HIST-274 Captain Cook and the Pacific (3)

The three voyages of maritime exploration undertaken by James Cook in the eighteenth century have been told and retold for more than 250 years. Each generation has tailored its stories to its particular time, place, and agenda, resulting in many different versions of Cook, his ships and crew, and the impact of his visits on native peoples throughout the Pacific. This course explores the story of Captain Cook yet again, informed by the latest scholarly insights and research. It strives to understand, as much as possible, the perspective and agency of native peoples throughout the Pacific who suddenly encountered these strange white men on massive wooden ships. The course examines histories and culture before Cook, how they interpreted the arrival of Europeans, how they interacted with them (and why), and what happened to them after Cook left. Though the chief focus is on Cook’s three voyages (1768-71, 1772-75, 1776-80), the course also examines phenomena such as political alliances, trade, sex and disease, kidnapping and slavery, perceptions of savagery and paradise, competing systems of property rights, the high drama of first encounters, and the modern-day legacies and fates of the many places and peoples once touched by Cook’s ships. AU Core Habits of Mind: Socio-Historical Inquiry.