Research Guides: HIST 114: Origins of the Global South (HC): Historical Background

Historical Background Sources

Subject encyclopedias provide overviews of ideas, people, and events They are a quick way to find out the basic facts and current points of debate. When using an article in an encyclopedia or handbook, always check the bibliography for further reading at the end of the article. It will provide a selective list of the books, articles, and, sometimes, primary sources.

Encyclopedia of Latin American history and culture
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Provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary view of Latin American history and culture from prehistoric times to the present.
Encyclopedia of world history
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Overview of events and cultural and political developments by region and time period. Includes charts of dynasties and rulers.
Encyclopedia of world trade
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This reference on the history of trade in all time periods traces the historical and contemporary interaction of trade, commerce, and culture in detail.
New encyclopedia of Africa
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This online reference work presents articles in anthropology, geography, history, and cultural studies by an international team of more than 600 distinguished Africanists.
Oxford Encyclopedia of Mexican History and Culture
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This new work provides a compendium of the best available scholarship on Mexico. Themes include politics and economics, combined with powerful articles on biography, environment, gender, and culture, including music, art, and cinema. Unique to this work are articles on digital sources.
Oxford encyclopedia of women in world history
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Comprehensively covers the role women have played throughout world history. Contains biographies of influential women and topical articles covering subjects in gender studies and social history.

Literature Reviews

In a literature review the author writes an overview of a topic from the point of view of the research that has been done. The author analyzes the arguments in individual books and journal articles to build a narrative about the themes that have been articulated, areas which need further investigation, and questions which do not yet have a consensus among scholars.
For your project, a literature review can give you a headstart on understanding your topic in much greater depth. It also point out books and journal articles which are the most relevant and of the highest quality.
See the resources below for literature reviews in specific academic disciplines.

History Compass
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Relevant articles include:
"As Historical Subjects: The African Diaspora in Colonial Latin American History" by Rachel Sarah O'Toole (2013) in History Compass
"Building History: Historiography of Architectural History in South Asia" by Pushkar Sohoni (2018) in History Compass
"A Trail of Precious Goods: Colonial Latin American Commodity History" by Joan Bristol (2013) in History Compass
"Ivory in World History – Early Modern Trade in Context" by Martha Chaiklin (2010) in History Compass

Other Compass journals, like Religion Compass, may have useful articles as well.
If you don't find a relevant literature review in History Compass and its associated journals, check for material in Oxford Bibliographies and Dissertations and Theses (see below).
Oxford Bibliographies Online
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The Oxford Bibliographies series provides extensive annotated source lists on specific topics in many different fields. They are written by scholars with the aim of introducing students to important issues and key authors. The different subject sections are all under development with new essays added twice a year.
Essays of potential interest for this class include:
"Islamic Art and Architecture in North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula" by Jonathan Bloom
"Architecture" (In the Islamic Studies section) by Walter Denny
"Philippines Under Spanish Rule, 1571-1898" by Edward R. Slack
"Asian Art and Its Impact in the Americas, 1565–1840" by Dennis Carr
"Castas" by Rachel O'Toole
"Early Colonial Forms of Native Expression in Mexico and Peru" by Lori Boornazian Diel
"Europe and the Globe, 1350-1700" by Julie Berger Hochstrasser
"Painting in New Spain, 1521-1820" by Aaron Hyman and Barbara E. Mundy
"Spanish Colonial Decorative Arts, 1500-1825" by Jorge F. Rivas-Pérez
"Trade Networks" by Francesco Guidi Bruscoli
"Visual Art and Representation" by Susan Scott Parrish. Focuses on the early modern Atlantic world.
Dissertations and Theses
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Doctoral students go through an exhaustive literature search when writing their dissertations. They also tend to work on new questions, sometimes ones that have received very little attention from scholars before. You can obtain these dissertations and benefit from the bibliographies and new ideas.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses is a collection of doctoral and masters' theses in the Humanities and Social Sciences many of which are available full-text.

Handbooks

The Cambridge World History by Merry Wiesner-Hanks (Editor); Sanjay Subrahmanyam (Editor); Jerry H. Bentley (Editor)
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ISBN: 9780521761628
Publication Date: 2015-04-09
The era from 1400 to 1800 saw intense biological, commercial, and cultural exchanges, and the creation of global connections on an unprecedented scale. Divided into two books, Volume 6 of The Cambridge World History considers these critical transformations.
See relevant essays including:
"The First Global Dialogues: Inter-cultural Relations, 1400–1800
"The Organization of Trade in Europe and Asia, 1400–1800"
"Silver in Global Context, 1400–1800 "
A Companion to Renaissance and Baroque Art by Babette Bohn; James M. Saslow
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ISBN: 1444337262
Publication Date: 2013-03-04
This Companion focuses on European art produced between 1300 and 1700, presenting a variety of thematic essays written by art historian experts to give an overview of the broad topic. Note in particular these pieces "Europe's Global Vision" and "Iconography in Renaissance and Baroque Art." Also available as an ebook.
The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, 1350-1750 by Hamish Scott (Editor)
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ISBN: 9780199597253
Publication Date: 2015-09-23
This two-volume set analyzes a broad range of crucial topics and provides select bibliographies of authoritative sources. Essays of special interest include:
"Colonial Societies"
"Iberian Empires"
"Trade and the 'Global Economy'"
The Oxford Handbook of the History of Consumption by Frank Trentmann (Editor)
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ISBN: 9780199561216
Publication Date: 2012-06-16
Essays that may be relevant for your project include:
Luxury, the luxury trades and the roots of industrial growth : a global perspective / Maxine Berg
Sites of consumption in early modern Europe / Evelyn Welch
Transatlantic consumption / Michelle Craig McDonald
The Oxford Handbook of the Atlantic World by Nicholas Canny (Editor); Philip Morgan (Editor)
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ISBN: 9780199210879
Publication Date: 2011-05-19
The essays in this volume provide an overview of Atlantic history from c.1450 to c.1850, offering a wide-ranging and authoritative account of the movement of people, plants, pathogens, products, and cultural practices-to mention some of the key agents--around and within the Atlantic basin. As a result of these movements, new peoples, economies, societies, polities, and cultures arose in the lands and islands touched by the Atlantic Ocean, while others were destroyed.
The Oxford Handbook of the Baroque by John D. Lyons
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ISBN: 9780190678449
Publication Date: 2019-09-05
Many essays present the Baroque as a broad cultural phenomenon that arose in response to the enormous changes emerging from the 16th century: the division between Catholics and Protestants, the formation of nation-states and the growth of absolutist monarchies, the colonization of lands outside Europe and the mutual impact of European and non-European cultures.
See in particular:
"Decentering the European imaginary: a Baroque taste for India"
"Ibero-American architecture and urbanism"
"Ottoman Baroque"

Studies for Background

Goods from the East, 1600-1800 by Maxine Berg (Editor); Felicia Gottman (As told to); Hanna Hodacs (As told to); Chris Nierstrasz (As told to)
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ISBN: 9781137403933
Publication Date: 2015-07-31
The imperative of European trade, from the age of exploration, was to acquire the goods of the exotic East – the silks and porcelains and tea of China, the spices of the spice islands and the textiles of India. This book provides a full comparative and connective study of Asia's trade with a range of European countries. The essays explore different connections between European consumer cultures and Asian trade during the early modern era.
The Namban Trade: Merchants and Missionaries in 16th and 17th Century Japan by Mihoko Oka
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ISBN: 9789004463837
Publication Date: 2021-06-17
This book focuses on the Portuguese trade in East Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries, the so-called Namban trade, by analysing the activities of the merchants and Christian missionaries involved.
A Red Like No Other by Carmella Padilla (Editor); Barbara Anderson (Editor);
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Publication Date: 2015-09-01
In the 1520s, Spanish explorers found a perfect red in the grand Aztec markets--in a dye derived from the cochineal insect. The ensuing global spread of American cochineal changed art, culture, science, and trade for centuries. The images show how the colorant touched cultures and artists worldwide.