HIST 214 - Latin American History (3)

The course traces the history of Latin America from the pre-contact period until the present, highlighting a series of pertinent issues that have had a profound effect on modern-day Latin America. In the colonial period, the course will focus on the nature of indigenous societies, the mentalities and aims behind Spanish and Portuguese interactions with these societies, the rise of the slave trade, colonial social history, the Bourbon / Pombal reforms, and independence from Spain. In the national period, the course will focus on U.S. intervention in Latin America, the comparative role of race, 19th century economic expansion, 20th century revolutions, industrialization, and Latin America’s political ideologies.