About Colonial Latin and South America

This course will introduce you to the history of Latin and South America from the year in which European explorers first discovered and began to colonize the region to the early 19 th century, when many Latin and South American colonies declared their independence from European rule. You will learn about the major political, economic, and social changes that took place throughout Latin and South America during this 400-year period. The course will be structured chronologically. Each unit will include representative primary-source documents that illustrate important overarching political, economic, and social themes, such as the conquest of native peoples by European explorers, colonial settlement patterns and trade networks, social and cultural exchanges between native peoples and Europeans, and the emergence of independence movements across Latin and South America at the end of the 18 th century. By the end of the course, you will understand how the interaction between native peoples and European settlers created diverse and complex colonial societies throughout Latin and South America, and why the colonies of the region eventually declared their independence from European political control.