James Krippner
Hall 215
610-896-1049 (office)
jkrippne@haverford.edu
Office Hours: Hall 215, Weds. 2-4.
History 209a: Colonial Latin America
From Conquest to Independence
MWF 10:30 - 11:30 DC 003
Course Description:
Are you interested in understanding Latin America? If so, you must understand
the colonial era. Spanish and Portuguese rule of the region lasted more than
three centuries--in most countries from 1492 until the early 1820’s, and
in Cuba and Puerto Rico until 1898--and the legacies of colonial rule have conditioned
social relations, economic life, culture, and political struggle up until the
present. This course will provide a thorough introduction to the history of
colonial Latin America, while also examining the lingering influences of the
colonial experience.
The instructor believes that the best teaching leads people to learn for themselves.
We will strive for that goal in this course. I respect your independent intellectual
capacity, but also demand that you think hard and well. In my view, the study
of history is fascinating because of the conflicts, debates and new synthesis
that arise as we engage in dialogue with a past we can never fully recover.
At its best, our classroom will provide a collaborative and respectful forum
that embraces this process, allowing us to develop our intellects while we refine
our skills at oral and written expression.
Do you believe that rigorous intellectual work, although sometimes difficult
and even dull, should also include fun and variety? If so, this course is for
you. Course materials include historical analysis written by scholars, documents
(in translation) that ask you to be the historian, literature using fiction
and fantasy to understand the past, and two very interesting films.
Required Readings
The following books are available for purchase in the Haverford College bookstore.
They have also been placed on reserve in Magill Library. The books--all available
in paperback editions--have been listed in the order they will be used in the
class.
- Chasteen, John Charles. Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin
America. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.
- Mills, Kenneth and William Taylor. Colonial Spanish America: A Documentary History.
Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 1998.
- Las Casas, Bartolomé de. A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.
London: Penguin, 1992.
- Manzano, Juan Francisco. Autobiography of a Slave/Autobiografía de un
esclavo. Introduction and Modernized Spanish Version by Ivan A. Schulman. Translated
by Evelyn Picon Garfield. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996.
- Wachtel, Nathan. Gods and Vampires. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994.
A copy of the following required articles and book chapters have been placed
on reserve at Haverford Magill library. These also can be accessed electronically
through the library website. They are listed in the order that they will first
be used in the class.
- Julio Cortázar, “The Night Face Up.” In End of the Game and
Other Stories, trans. Paul Blackburn (New York, 1967), 66-76.
- Bauer, Arnold. “The Material Landscape of Pre-Columbian America.”
In Goods, Power, History: Latin America’s Material Culture. Cambridge and
New York, Cambridge University Press, 2001, 15-45.
- Scott, John F. “Chapter Four: Empires and Integration.” In Latin American
Art: Ancient to Modern. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1999, 91-138.
- Keen, Benjamin and Keith Haynes. “The Hispanic Background.” In A History
of Latin America. Sixth Edition. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.
37-51.
- Hulme, Peter. “Caribs and Arawaks.” In Colonial Encounters: Europe
and the Native Caribbean 1492-1797, 45-87. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.
- Seed, Patricia. The Requirement.” In Ceremonies of Possession In Europe’s
Conquest of the New World 1492-1640, 41-68. Cambridge, New York and Melbourne:
Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- Trouillot, Michel-Rolph. “Chapter 4: Good Day, Columbus.” In Silencing
The Past: Power and the Production of History, 108-140. Boston: Beacon Press,
1995.
- Crosby, Alfred W. “The Columbian Voyages, the Columbian Exchange, and their
Historians.” In Michael Adas, ed. Islamic and European Expansion: The Forging
of a Global Order, 141-164. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.
- Guilmartin, Jr. John F. “The Cutting Edge: An Analysis of the Spanish Invasion
and Overthrow of the Inca Empire, 1532-1539.” In Kenneth J. Andrien and
Rolena Adorno, Transatlantic Encounters: Europeans and Andeans in the Sixteenth
Century, 40-69. Berkeley, Los Angeles, Oxford: University of California Press,
1991.
- Keen, Benjamin. “Approaches to Bartolomé de Las Casas, 1535-1995.”
In The Intellectual History of Colonial Latin America, 1-69. Boulder, Colorado:
Westview Press, 1998.
- Clendinnen, Inga. “Disciplining the Indians: Franciscan Ideology and Missionary
Violence in Sixteenth-Century Yucatán.” Past and Present 94 (1982):
27-48.
- Curtin, Philip. “The Tropical Atlantic in the Age of the Slave Trade.”
In Michael Adas, ed. Islamic and European Expansion: The Forging of a Global
Order, 165-197. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.
- Mattoso, Katia M. de Queirós Mattoso. To Be a Slave in Brazil, 1550-1888.
Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. New Brunswick and London: Rutgers University
Press, 1994, 83-149, 215-220.
- Price, Richard. “Introduction: Maroons and Their Communities.” In
Maroon Societies: Rebel Slave Communities in the Americas, 1-30. Baltimore and
London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979.
- Schwartz, Stuart B. “Resistance and Accommodation in Eighteenth-Century
Brazil: The Slaves View of Slavery.” Hispanic American Historical Review
57:1 (1977), 69-79.
- Kellogg, Susan. “Hegemony Out of Conquest: The First Two Centuries of Spanish
Rule in Central Mexico.” In Radical History Review 53 (1992): 27-46.
- Stern, Steve J. Peru’s Indian Peoples and the Challenge of Spanish Conquest:
Huamanga to 1640, 80-137. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1993, orig.
1982.
- Gutíerrez, Ramón A. “Honor Ideology, Marriage Negotiation,
and Class-Gender Domination in New Mexico, 1690-1846.” In Latin American
Perspectives 44 12:1 (Winter, 1985), 81-104.
- Behar, Ruth. “Sexual Witchcraft, Colonialism, and Women’s Powers:
Views from the Mexican Inquisition.” In Asunción Lavrin, ed., Sexuality
and Marriage in Colonial Latin America. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
1989, 178-206.
- Tuñón Pablos, Julia. Women in Mexico: A Past Unveiled. Translated
by Alan Hynds. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1999, orig. 1987, 13-44.
- Spurling, Geoffrey. “Honor, Sexuality, and the Colonial Church.” In
The Faces of Honor: Sex, Shame and Violence in Colonial Latin America, 45-67.
Edited by Lyman L. Johnson and Sonya Lipsett-Rivera. Albuquerque: University
of New Mexico Press, 1998.
- Abercrombie, Thomas A. “Affairs of the Courtroom: Fernando de Medina Confesses
to Killing His Wife (Charcas, 1595).” In Colonial Lives: Documents on Latin
American History, 1550-1850, 54-76. Edited by Richard Boyer and Geoffrey Spurling.
New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
- Geggus, David. “The Haitian Revolution.” In Franklin W, Knight and
Colin A. Palmer, eds., The Modern Caribbean, 21-50. Chapel Hill and London:
University of North Carolina Press, 1989.
- Szeminski, Jan. “Why Kill the Spaniard? New Perspectives on Andean Insurrectionary
Ideology in the 18th Century.” In Steve J. Stern, ed., Resistance, Rebellion,
and Consciousness in the Andean Peasant World: 18th-20th Centuries . Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1987, 166-192.
- Bolívar, Simón. “The Jamaica Letter.” In Hanke and Rausch,
eds., Peoples and Issues in Latin American History. New York and Princeton:
Markus Wiener, 1992, 17-26.
- Atwood, Roger. “A Painting of Bolívar Spurs Outcry.” The Philadelphia
Inquirer (Friday, August 12, 1994): A12.
- Rowe, William and Vivian Schelling. “Independence: Official Versions and
Popular Versions.” In Memory and Modernity. London and New York: Verso,
1991, 24-27.
- García Márquez, Gabriel. The General in His Labyrinth, 233-287.
Translated by Edith Grossman. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
- Krippner-Martínez, James. “Invoking “Tata Vasco”: Vasco
de Quiroga, Eighteenth-Twentieth Centuries.” The Americas 56:3 (January
2000): 1-28.
Schedule
Week 1 M 9/3-F 9/7. Introduction.
1. “Introductory session.”
2. “Why Study Colonial Latin America? Reading: Chasteen, 1-27. Cortázar,
“The Night Face Up.”
3. ‘The Peoples of the Andes.” Reading: Mills and Taylor, 3-18. Bauer,
“The Material Landscape,” 15-45.
Unit I. Invasions, Conquests, Encounters.
Week 2 M 9/10-F 9/14. The Coming Clash.
4. “Mesoamerica.” Reading: Mills and Taylor, 18-26. Scott, “Empires
and Integration,” 91-138.
5. “The Iberian Peninsula and the Emergence of Spain.” Reading: Mills
and Taylor, 27-33. Keen, “The Hispanic Background,” 37-51.
6. “Towards the ‘Encouner’.” Reading: Hulme, “Caribs
and Arawaks,” 45-87.
Week 3 M 9/17-F 9/21. The Spanish Invasion.
7. “Iberian Expansion: Gold, Gospel, and ‘Glory’.” Reading:
Seed, “The Requirement,” 69-99. Trouillot, “Good Day, Columbus,”
108-140.
8. “Historiography, History, and the Conquest of Mexico.” Reading:
Crosby, “The Columbian Voyages,” 141-164. Chasteen, 29-57.
9. “Conquests and Illusions in Peru.” Reading: Guilmartin, “The
Cutting Edge,” 40-69. Mills and Taylor, 34-45.
A brief Map Quiz will be held at the beginning of Class 10, the first class
meeting of next week.
Week 4 M 9/24-F 9/28. The “Spiritual Conquest” Revisited.
10. Map Quiz. “Las Casas and History.” Reading: Chasteen, 58-61. Las
Casas, A Short Account, entire.
11. “Christianity and Colonialism in the Sixteenth Century.” Reading:
Keen, “Approaches to Bartolomé de Las Casas,” 1-69. Mills and
Taylor, 46-64.
12. A Cautionary Tale From the Yucatán Peninsula.” Reading: Clendinnen,
Disciplining the Indians,” 27-48.
Film: “Jericó.” Luis Alberto Lamata, Venezuela, 1991, 85 mins.
A showing for the class will be scheduled sometime this week. Students unable
to attend this showing are required to view the film by Friday’s class.
It will be held on reserve at Magill Library, Haverford College, where there
is a viewing room.
The First Critical Review must be completed by the final class meeting of this
week!
Week 5 M 10/1-F 10/5. From Invasion to Settlement.
First Paper due at the beginning of or prior to class on Friday, 10/5!
13. “Early Colonial Images.” Reading: Mills and Taylor, 65-77.
14. Paper Writing Workshop.
15. First Paper Due! “The Early Encomienda of the Aristocrat-Entrepreneurs.”
Unit II. The Colonial Order.
Week 6 M 10/8-F 10/12. The New Social Order In the Tropics.
16. “Slavery in the Americas: Origins, Evolution and Demise.” Reading:
Curtin, “The Tropical Atlantic,” 165-197.
17. “The Evolution of Colonial Brazil.” Reading: Mattoso, 83-149,
215-220 .
18. “Maroon Societies.” Reading: Price, “Introduction,”
1-30. Schwartz, “Resistance and Accommodation,” 69-79.
Week 7 M 10/15- F 10/19. Fall Vacation--Enjoy!
Week 8 M 10/22-F 10/26. The New Social Order in the Highlands.
19. “Ruling an Empire: Imperial Organization and Administration.”
Reading: Kellogg, “Hegemony Out of Conquest,” 27-46. Mills and Taylor,
81-114.
20. “Colonial Consolidation in Peru.” Reading: Stern, 80-137. Mills
and Taylor, 115-131.
21. “Early Colonial Images.” Reading: Mills and Taylor, 133-149.
Week 9 M 10/29-F 11/2. Colonial Economy and Society.
22. In Class Mid-Term Exam.
23. “The Colonial Centuries: An Overview.” Reading: Chasteen, 63-91.
Mills and Taylor, 153-177.
24. “Religion, Power and Politics in the Seventeenth Century.” Reading:
Mills and Taylor, 185-260.
Week 10 M 11/5-F 11/9. Honor, Gender, and Sexuality, 17th and 18th Centuries.
25. Honor, Shame and Gender in Colonial Society.” Reading: Gutíerrez,
“Honor Ideology,” 81-104.
26. “Women’s History and Colonial Mexico.” Behar, “Sexual
Witchcraft,” 178-206. Tuñon Pablos, 13-44.
27. “Margins, Transgressions and Violence.” Readings: Mills and Taylor,
178-184. Spurling, “Honor, Sexuality, and the Colonial Church,” 45-67.
Abercrombie, “Affairs of the Courtroom,” 54-76.
The Second Critical Review must be completed by the final class meeting of this
week!
Unit III. The Crisis of Iberian Colonialism
Week 11 M 11/12-F 11/16. Tremors in the Caribbean.
28. “The Haitian Revolution.” Reading: Geggus, 21-50.
29. “The African Presence in ‘Spanish’ America, 17th-19th centuries.
Reading: Manzano, 5-41.
30. “Visions of Cuban Slavery.” Reading: Manzano, 44-135.
Film: “The Last Supper.” Tomás Gutíerrez Alea, Cuba,
1977. 120 mins. A showing for the class will be scheduled sometime this week.
Students unable to attend this showing are required to view the film by Friday’s
class. It will be held on reserve at Magill Library, Haverford College, where
there is a viewing room. Week 12 M 11/19-W 11/21. Colonial Institutions and
Administration.
31. “Decline of the Hapsburgs.”
32. “The Bourbon Reforms: Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire?”
Note: Thanksgiving Break 4 p.m. Weds. 11/21. Second 6-8 pg. paper due prior
to class 32!Week 13 M 11/26-F 11/30. Power and Negotiation in the Late Colonial
World.
33. “Society and Culture in the Eighteenth Century.” Reading: Mills
and Taylor, 263-288, 316-333.
34. “Peasant Insurrection in the Colonial Andes.” Reading: Szeminski,
“Why Kill the Spaniard,”166-192. Mills and Taylor, 334-340.
35. “Good Rebels, Bad Revolutionaries.” Reading: Mills and Taylor,
289-315.
The Third Critical Review is due by the final class meeting of this week.
Unit IV. The Colonial Experience as an Unclosed Chapter.
Week 14. M 12/3-F 12/7. Independence.
36. “The Wars For Independence, #1: Argentina and Venezuela.” Reading:
None, enjoy your weekend!
37. “The Wars For Independence, #2: Mexico and Peru.” Reading: Chasteen,
93-113. Mills and Taylor, 341-346.
38. “Remembering Bolivar.” Reading: Bolívar, “The Jamaica
Letter,” 17-26. Rowe and Schelling, 24-27. García Márquez,
233-287.
Week 15 M 12/10-F 12/14. The Historian and History.
39. “An Ethnohistorian Looks Back.” Reading: Wachtel, entire.
40. “Weaving Our Own Narratives.” Reading: Krippner-Martínez,
“Invoking Tata Vasco,” 1-28.
41. Course Evaluations, In-Class Review for the Final Exam.
The Fourth and Final Critical Review is due by the final class period of this
week.
Course Assignments
There are six course requirements: class participation; a map quiz; an in-class
mid-term exam; four 2-3 pg. critical reviews; two 6-8 pg. papers; and a comprehensive
final exam. They are weighted towards the final grade as follows: map quiz 2
pts.; class participation 8 points; mid-term exam 10 pts.; four critical reviews
15 pts.; two 6-8 pg. papers 20 pts. each, 40 pts. total; comprehensive final
exam 25 pts.; total possible points for course=100 pts. All grades will be given
according to the Haverford grading scale (i.e., 4.0, 3.7, 3.3, 3.0, 2.7, 2.3,
2.0, 1.7, 1.3, 1.0, 0.0) and as a point value towards the final grade. Thus,
an exceptional student might receive a 4.0/20 pts. on her first paper, etc.
Class participation means contributing your presence, thoughts and voice to
class meetings. To participate effectively requires that one keep up with readings
and lectures, think about the issues posed by the materials of the week, and
discuss the readings, lectures, films and documents.
The map quiz is a basic and simple test of your geographic knowledge. It will
be based on maps handed out during the second week of class.
The four critical reviews are short interpretive papers no shorter than two
pages or longer than three. In these short papers, students will evaluate the
key arguments, contributions, and/or weaknesses of that day’s reading,
stressing those aspects most pertinent for classroom discussion and debate.
The critical reviews are to be based on the assigned materials for a particular
day, and are to be handed in prior to classroom discussion. Students may write
the reviews on the days of their choosing. However, you must write one per unit
of the course. The films assigned in the class present vivid images and strong
arguments. Thus, they can also serve quite usefully for this exercise. Ideally,
critical reviews, and the instructor’s comments on them, will facilitate
the writing of the longer papers.
The two papers, each about 1500-2000 words (6-8 pages), do not entail extra
reading or research, but rather a careful and critical analysis of assigned
material.
Students are required to submit hard copies of their papers and critical reviews,
i.e. typed or computer printed. It is the student’s responsibility to make
a copy of their papers in case they are lost or misplaced. I strongly recommend
making a hard copy for yourself, as well as for the instructor, rather than
courting software disasters.
The comprehensive final exam will cover materials from the entire semester.
It will consist of an identification section, a long essay question covering
the entire semester and a shorter essay question covering the materials from
the mid-term to the final exam. The long essay question will be handed out on
the final day of class. Students may bring in one page of notes (one side of
an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper, any size font) to assist them with the final
exam.
Social Justice Requirement
The Haverford College social justice requirement can be met by taking “at
least one course which focuses on one or both of the following:
- the nature, workings and consequences of prejudice and discrimination, including
those which arise from confrontations with radical difference, otherness, or
foreignness, or
- efforts at social and cultural change directed against, and cultural achievements
that overcome, prejudice and discrimination.”
History 209a Modern Latin America fulfills the Haverford College social justice
requirement.