LALS 263 - Conquest and Borderlands in Colonial Latin America

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

(Same as HIST 263) This course explores the history of colonial Latin America by centering conquests and borderlands. Beginning with examples in the ancient Americas and continuing through the end of the 18th century, this course explores the ideas, practices, and experiences that shaped the long-term processes of conquering territory, as well as the parallel processes of creating “borderlands” in the places that conquering powers failed to reach. Class materials draw from a range of academic, literary, and primary sources, and class discussions cover topics such as: the Aztec Empire and its war with the Spanish; the Canary Islands and early precedents of Spanish conquests; the Philippines and Latin America’s Asian borderlands; the indigenous Comanche Empire and North American borderlands; the afro-indigenous Mosquito Confederation and Caribbean borderlands; and the indigenous Mapuche Nation and South American borderlands. Accordingly, this class addresses the questions: what is a conquest? What are borderlands? How have conquests shaped the history of Latin America? How do borderlands call into question traditional narratives of conquest? And what is at stake in questioning conquest narratives today? Daniel Mendiola.

Two 2-hour periods.

Course Format: CLS