schott
215 Social Sciences
621-1168
kgosner@u.arizona.edu
Office Hrs: MW 10-11 & by appt.
124 A Social Sciences
621-3247
ahidalgo@email.arizona.edu
Alex Hidalgo’s Syllabus
124A Social Sciences
621-3247
schottc@email.arizona.edu
Cory Schott’s Syllabus
Required Books:
Michael C. Meyer, Water in the Hispanic Southwest, 1550-1850.
Matthew Restall, Lisa Sousa, and Kevin Terraciano, eds. Mesoamerican Voices: Native-Language Writing
from Colonial Mexico.
Susan Schroeder, Stephanie Wood, and Robert Haskett, eds. Indian Women of Early Mexico.
Javier Villa-Flores, Dangerous Speech: A Social History of Blasphemy in Colonial Mexico.
Juan Pedro Viqueira Albán, Propriety and Permissiveness.
Required Journal Articles:
All of the academic journal articles included in the reading assignments are available online through
JSTOR, which can be accessed from the Main Library website. To use JSTOR off-campus, you may have
to enter your last name and CatCard number when prompted. Once you reach the JSOR mainpage, click
“Browse” and follow the links to the appropriate journal and the volume number for the assigned article.
The page numbers of the articles will take you to the correct issue in the year of publication.
Links to Historical Maps:
Mexico at the Time of the Conquest:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_mexico/mexico_at_conquest_1519.jpg
http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/history/postclassic.html
Principal Spanish expeditions of the 16th Century
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_mexico/territorial_expeditions.jpg
The Coronado Expedition
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/national_parks/coronado_expedition.jpg
The Viceroyalty of New Spain in the 18th Century
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_mexico/new_spain_viceroyalty.jpg
Northern New Spain
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/kcc/images/fig1-1.jpg
Principal Military Campaigns of the Wars of Independence
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/atlas_mexico/independence_campaigns_1810.jpg
Grading, Examinations and Writing Assignments:
Attendance: 10% (3 unexcused absences in sections will result in no credit for attendance)
Participation and Writing Assignments in Sections: 40%
Two take-home mid-term exams: 10% and 15%
Final Exam: In-Class 25%
Late Assignment Policy:
Unexcused late assignments will be penalized one letter grade; any individual requests for an extension or a
change in date or time for turning in an assignment must be made one week before the due date for the
assignment.
Code of Academic Integrity:
Students are responsible for compliance with all University policies regarding academic integrity as well as
with American Historical Association standards for historical scholarship. Read the UA Policy and
Procedures Code of Academic Integrity, AHA Statement on Plagiarism, and The History Department
Policy on Plagiarism.
Schedule of Readings and Lectures
Aug 20-24: Introduction
Steve J. Stern, “Paradigms of Conquest: History, Historiography and Politics,” Journal of Latin
American Studies 24 (1992) 1-34. David J. Weber, “The Spanish Legacy in North America and
the Historical Imagination,” The Western Historical Quarterly 23 (1992) 4-24.
The Age of Conquest
Aug 27-31: Ancient Mexico
George L. Cowgill, “State and Society at Teotihuacan, Mexico,” Annual Review of Anthropology
26 (1997) 129-161; Arthur A. Joyce and Marcus Winter, “Ideology, Power, and Urban Society in
Pre-Hispanic Oaxaca,” Current Anthropology 37 (1996) 33-47.
Sept 5-7: Tenochtitlán and The Triple Alliance
John M. Ingham, “Human Sacrifice at Tenochtitlán,” Comparative Studies in Society and History
26 (1984) 379-400; Indian Women in Early Mexico: Mexica Women on the Home Front; Aztec
Wives; Bernal Díaz del Castillo, “The Stay in Mexico,” from The Conquest of New Spain
(available on e-reserves).
Sept 10-14: The Conquest: Part One
Mesoamerican Voices: Views of the Conquest; J.H. Elliott, “The Mental World of Hernán
Cortés,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 17 (1967) 41-58; Hernan Cortés: Second
Letter to Charles V, 1520; “The Chronicle of Fray Francisco de Aguilar,” from The
Conquistadors: First Person Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico (available on e-reserves).
Sept 17-21: The Conquest: Part Two
Inga Clendinnen, “The Cost of Courage in Aztec Society,” Past and Present 107 (1985) 4489; Dangerous Speech: Introduction: Blasphemous Speech, Colonialism, and Danger in New
Spain; From Defenders of God’s Honor to Blasphemers: Blasphemy and the Rhetoric of Empire.
Excerpts from The Conquest of Mexico: A Guide to the Digitized Primary Sources, to be
assigned in sections.
Sept 24-28: Disease, Emigration and Early Colonial Society
Ida Altman, “Spanish Society in Mexico After the Conquest,” Hispanic American Historical
Review (1991) 413-445; W. George Lovell, “Heavy Shadows and Black Night”: Disease and
Depopulation in Colonial Spanish America,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers
82 (1992) 426-443; Matthew Restall, “Black Conquistadors: Armed Africans in Early Spanish
America,” The Americas 57 (2000) 171-205.
Building an Empire
Oct 1-5: Native Peoples after the Conquest
Mesoamerican Voices: Political Life; Household and Land; Indian Women in Early Mexico:
Mexica Women on the Home Front; Aztec Wives; Indian-Spanish Marriage Patterns; Gender and
Social Identity; From Parallel and Equivalent to Separate; Mixteca Cacicas.
Oct 8-12: The Spiritual Conquest
Mesoamerican Voices: Religious Life; Inga Clendinnen, “Landscape and World View: The
Survival of Yucatec Maya Culture under Spanish Conquest,” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 22 (1980): 374-393.
FIRST TAKE-HOME MID-TERM DUE IN LECTURE MONDAY OCTOBER 15
HYPERLINK TO EXAM QUESTIONS
Oct 15-19: The Church and Colonial Authority
Dangerous Speech: “He Who Doesn’t Blasphemy Is Not A Man” Blasphemy and
Masculinity; On Divine Persecution: Blasphemy and Gambling; Through Eve’s Open Mouth:
Blasphemy and the Women’s Voice ; Alejandro Cañeque, “Theater of Power: Writing and
Representing the Auto de Fe in Colonial Mexico,” The Americas 52 (1996) 321-343.
Oct 22-26: The Early Colonial Economy
Water in the Hispanic Southwest: Water, Culture, and Tradition; Water and the Settlement of the
North; Water and Social Conflict; J.H. Elliot, “The Decline of Spain,” Past and Present 20 (1961)
52-75; Richard Boyer, “Mexico in the Seventeenth Century,” Hispanic American Historical
Review 57 (1977) 455-478; Nuala Zahedieh, “The Merchants of Port Royal, Jamaica and the
Spanish Contraband Trade, 1655-1692,” The William and Mary Quarterly 43 (1986) 570-593.
Oct 29-Nov 2: African Slavery and Free People of Color
Dangerous Speech: “To Lose One’s Soul”: Blasphemy and Slavery; Frank T. Procter III, “AfroMexican Slave Labor in the Obrajes de Paños of New Spain,” The Americas 60 (2003) 33-58;
Martha Few, “Women, Religion, and Power: Gender and Resistance in Daily Life in Late
Seventeenth Century Santiago de Guatemala, “ Ethnohistory 42 (1995) 627-637; Ben Vinson,
“Free Colored Voices: Issues of Representation and Racial Identity in the Colonial Mexican
Militia,” The Journal of Negro History 80 (1995) 170-182.
Nov 5-9: The Far North
Donald E. Worcester, “The Significance of the Spanish Borderlands to the United States,” The
Western Historical Quarterly 7 (1976) 4-18; Water in the Hispanic Southwest: The Social,
Economic, and Military Impact of Water; Sources of Water Law; The Legal Relationship of Land
to Water.
SECOND TAKE-HOME MIDTERM DUE IN LECTURE WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 14
HYPERLINK TO EXAM QUESTIONS
Late Colonial Mexico
Nov 14-16: The Bourbon Reforms
Jacque A. Barbier and Mark Burkholder, “Colonial Spanish America: The Bourbon Period,” The
History Teacher 20 (1987) 221-250; Cynthia Radding de Murrieta, “The Function of the Market
in Changing Economic Structures in the Mission Communities of Pimería Alta, 1768-1821,” The
Americas 34 (1977) 155-169.
Nov 19-21: Social and Political Conflict in the Eighteenth Century
Propriety and Permissiveness: Introduction; From Don Juans to the Patriots; Indian Women in
Early Mexico: Women and Crime in Colonial Oaxaca; Women, Rebellion, and Moral Economy;
Marriage and Status; Double Jeopardy; Women’s Voices from the Frontier; Water in the Hispanic
Southwest: Water Rights and Their Acquisition; The Adjudication of Water Disputes.
Nov 26-30: Royal Authority and Popular Culture
Propriety and Permissiveness: Progress or the Theater; Disorder or Street Diversions; The New
Order, or Pelota.
Dec 3-5: The Wars of Independence
Virginia Gueda, “The Process of Mexican Independence,” The American Historical Review 105
(2000) 116-130; Eric Van Young, “Islands in the Storm: Quiet Cities and Violent Countrysides in
the Mexican Independence Era,” Past and Present 118 (1988) 130-155; Christon I. Archer, “The
Army in New Spain and the Wars of Independence,” Hispanic American Historical Review 61
(1981) 705-714.
Blue-Book Final Exam: Friday, December 7: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.