Description

This course surveys the history of Latin America from its pre-conquest cultures to its fractured independence.  Its an exciting history containing events that have radically changed the world: Columbus= discovery of half of the world, the conquest and decimation of indigenous civilizations, the exploitation of the world=s richest mines of silver and gold, the creation of the commercial slave system which involved the forced movement of millions of Africans, piracy, rebellion, foreign invasion and war: all combine to make a fascinating tale.

But its often a difficult tale to tell. Latin America is a bigger, more diverse place than North America, with hundreds of ethnic, racial, and cultural fissures. The biggest divide is between Spanish America and Portuguese America, and there are wrenching regional discrepancies within even these. Brazil itself was referred to in the plural, the Brazils, well into the 19^th century, and “Latin America” as a place didn’t exist until rather recently. The Caribbean, with its multinational colonization, is the extreme case. But there is a political logic in looking at the region as a whole. The colonial period was dominated by Iberians, and hence the history ties itself unmistakably to the royal houses of Spain and Portugal. Culturally there is less logic, but even here, the ways that Iberians, Indians and Africans combined, and recombined, to make new societies, have parallels across the region, and the exceptions tend to elucidate more than confuse.

In sum, this is the story of how three peoples, Europeans, Americans and Africans, over three centuries, came together, fought, murdered, coerced, adapted, adopted, cohabited and married. Columbus did not discover the New World; he happened upon another old world. A ANew World@ was created by the process of Latin America=s colonization. Our task will be to uncover how this New World was created and examine its consequences for the experience of diverse peoples. Many historians agree that an understanding of today’s Latin America can only be achieved by looking at its colonial foundations. There has been much continuity. Latin America’s past sometimes looks more like a mirror than a memory. And change in the region, thus far, has been significantly shaped and limited by the past.

 

Readings

[BJ] Burkholder & Johnson, Colonial Latin America, 5^th ed., Oxford, 2004. ISBN: 0-19-515685-4

[H]  Hanke, Lewis, People and Issues in Latin American History: Colonial Experience, Marcus Weiner, 2000. ISBN: 1-55876-234-5

Léry, Jean de. History of a Voyage to the Land of Brazil. U. of California, 1990. ISBN: 0-520-08274-5

Schwartz, Stuart B. ed. Victors and Vanquished: Spanish and Nahua Views of the Conquest. Bedford / St. Martins, 2000. ISBN: 0-312-39355-5

Socolow, Susan Migden. The Women of Colonial Latin America. Cambridge University Press: 2000. ISBN: 0-521-47642-9

 

Course Requirements

Quizzes Apop@ occasionally to promote diligence in daily readings. No make-ups.

You will write three 750 word Book Responses (on De Léry, Schwartz, and Socolow) due at the beginning of the class session in which we discuss them. The responses should be your personal reaction to and analysis of each work, not a report of what they contain. It=s best to focus on a single theme/idea you found interesting, or to address a single question: (e.g., How did Tupi Indians (or French Calvinists) relate to the natural world? How do Aztec and Spanish accounts of the conquest differ in expressing cosmology (or social relationships, or cause and effect)?) Our TA will grade the book responses.

On a topic of your choice, you will write a Research Paper. It is worth more than either the midterm or final. In preparation, you will submit to me a one-page (single spaced) Proposal in which you should present a well-defined, narrowly focused question that the paper will answer. You cannot write even an average paper if you attempt a topic that is too broad, even if you are the best writer in the class. Narrow it. As examples of narrow topic questions: Which Aztec gods survived the conquest, and why? What happened to Lake Texcoco? What role did dogs play in the conquest? What was the social status of free blacks in Haiti? What was the fate of Indians, who by choice or force, went to Europe?) Your topic must be historical, Latin American, and colonial (1500-1824). List the sources from which you intend to get the answer. For non-majors, secondary sources (an ample selection of scholarly books and articles in reputable journals) will be sufficient, but for history majors, the use of some primary source material is an expectation. Feel free to talk to me about proposal topics, and I will, of course, make comments and suggestions on the proposals, and some I will not approve without changes. The research paper itself must be footnoted and have an attached bibliography. As part of the research, you must read at least one book from the end-of-chapter bibliographies in Burkholder. Other research, books and articles, should be more narrowly focused on your topic. The paper must be formatted as follows: 8-10 pages (more or less will be penalized), 11 point, Courier font, with 1" margins all around. The authors of papers I think most interesting to fellow classmates will be given 12 minutes to present their research in class. Test material for the final will be taken from these presentations. I will read and grade the term papers.

The best finding tools for books and articles on Latin American history are Historical Abstracts (ABC-Clio), which has very helpful abstracts and often full text links; The Handbook of Latin American Studies HLAS which also abstracts books and articles; and the Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) which has articles and book reviews, the latter of which can be very helpful in seeing what a book is about and its historiographical place. All these indexes can be accessed through the Harold B. Lee library site (select Latin America in the drop down list under “Find Articles by Subject.”

No-Excuse, Late-Paper Policy: Assignments will be late if not turned in at beginning of class on day they are due. Late papers will be accepted up to one week late, with a small penalty of 5%.  No excuse can remove that penalty, so don=t make one.

Plagiarism: All your work must be your own. Borrowing papers, lifting texts from digital sources, paper mills, and etc., are all egregious forms of plagiarism. Nor can you self-plagiarize. All course work must be created solely for this course. Infractions result in course failure and report to the Honor Code Office.

There will be one midterm, consisting of a variety of formats, and a similar final. The final will be Wednesday, December 20^th, 11-2pm. You must be there (if you cannot, drop the course).

 

Grading: Quizzes, 1%; Book Responses, 24% (8% each); Term Paper, 30%; Midterm 20%; Final 25%.

COURSE SCHEDULE

 

September
Tu 05	Course Introduction
Th 07	Aztecs: Central Mexico BJ: 1‑18; Schwartz 1-12; Aztecs and Cannibalism Start de Léry
Tu 12	Inca: Pre‑Columbian Andes BJ: 18‑23; H: Was Inca Rule Tyrannical?, 61-; Leon, 68-; De La Vega, 75-; Hanke, 82-.
Th 14	Columbus' Iberia BJ: 23‑33; H: Columbus Intro, 1-; Lomax, 15-.
Tu 19	Tupi: Pre‑Columbian Brazil Léry, chs. 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, 14‑19 Book Response Due Start Schwartz
Th 21	Columbus= New World and Early Contacts BJ: 33‑40; H: Columbus, 25-; Wilford, 33-.
Tu 26	Viral Conquest and Columbian Exchange BJ: 71-80;  H: Phillips, 42-; Crosby, 51-. Léry: read any one chapter of 10-13
Th 28	Conquest of Mexico BJ: 44‑52 Schwartz, entire; Book Response Due
October
Tu 03	Course of Conquest and Early Settlement BJ: 52‑71; H: Patterns of Conquest, 99-; Las Casas, 102; Clendinnen, 127-; Armond, 136-.
Th 05	Administrative Conquest BJ: 83‑96; H: New Laws, 156-. Proposal Due
Tu 10	Spiritual Conquest BJ: 96‑108; H: Requirement, 153-; Vieira’s Nheengaibas, 264-.
Th 12	Indians as Labor BJ: 111‑32; Repartos; H: Spanish Stuggle for Justice, 143-146; Hanke, 181-; Vieira, 251-.
Tu 17	Mines of Silver and Gold BJ: 144‑50, 170‑79, 296‑98; H: Hanke, 319-.
Th 19	African Slaves: Origins and Trade BJ: 132‑36; H: Intro. of African Slavery, 189-194; Gerhard, 210-. Olaudah Equiano; Mittleberger on Indenture
Tu 24	Midterm Covers up to "Slave Trade” lecture
Th 26	Slavery: Institution and Influence BJ: 136-41; Andre Antonil; H: Davidson, 222-; Kent, 269-.
Tu 31	Agriculture: Plantations and Haciendas BJ: 150‑53, 298-300 How=s the paper coming?
November
Th 02	Fleets, Treasure and Piracy BJ: 153‑70; Buccaneers; H: Boxer, 242-. Start Socolow
Tu 07	Society: Classes and Castas BJ: ch. 6; Mestizos; H: Chipman, 282-; Ulloa, 314-.
Th 09	Colonial Life and Culture BJ: 235-41, 244-76;  H: Leonard, 303-.
Tu 14	Women and Family Socolow, entire; Book Response Due
Th 16	Environmental Change and Response BJ: 235-244; Miller, “Mangroves” How’s the paper coming?
Thanksgiving Holiday (Tuesday is a Friday)
Tu 28	Bourbon and Pombaline Reforms BJ: 280‑96, 303-330
Th 30	Precursors to Independence BJ: 301-03, 330-49; H: Crisis and Climax, 337-; Martin, 340-; Keen, 346-. Research Paper Due
December
Tu 05	Bolivar Liberates a Continent BJ: 349-63; Simon Bolivar
Th 07	Mexican and Brazilian Independence BJ: 363-77;  H: Humphreys, 386-.
Tu 12	Student Paper Presentations
Th 14	The Colonial Legacy BJ: 377-87;  H: Powell, 377-; Stein, 382-.
Final Exam, Wednesday, Dec. 20th, 11-2pm.