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

Advanced

This course is designed for students who have completed or tested out of a minimum of four semesters (or six 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.

OBJECTIVES

This course is designed to introduce students to the broad historical trends effecting Latin America from the time of the arrival of European explorers to the present day. The class will examine the political, cultural, religious, and economic factors that have given shape to the region. To amplify these trends, we will consider particular cases in greater depth. The primary objective of this course is to help the student better understand the causes and conditions of the contemporary reality in Latin America.

PROGRAM

I. The Formation of Latin America.

1. The Americas before Columbus: indigenous cultures, the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs.
2. Spain before the Conquest: Moorish Spain, the Reconquest, Los Reyes Católicos and 1492.
3. The “Discovery” and Conquest of the Americas: Journeys of Columbus and Hispaniola, indigenous-European interaction, Hernán Cortés and the Conquest of Mexico, Francisco Pizarro in Peru, and Portugal in Brazil.
4. Colonial Latin America: Government; Latin American Society: effects of conquest on indigenous populations, division of land and labor, miscegenation and social status, African Slavery, the Roman Catholic Church.
5. Economy.

II. Rebellion and Independence

1. Internal and external causes of unrest.
2. Independence movements: Mexico, Simón Bolívar, “The Liberator of the North,” and José de San Martín, “The Liberator of the South.”
3. The new republics: “democracy” and constitutions, the dream of unity, and the rise of caudillismo.

III. The Latin America State and the New Imperialism

1. Liberals vs. Conservatives: liberal constitutions, political stability and economic growth, immigration.
2. Positivism, Oligarchy, and Dictatorship (1880-1929).
3. United States’ imperialism: factors related to political, military, and economic intervention in the Caribbean and Central America.

IV. Revolution and Reform: 20th and 21st centuries.

1. The Mexican Revolution: The Constitution of 1917 and the institutionalized revolution.
2. The Crisis of 1929.
3. Latin America after 1945.
4. The Cuban Revolution (1959 onward): The Socialist island.
5. Chile: Salvador Allende and the Pinochet regime.
7. Economic problems and demographic growth.
8. Society: elite, middle class, and popular sectors; indigenous communities.
9. Democratization and economic development: Argentina and the election of Vicente Fox in Mexico.
10. The promises and pitfalls of populism: Venezuela’s Fifth Republic, Lula in Brazil, Gutiérrez in Ecuador.

EVALUATION

The final grade in the class will be determined as follows:

20% class attendance and participation
40% mid-term exam
40% final exam

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