Global Histories of Plants and Empire, c

This course provides a broad introduction to global history as it relates to science, medicine, and empire. In particular, we will explore the relationships between plants and empires in the early modern period. The course will predominantly focus on the colonial empires of early modern Europe (the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, French, and British), but will also incorporate case studies from the Mughal, Ottoman, Qing, and Russian empires. Broadly, we will analyze how much the desire for particular plants influenced and motivated imperial projects and assess the impacts of these projects on the natural world. We will evaluate the ways in which plants and knowledge about plants traveled, or failed to travel, and the labor involved in these processes in the context of empire. Finally, we will think about the shifting meanings and uses of plants over time and how this impacts our study of them.