Notes regarding credits...

This course consists of 40 hours of instruction. However, students may earn 45 hours by attending supplemental sessions and completing additional coursework. Please check with your home university to find out whether you need 40 or 45 hours to earn course equivalents.

Note: A placement exam will be required when you arrive on site.

High Advanced

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of five semesters (or seven quarters) of college-level Spanish. However, students must take a placement exam to determine the course level into which they will be able to enroll.

I. Introduction
The objective of this course is to aid the student obtain a better understanding of the causes and conditions of contemporary reality in Latin America. This course studies the historical development of Latin American countries from independence until present-day. The most relevant aspects of nationality will be studied: the formation of the State, political evolution, the social classes, the economic areas, not to mention burning questions such as the demographic boom, the external debt, and the indigenous "problem".
II.Course Content
1. Periodization of contemporary Latin American history. - Problems and criteria of periodization. - The great periods of contemporary history. - General
characteristics.
2. Independence. - Internal and external causes. - Phases of the independence movement. - The thought of Simon Bolivar.
3. Caudillismo and militarism. - Origins and significance. - The Personalist regimes. - Towards the formation of the State.
4. Reformism and liberalism in Latin America. - The liberal constitutions. - Political stability and economic growth. - Immigration and colonization of unpopulated areas.
5. Positivism, Oligarchy, and Dictatorship: characteristics of the period (1880-1929). - Consolidation of the Oligarchy project. - Political evolution.
6. Imperialism and United States' intervention. - Factors determining expansion. - Political, military, and economic intervention. - The Caribbean and Central America under the eye of the United States.
7. The Mexican Revolution. - Ideological platforms. - The Constitution of 1917. - The institutionalized revolution.
8. The crisis of 1929 in Latin America. - Origins of the phenomenon. Crisis
and new economic organization. - The Authoritarian and Pro-fascist regimes.
9. Latin America after 1945. The political question. - The political forces and parties. - The Populists and the military dictatorship. - The revolutionary ways.
10. The structure of contemporary society. - Demographic growth. - Elite, middle class, and popular sectors. - Indigenous society.
11. The structure of the contemporary economy (1). - Latifundium and agrarian reform. - Industrialization and foreign inversion. - The external debt.
III.Activities
The student should follow the professor's instructions in class, as well as participate in class discussions. Optionally, the student could complete a short paper or essay about a subject covered in the class.
IV.Evaluation
The student will be evaluated as follows:
- Attention and participation in class, up to 20%
- Compoetion of the optional work, up to 10%.
- Fulfillment of the final exam, up to 70%.
V.Bibliography
LUCENA SALMORAL, M., Historia de Iberoamérica (Edad Contemporanea), Madrid, Cátedra, 1991.
CÉSPEDES DEL CASTILLO, Guillermo, La independencia de Iberoamérica Biblioteca Iberoamericana, 10, Madrid, Anaya, 1989.
HALPERIN DONGHI, Tulio, Historia contemporánea de América Latina, Madrid, Alianza Editorial, 1992.
BEYHAUT, Gustavo y Helene, América Latina III. De la independencia a la segunda guerra mundial, Historia Universal Siglo XXI, vol. 23, Madrid,1986.