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78283-01 - Seminar: Piracy, Slavery, and Yellow Fever: The Caribbean as a Crucible of Early Modern Empire (1492–1886) (3 KP)
| Semester | Frühjahrsemester 2026 |
| Angebotsmuster | einmalig |
| Dozierende | Javier Francisco Vallejo (javier.franciscovallejo@unibas.ch, BeurteilerIn) |
| Inhalt | The Caribbean was not only the first American region to be transformed by European expansion; it quickly became the most fiercely contested maritime arena of Early Modern empire. Indigenous societies and colonists alike found themselves drawn into a geopolitical power struggle characterized by imperial ambitions, aggressively expanding commodity frontiers, black uprisings and autonomous communities (maroons), as well as semi-sanctioned looting and pillaging privateers. In this dense island world, ecological destruction and transformation, demographic collapse, voluntary and coerced migration, socio-ethnic hybridization, and new forms of capitalist extraction unfolded with an intensity rarely paralleled in global history. This course traces these entangled processes across several centuries, examining the shifting stages of European rule and the profound transformations they generated. How did encounters between newcomers and Indigenous peoples—including the Taíno, Kalinago, and Lucayan—reshape the social and political landscape? Why were millions of enslaved Africans transported into the region, and what openings for resistance, advancement, and community-building did they carve out under extreme constraints? To what extent did European powers pursue distinct imperial strategies, and how were these differences encoded in law, governance, and economic organization? We will also explore the emergence of alternative and contested spaces—from pirate enclaves to Indigenous refuges and maroon settlements—and consider how they challenged metropolitan and colonial authority. Finally, the course links the Caribbean’s Early Modern history to broader human–environment dynamics: climate change, biodiversity loss, zoonotic disease cycles, and the ecological footprint of plantation capitalism. In doing so, we approach the Caribbean as a laboratory of empire—an Early Modern world region where global processes became tangible, accelerated, and, in many ways, irreversible. |
| Literatur | McNeil, John. Mosquito Empires: Ecology and War in the Greater Caribbean, 1620-1914: 2010. Latimer, Jon. Buccaneers of the Caribbean: How Piracy Forged an Empire: 2009. Moya Pons, Frank. History of the Caribbean: plantations, trade, and war in the Atlantic world: 2007. Palmié, Stephan (ed.). Slave Cultures and the Culture of Slavery: 1995. Williams, Eric. From Columbus to Castro: The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969: 1984. |
| Bemerkungen | max. 30 students There will be Reader and reading assignments in advance. |
| Weblink | Europainstitut |
| Teilnahmevoraussetzungen | As this is a block seminar, attendance at all sessions is mandatory. |
| Unterrichtssprache | Englisch |
| Einsatz digitaler Medien | kein spezifischer Einsatz |
| Intervall | Wochentag | Zeit | Raum |
|---|---|---|---|
| unregelmässig | Siehe Einzeltermine | ||
Einzeltermine
| Datum | Zeit | Raum |
|---|---|---|
| Freitag 06.03.2026 | 10.00-17.00 Uhr | Riehenstrasse 154, Seminarraum 00.022 |
| Freitag 13.03.2026 | 10.00-17.00 Uhr | Riehenstrasse 154, Seminarraum 00.022 |
| Freitag 27.03.2026 | 10.00-17.00 Uhr | Riehenstrasse 154, Seminarraum 00.022 |
| Freitag 10.04.2026 | 10.00-17.00 Uhr | Riehenstrasse 154, Seminarraum 00.022 |
| Module |
Modul: Areas: Europa Global (Master Studiengang: Europäische Geschichte in globaler Perspektive ) Modul: Epochen der europäischen Geschichte: Frühe Neuzeit (Master Studiengang: Europäische Geschichte in globaler Perspektive ) Modul: Epochen der europäischen Geschichte: Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Master Studiengang: Europäische Geschichte in globaler Perspektive ) Modul: Europäisierung und Globalisierung (Masterstudium: European Global Studies) Modul: Kulturtechnische Dimensionen (Master Studiengang: Kulturtechniken) Modul: Mittelalter / Frühe Neuzeit (Master Studienfach: Geschichte) Modul: Neuere / Neueste Geschichte (Master Studienfach: Geschichte) |
| Prüfung | Lehrveranst.-begleitend |
| Hinweise zur Prüfung | Qualifications: oral presentations (to be discussed) and diverse written assignments e.g. literature reviews, source interpretations, argumentative essays. |
| An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Wiederholungsprüfung | keine Wiederholungsprüfung |
| Skala | 1-6 0,5 |
| Belegen bei Nichtbestehen | nicht wiederholbar |
| Zuständige Fakultät | Universität Basel |
| Anbietende Organisationseinheit | Europainstitut |