11 Jun Compare the strengths and weaknesses of primary documents
Compare the strengths and weaknesses of primary documents (chapter 12 “Thinking through
Sources: Early Encounters; First Impressions”) as presented in those accounts but also what can you
infer about those documents. Which source do you think will be more accurate or useful to a
historian? Can the differences tell us anything about the strengths and weaknesses of an eyewitness
account as opposed to secondhand sources? What was the understanding towards cultures they
encountered were they open to understand cultural differences? Then assess which account was a more
useful source for historians or were they both equally useful? Why? What similarities and differences
between the Americas, African, and Asian societies can you glean from these documents? IN what ways
those encounters “foreshadowed” what is to come in terms of future historical development? Conclude by
considering what additional primary sources about those kingdoms/ empires of the fifteenth century
would you like to have? What other perspectives on those empires would be useful for historians?
