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International diplomacy, missionary work, mercantilism, and opportunistic exploration all define the permeable borders of the Early Modern world. Between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europeans came in contact with diverse societies along the Silk Road into East Asia, down the Gold Coast of Africa, and along the eastern coastlines of North and South America. This course addresses the evolving worldview of European societies, and the material and iconographic frameworks that shaped these cross-cultural contacts. This class confronts the lenses of interpretation Europeans used to comprehend these encounters—from ancient sculptures, to nascent racial classifications, and biblical figures—that reveal the limits of European knowledge within an ever-expanding world.