History of the Americas
The National Period
Class Syllabus

Week 1: Geography

• Influence on human mobility, economic production, social systems and settlement patterns.
• MAP QUIZ

Weeks 2-3: Legacies of Pre-Columbian and Colonial Periods

• Implications of "Mestizaje": Social, political, and cultural aspects.
• Destruction of Indigenous populations.

Week 3: Independence and its Effects

• U.S. and Latin America
• Canada's Search for Identity

Weeks 4-5: Post-Independent Development in Latin America

• Issues of Federalism, Democracy and Caudillismo, Clericalism and Nationalism.
  • Establishment of viable political and social institutions
  • Comparison of Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Argentina

Weeks 5-6: Nationalism in North America

• Rise and Fall of Nationalism in the U.S.: 1787-1861
  • Federalist Period
  • Jeffersonian and Jacksonian Periods
  • Prelude to Civil War
• Canada: 1791-1867
  • Fur trade competition, proximity to the U.S.
  • Responsible government and the establishment of the Dominion.
• FIRST EXAMINATION

Weeks 7-8: "Modernity" and the Latin American States

• Establishment of economic infrastructures and commercial basis for modernity.
• Comparison of Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.

Weeks 9-10: Capitalism and the "Gilded Age" in the U.S.: 1865-1900

• Post Civil War Industrialization and the Emergence of "Robber Barons".
• Capitalism, overseas markets, and "national defense".
• The Spanish-American-Cuban War and emergence as a world power.

Week 11: Canada and the "Age of MacDonald": 1867-1891

• National prosperity and the Canadian Pacific Railway
• Building Canadian unity
• SECOND EXAMINATION

Weeks 12-13: Drive for Reform in Latin America

• "Popular" Revolutions: Mexico and Cuba
• Other Perspectives: Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru

Weeks 14-15: The U.S. and Canada: 1900-present

• Business, Government, and Social Control
• The New Deal and the Great Society
• The Resurgence of Conservatism (?)

Week 16: Inter-American Relations

• Economic integration, democratization, immigration, and narcotrafficking.

Week 17: Culture in the Twentieth Century

• Art and Literature: From Mexican Muralists to the "Fantastic".
• "Low-brow" cultural expression: dime novels, graffiti, and the Internet.

Week 18: Review

• The Americas on the Eve of the Third Millenium.
• FINAL EXAMINATION