The Conquest of America
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this anthropology course on the European conquest and colonization of the Americas, focusing on native peoples in Guatemala, Canada, Brazil, Panama, and colonial New England. Two case studies anchor the syllabus: Jesuit missionization of the Huron in the 1630s and the conflict between the Panamanian government and the Kuna from 1900 to 1925. Students work directly with primary sources, letters, reports, and court records, to build their own interpretations rather than accept a single narrative. The course also asks how historians and anthropologists come to know and represent past eras and other peoples, treating documentation itself as a subject of study. Materials include the full syllabus, readings, and assignments as published by MIT, free to access with no certificate attached. The course is useful for anyone interested in colonial history, ethnohistory, or the methods used to reconstruct the experience of conquered peoples from archival fragments.