Colonial Latin America and the Atlantic World

(4 Credits)

This course introduces students to the colonial origins of Latin America and examines colonialism's lasting impact on the region. It follows the unfolding and demise of a new social order under European rule over a period spanning from the 16th-century conquest through the early 19th-century wars of independence, highlighting international and global connections that shaped this region's social, cultural, and political history. Specific topics covered include Pre-Columbian worlds, Native-European confrontations and negotiations, the Catholic Church and popular religiosity, patriarchy and honor codes, racial dynamics and slavery, the development of capitalism, anti-colonial struggles, imperial rivalry, reform and decline, and colonial legacies.