Modern Latin America: 1780 to the Present

Independent Latin American nations emerged from the Age of Revolutions and the collapse of the Iberian empires. The new states and societies launched an era of experimentation and volatility, shaped by unresolved tensions between the persistence of the ways of the old regime and a penchant for social democracy; between a reliance on resource endowments and a modernizing drive; between dependence on new emerging powers and attempts to attain full sovereignty, and between the precariousness of everyday life for the majority and the obscene wealth of the few.

This paper offers an introduction to major processes and questions in the history of postcolonial Latin America. It unfolds in chronological fashion, from the early anti-colonial struggles of the late eighteenth century until the multiple crises of the present. Geographically, it ranges from the north of Mexico to Patagonia and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. The analysis will pay attention to the interaction of historical processes at a diversity of spatial and temporal scales, from local histories to transnational and global influences, from the geological longue durée to the minutiae of decisive episodes.

The paper revisits the backbone of the social and political history of the region. However, it also departs from traditional Latin American history surveys in three critical ways: 1) Every session is framed comparatively, paying attention to both the former Spanish colonies and Brazil; 2) It privileges an environmental perspective, often de-emphasizing the nation-state as the sole unit of analysis; 3) It explicitly centres ethnic, class, and gender inequalities. For analytical purposes, to capture some of the historical texture and to explore key facets of the historical craft, we will engage with a range of scholarly works, but will also work directly historical documents, textual and visual, including published memoirs, judicial documents, paintings, photographs, films, music, and more.

By the end of the course, students will have acquired a broad understanding of the major processes, periods, and social actors of the history of modern Latin America. They will be familiar with key academic debates about Latin American history in the social sciences. They will also be capable of critically engaging primary documents about the region.