HST 208 - The Inquisition

Course unit(s): 1
Meets GAR (students beginning prior to Fall 2024): Meets general academic requirement DE and HU.
This course explores the origins of the Inquisition, its place in the Spanish Reconquista, and its role in Colonial Spanish and Portuguese America. The institutional dynamics influenced religious, economic, political, and socio-cultural organization - particularly in the New World - and we will trace the diverse investigations of Jews, Africans, Spanish, Portuguese, mestizos, and women. The course relies heavily on inquisitorial records and unearths the prosecution of indigenous idolatry, the persecution of Jews, and the roles of race and gender in tribunal sentencing.