This set of lectures will provide a basic introduction to hyperbolic systems of conservation laws in one space dimension. The main topics covered will be: Meaning of the conservation equations and definition of weak solutions. Shocks, Rankine-Hugoniot equations and admissibility conditions. The Riemann problem. Wave interaction estimates. Weak solutions to the Cauchy problem with small BV data. Uniqueness and continuous dependence. Vanishing viscosity approximations. Some counter-examples to global existence, uniqueness, and continuous dependence of solutions, when some key hypotheses are removed.