Buenos Aires, Argentina - UB - Elective - PALAS 340

COURSE SYLLABUS: HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA

Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Partner Institution: University of Belgrano

Course Title: History of Latin America

Sessions Offered: Fall Semester, Spring Semester

Instructional Language: English

Prerequisites: None

Classroom Contact Hours: 45 contact hours

College Credit (Semester Credit Hours): 3 credit hours

College Credit (Quarter Units): 4 quarter units

Local Department: Program in Argentine and Latine American Studies (PALAS)

Course Number: PALAS 340

Course Description

This course informs about the formation and evolution of the societies in Latin America with a focus in Argentina. Using a comparative approach, the course begins with the wars of independence and goes on to tell the story of the complex ethnic and cultural components that impacted in the formation of the Latin American societies. The course will discuss the emergence of the Masses in the Twentieth Century, and their key role as political actors in the Mexican, the “Peronist” and the Cuban revolutions. The course also reflects on the responsibility of the Military Junta in State Terrorism and the complex process of historical and cultural memory in Uruguay, Chile and Argentina

Course Requirements

Students are expected to do close readings, participate in class, and do an oral presentation in pairs. The requirements also include a midterm and a final exam. In addition to this, each student will be expected to make a significant contribution to the classroom dialogue. A 75% Attendance to classes is mandatory to keep the regular student status. An electronic system keeps track of attendance. Students have to slide an electronic card every class to comply with attendance policy.

Program Schedule

Unit 1: The Crisis of Independence and the formation of the new republics (1800-1870)

Crisis of the Spanish Colonial Empire within the period of the Great Revolutions. The Spanish heritage and other influences on the emerging systems. The emergence of new regional political units.

The increasing British influence. The civil wars: regional differences, ethnic groups and the formation of a new society. The caudillos. The Monroe Doctrine. The United Provinces of Río de la Plata, the Brazilian

Empire and the Paraguayan autonomous project.

Unit 2: The neocolonial order, 1870-1930

Integration to the international system, modernization and the formation of the the new elites. The oligarchic republics. Stability and instability in the different regional societies. European immigration,

new ideologies and a modern identity. Emerging social actors and political parties in the modern Latin American society. The process of democratization. The relationship with United States of America:

Panamericanism, intervention and anti-Imperialism. The new Argentina and Republican Brazil. México: form Porfiriato to the Revolution. Cuba, Nicaragua and Panamá.

Unit 3: Crisis and transformation, 1930-1960

The impact of the international cyclical crises. The process of imports substitution. Nationalism against foreign economic and political intervention. The emergence of Populism. The emergence of organized labor and the middle classes. Peronismo in Argentina, Varguismo in Brazil, Ibañismo in Chile and the dynamics of Revolutionary México. The short life of the Good Neighbor Policy. World War II and the Cold War.

Unit 4: Latin America during the Cold War, 1945-1989

The impact of bipolarity. The expansion of imports substitution and a new middle class. Revolution or Reform? The limits to the transformation of the continent. The Doctrine of National Security: military intervention and movements of resistance. Collective security: OEA and TIAR. American intervention as a component of the continental political system. The 1980s: recovery of democracy under external endebtment. Revolution in Cuba and Chile. War and peace in Central America: Guatemala and Nicaragua. Growth and instability in Argentina and Brazil. Drugs as a new economy: Perú and Colombia.

Unit 5: Toward a new identity within globalization, 1989-2000

The end of bipolarity in Latin America. Globalization and structural transformation. The new power relations in the emerging democracies. Trade, commercial integration and the discussion on the

viability of the Latin American republics: MERCOSUR and NAFTA. The new Latin American agenda: ecology, regional migration, narcotraffic and money laundering, social polarization and exclusion. Argentina, México and Brazil. Colombia and Chile. Cuba.

Week 1

Presentation of the course- The crises of the Spanish Empire

Week 2

Revolution and Independence Wars. The case of Brazil.

Mandatory readings:

a) Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire. (63-118)

b) Hillman, Richard. Understanding Contemporary Latin America. (27-49)

c) Luna, Félix. A Short History of the Argentinians. (13-64)

Week 3

The formation of the New Republics: 1820-1870

Civil Wars: 1820-1860 – Towards the new national states. Social and Political agents. Argentina: unitarios and federales. Thinking the future Nation. Intelectuals and politics (The Generation of 1837)- Ideological and cultural matrix: civilization or barbarism.

Mandatory readings:

a) Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire. (119-148)

b) Halperín Donghi, Tulio. Sarmiento, Author of a Nation. (114-123)

c) Luna, Félix. A Short History of the Argentinians.(64-86)

Week 4

The new republics: national unification and state building. Political and social antagonisms. Social subjects and nation.

Mandatory readings:

a) Luna, Félix. A Short History of the Argentinians.(86-110)

d) Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire. (149-178)

Week 5

Neocolonial order: 1870-1910 – Immigration, europeization, modernization.

Mandatory readings :

a) Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire. (179-211)

b) Luna, Félix. A Short History of the Argentinians.(111-126)

Week 6

The Mexican Revolution- Argentina and the crises of integration: Sáenz Peña Law-Towards Latin American Democratization.

Mandatory Readings:

a) Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire. (same chapter-focus on Mexico)

b) Luna, Félix. A Short History of the Argentinians. (127-139)

c) http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mex-revolution.htm

Week 7

Crises and Transformation: (1914-1945) Nationalisms. Introduction to Latin American Populism.

Mandatory Readings:

a) Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire.(213-243)

b) Luna, Félix. A Short History of the Argentinians.(140-166)

Week 8

The “first peronism”: 1945. The populist state: social, political and cultural characteristics. Eva Perón´s role.

Mandatory readings:

a) Luna, Félix. A Short History of the Argentinians. (167-223)

b) Fraser, Nicholas and Navarro, Marysa. Eva Perón. (102-167)

Week 9

Latin America during the Cold Wars- The 1960´s: the era of revolutions.

Mandatory Reading :

a) Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire (245-305)

Week 10

National Security Doctrine. Dictatorship in the Southern Cone. Disappearances and state terrorism- Argentina: the Malvinas War- Human Rights Organizations and Democratic Transitions.

Mandatory Reading

a) Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire (306-321)

b) Guzmán Bouvard, Marguerite. Revolutionizing Motherhood. The Mothers pf Plaza de Mayo. (1-62)

Week 11

Midterm Exam

Week 12

(Cont.) Debate on historical memory.

Week 13

Democratic Transitions in the Southern Cone – Revolution in Nicaragua- El Salvador: civil wars.

Week 14

The 1990´s and globalization – The crises of 2001 in Argentina - Conclusions

Week 15

Final Written Exam

Required Bibliography

Felix Luna, Brief History of Argentina

John Ch. Chasteen, Born in Blood and Fire

Course Evaluation

Class participation and attendance: 10%
Oral Presentation: 20%
Mid-Term Exam: 30%
Final Written Exam: 40%

Bibliography (Text and Materials)

Required Readings:

Liria Evangelista, ed. Course Reader.