HIST 261-01, History of Latin America, 1000 A.D. - 1810, Fall 2009

Abstract

How did early man populate a vast continent that extends from Canada to southern Chile? How could a handful of Europeans conquer a massive land mass and defeat millions of indigenous inhabitants in the process? Did hegemonic Spanish culture and institutions obliterate indigenous societies? And what conditions did Spanish colonialism impose on independence movements? This course connects colonial power, society, economy, and culture by underscoring the uneven manner in which Europeans colonized and organized the New World. Lectures and course readings challenge the reified concepts of “conquerors” and “conquered” and confront preconceived notions about colonial domination. We study conquistadors, priests, colonial functionaries, Indian workers, indigenous nobles, women, mixed-race peoples, and African slaves to understand how they adapted to life under Spanish and Portuguese rule, struggled to resist social and cultural domination, and produced entirely new cultural fusions that exist to this day. The course covers a number of important themes: Early settlement patterns in the Americas The Mayan, Aztec, and Inca Societies Myths of the Spanish Conquest Racial Mixture, Identity, and Social Mobility Important Colonial Institutions (Encomienda, Crown, Church, etc.) The Texture of Daily Colonial Life The Age of Revolution Beyond the North Atlantic Colonial Rupture and the Prelude to IndependenceLectures, readings, writing assignments, and exams help you conceptualize history as an active, guiding narrative that has empowered and shaped modern change and response to new global interactions and intertwinement in the New World.