This course introduces you to the history of colonial Latin America. It generally proceeds chronologically but is organized thematically. As the overarching theme, the concept of hegemony will be our near constant focus throughout the semester. We will observe countless examples in the readings, lectures, and discussions of how the Spanish and Portuguese imposed colonial rule on Latin America by force, and how people in Latin America fiercely resisted that imposition. But we will be especially attentive to the processes, institutions, and ideologies through which the colonial elite consolidated its power indirectly, through more or less peaceful means that allowed them to control political power and subordinate different social groups. Thus, the course will be as much about the political, economic, social, and legal systems that characterized colonial Latin America as it will be about how different groups—merchants, planters, bureaucrats, slaves, indigenous peoples, peasants, people of African descent, women, men, Spaniards, creoles, and individuals in a variety of other configurations—confronted those systems through resistance and accommodation.
- Teacher: Leandro Benmergui