Week 1 —History of Latin America
Colonial Legacies: God and Gold
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Intro to the Course

I. Definitions of Latin America

A. Geographic
B. Historical/Linguistic, “The Iberian World”
C. A Modern Concept

II. A History of Theories

A. Liberalism and Positivism

--Carlos Bunge, Nuestra América

B. Populism and Nationalism

--José Martí
--Diego Rivera
--Pablo Neruda, “Canto General”

C. Cold War

--Modernization theory, W.W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto

--Dependency theory (1960s-70s), Fernando Henrique Cardoso, André Gunder Frank, Celso Furtado, Guillermo O'Donnell

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Colonial Legacies: God and Gold

I. Unfree labor

A. Population decline, esp. Mesoamerica (Aztec empire) & Andes (Inka empire)

1519 - 25 million in Central Mexico
1568 - 2.5 million
1630 - .7 million

B. Labor systems

- slavery/bandeirismo; New Laws (1542)
- encomienda and repartimiento
- mita for Potosí (Bolivia)
- debt peonage
- slavery and African forced migration, ie Minas Gerais (Brazil):

1690s, no Europeans or Afro-Brazilians
1720s, 20,000 whites and 50,000 blacks
1735, 100,000 blacks

II. Institutional church and political power

A. Reconquest and conquest

- Moors; Alhambra, Granada (1492)
- Papal Bull Inter Caetera (1493)
- Bernal Díaz del Castillo
- regular clergy (friars): Franciscans, Dominicans, Jesuits

B. Protector/enforcer of colonial rule

- Bartolomé de las Casas; Hispaniola; The Black Legend
- reducciones
- extirpations of idolatry: Diego de Landa in Yucatan, Jesuits in Andes

C. Political and economic power-holder

- archbishoprics: Lima and Mexico City
- patronato/padroado real (1501, 1508)
- urban life (policía)
- education
- expulsion of Jesuits (1767)