Introduction to Modern Latin American History

Catalog description

This course studies Latin America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, including independence movements, slavery and emancipation, political conflicts, revolutions, working class movements, populisms, state terrorism and dirty war, and the rises and falls of democracy. This course will explore how diverse individuals, including Europeans, indigenous people, Afro-Latin Americans, mestizos, men, women, military members, working classes, and members of the campesino classes have both shaped and experienced history differently. Through a combination of lectures, discussion, and written assignments, students will gain knowledge of modern Latin American history as well as proficiency in developing historical thinking and historical arguments. We will move beyond the "what happened" to explore the questions of why and how Latin American history has unfolded as it has, including how global forces have reverberated at the local level.