HST 407 / 507:
"France Overseas, 1600-1850"
Thomas Luckett

Fall 2005
Wed, 1:00-4:00 PM
Room 494 Cramer Hall

WebCT required:  This is the public web page for this course.  The rest of the web site for this course is available only through WebCT, and will become accessible at the start of the term.  To view it, you will need to obtain an ODIN account, and enroll in the course.  Use of WebCT is a requirement of the course, but prior experience with WebCT is not required.

If you are new to ODIN or WebCT, the following links will be useful:

Course section information:
  • HST 407, sec TML, crn 14434.
  • HST 507, sec TML, crn 14435.
Course description:  This seminar examines French colonialism from the 17th century through the early 19th century.  Specific topics include the history of French Canada, Haiti/St-Domingue, Louisiana, Senegal, Algeria, and French trading posts in India, as well as that of the French navy.  Themes include contact and conflict with native populations, slavery and abolitionism, settler society, the plantation economy, maritime trade, rivalry with other European empires, imperial administration and decolonization.  The principal writing assignment for the term will be an original research paper.  In addition to the five books listed below, readings will include a variety of journal articles (available electronically at no charge).

Goals:  By the end of the term, the student should:

  • Understand broadly the history of French colonialism, naval warfare, maritime trade and commercial policy from the founding of New France to the 1848 Revolution.
  • Understand in particular detail the history of French Canada and the French Caribbean in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
  • Be able to critique a secondary work on early modern French colonialism, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and explain how it fits into the larger historiography.
  • Be able to analyze a primary source on early modern French colonialism, and explain how it could be used to support a particular position in the historiography.
  • Be able to develop and write, at an advanced level, an original historical research paper.

Readings:  Required readings include five books, available through the Portland State Bookstore and on reserve:

  • Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (Harvard UP, 2004).  ISBN: 0-674-01826-5
  • Dull, Jonathan R., The French Navy and the Seven Years’ War (U of Nebraska P, 1995).  ISBN: 0-8032-1731-5
  • Eccles, William John, The French in North America, 1500-1783, rev. edn (Michigan SUP, 1998) [reprinted by Fitzhenry & Whiteside Publishing].  ISBN: 1-55041-076-8
  • Greer, Allan, ed., The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000).  ISBN: 0-312-16707-5
  • Tocqueville, Alexis de, Writings on Empire and Slavery, trans. Jennifer Pitts (Johns Hopkins UP, 2001).  ISBN: 0-8018-7756-3

Getting started:  Our first reading of the term will be:  Eccles, The French in North America.

Contact Prof. Thomas Luckett:

  • Fall term 2005 office hours:  Wed. & Thur., 11:00 AM - 12:00 Noon, 441-i CH.
  • Office phone:  (503) 725-3982.
  • Email:  see faculty directory.

Return.

09/05