HIST 231 - The Origins of Modern Diplomacy, 1350-1850

FC SSCI CD

4 credits
Beginning with the emergence of the permanent embassy in fourteenth-century Italy, this course examines the origins of our modern diplomatic institutions and cultures. Alongside “traditional” elements of statecraft such as the foreign office, treaty conventions and ambassadors, course materials will also highlight the agency of sub-state and non-state actors and networks within the process of diplomacy, such as merchants and prisoners. Major themes also include cross-cultural encounters between European and Indigenous polities in this period, the overlapping scales of diplomacy, and the role of race, gender, and kinship.