Course Outline for History 33
Modern Latin America

Effective: Fall 2018
SLO Rev: 11/22/2017
Catalog Description:

HIS 33 - Modern Latin America

3.00 Units

This introductory course provides an overview to twentieth-century Latin American history with a focus on the social circumstances and experience of people across social classes. We will consider how larger processes of change such as urbanization, revolution, civil war and U.S. intervention have all critically shaped everyday life in this region. Yet we will also focus on how Latin Americans have adapted and responded to these forces using an assortment of strategies. This course will seek to develop a critical perspective of modern Latin America by interpreting diverse forms of representation such as feature films, documentaries, literature, memoirs, and testimonios.
2205.00 - History
Letter Grade Only
Type Units Inside of Class Hours Outside of Class Hours Total Student Learning Hours
Lecture 3.00 54.00 108.00 162.00
Total 3.00 54.00 108.00 162.00
Measurable Objectives:
Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. demonstrate critical thinking and analytical skills by utilizing methods of inquiry used by historians;
  2. recognize the significance of primary and secondary sources and how to interpret them appropriately;
  3. integrate geographical knowledge with cultural and historical knowledge to assess the development of an modern Latin America;
  4. examine, evaluate, and discuss the experiences, roles, achievements, and contributions of Indigenous European, and African people in Latin America from the nineteenth-century to the present;
  5. examine the role of women and their participation in liberation movements and their struggles for equality and representation in Latin American political, social, and economic systems;
  6. examine the role of Afro-latinos/as and their participation in liberation movements and their struggles for equality and representation in Latin American political, social, and economic systems;
  7. assess the historical roots of racism and patriarchy, and the impact on ethnic conflict in modern Latin America;
  8. analyze the historical roots of movements of liberation and their connection to U.S. intervention.
Course Content:

I. Brief review of Indigenous societies and the European conquest

A. Spanish Empire and the establishment of slavery

B. Christianization and land dispossession of Indigenous peoples

C. Wars of independence

II. Building independent societies

A. U.S. Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny

B. Independent and looming U.S. intervention

III. Revolutions and transformations in emerging Latin American nations

A. Development of Export-Import economies in Latin America

B. Displacement of indigenous peoples

IV. The Mexican Revolution

A. Ricardo Flores Magón

B. Transnationalism

B. The Russian Revolution

V. Populist reforms facilitate the contemporary social, economic, and political structures

A. Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, and Mexico

B. U.S. interventions

VI. WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII

A. Nationalistic resistance and response to U.S. intervention

B. Creation of regional production and trade programs

C. World War II and the new order:  world economy

VII. The Cuban Revolution

A. Spanish American War

B. Batista dictatorship and the role of the U.S.

C. July 26th revolutionary movement

D. The Legacy of Fidel Castro

VIII. Latin American revolutionary movements

A. Salvador Allende – Chile’s transition to socialism

B. The Pinochet Regime

C. Nicaraguan Revolution

D. Salvadorian Revolution

IX. Neo-liberalism and the New World Order

A. U.S. strategies in Latin America

B. The "Washington Consensus"?

X. Mexico's Indigenous movement

A. EZLN - Zapatista Guerrilla Movement

B. Sub Comandante Marcos

C. A New alternative to armed revolution

Methods of Instruction:
  1. Lecture/Discussion
  2. Research project
  3. Online Assignments
  4. Textbook reading assignments
  5. Written assignments
  6. Oral and Written Analysis
  7. Distance Education
Assignments and Methods of Evaluating Student Progress:
  1. Actively participate in weekly discussions regarding primary source reading assignments.
  2. Write five 1-page writing reflections based on primary source reading assignments throughout the semester.
  3. Take an in-class midterm exam covering the first half of the course material, including ID terms and short essay questions.
  4. Write a 5-page paper which compares & contrasts the circumstances and social trajectory of at least two Latin American countries.
  5. Write a 5-page paper which assesses the contours and characteristics of one major social revolutionary movement in Latin America in the twentieth-century.
  6. Take a final in-class cumulative exam, with a focus on second half of class materials, including ID terms, short essay questions and quote identifications.
  1. Class Participation
  2. Exams/Tests
  3. Homework
  4. Online Assignments
  5. Written assignments
  6. Papers
  7. Final Examination
Upon the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the formation of new nations in Latin America and the social, political, and economic struggles those countries faced to move beyond the colonial period.
  2. Assess U.S. intervention in Latin America and how those circumstances have shaped repressive regimes and national identity.
  3. Evaluate the role of popular culture as a mode of political and social resistance.
  4. Distinguish between primary and secondary sources as historical evidence.
Textbooks (Typical):
  1. Burkholder, Mark, Monica Rankin, and Lyman L. Johnson (2017). Exploitation, Inequality, and Resistance: A History of Latin America since Columbus Oxford University Press.
  2. Taffet, Jeffrey and Dustin Walcher (2017). The United States and Latin America: A History with Documents Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.
  3. Skidmore, Thomas E., Peter H. Smith, and James N. Green (2013). Modern Latin America (8th). Oxford University Press.
  • n/a
Abbreviated Class Schedule Description:
This introductory course provides an overview of twentieth-century Latin American history, focusing on social circumstances and experiences of people across social classes. We will consider how processes of change such as urbanization, revolution, civil war and U.S. intervention have critically shaped everyday life in this region. We will also focus on how Latin Americans have adapted and responded to these forces using an assortment of strategies.
Discipline:
History*