This course surveys the history of the tropical environment and its diverse peoples from early European encounters until the current boom in extractivism and ecotourism. It focuses on portrayals of the tropics in historical travel accounts and films. Through these sources, we will seek to understand cross-cultural interactions, and the ways in which science, technology, and tourism have reconstructed these environments over time. Case studies are drawn from Latin America, Africa, Oceania, and/or Asia. (Same as HIST 365.)