Course Description
The political, economic, and cultural relations between the United States and Latin America from 1776 to the present. Spanish-American revolutions, the Monroe doctrine, United States expansionism, the Pan American system, United States intervention, the Good Neighbor policy, Latin America in the Cold War, and United States and Latin American revolutions.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
Graduate students will be expected to write a research paper focused on the historiography of a critical issue in U.S.-Latin American relations.
Athena Title
U.S. and Latin America
Prerequisite
Any HIST course or ENGL 1101 or ENGL 1101E or ENGL 1101S or ENGL 1102 or ENGL 1102E or ENGL 1102S or POLS 1101 or POLS 1101E or POLS 1101H or POLS 1101S
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Student Learning Outcomes
- By the end of this course, students will be able to arrive at conclusions about the history of the U.S. and Latin America by gathering and weighing evidence, logical argument, and listening to counter argument.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to write stylistically appropriate papers and essays. Students will be able to analyze ideas and evidence, organize their thoughts, and revise and edit their finished essays.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to identify how the history of U.S. and Latin America shaped diverse social and cultural attitudes toward colonialism and imperialism, race and ethnicity, and freedom and justice, encouraging them to understand diverse worldviews and experiences.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to apply appropriate methodological approaches to their analysis of primary sources and to organize their evidence to show historical continuities and discontinuities.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to generate their own research question or topic, locate suitable primary and secondary sources, and synthesize their ideas in novel ways.
- By the end of this course, students will be able to initiate, manage, complete, and evaluate their independent research projects in stages and to give and receive constructive feedback through the peer review process.
Topical Outline
- Week 1: Antecedents
- Week 2: Early Pan-Americanism
- Week 3: The Monroe Doctrine
- Week 4: The Mexican War
- Week 5: The Filibusters
- Week 6: Foreign Interventionism
- Week 7: Latin America versus itself
- Week 8: The New Pan-Americanism
- Week 9: The Big Stick
- Week 10: Dollar Diplomacy
- Week 11: The Good Neighbor
- Week 12: Beginnings of the Cold War
- Week 13: The Cuban Revolution
- Week 14: The Rise of the Right
- Week 15: The Central American Crisis
- Week 16: The Neo-Liberal Order
- Week 17: Popular Backlash and the Future of Inter-American Relations
Institutional Competencies
Analytical Thinking
The ability to reason, interpret, analyze, and solve problems from a wide array of authentic contexts.
Communication
The ability to effectively develop, express, and exchange ideas in written, oral, interpersonal, or visual form.
Critical Thinking
The ability to pursue and comprehensively evaluate information before accepting or establishing a conclusion, decision, or action.
