LATIN AMERICA’S FOUNDING PEOPLES, IDEOLOGIES, AND INSTITUTIONS Why “bother” to talk about history? What is the relationship between economics, culture, and politics? How do structures get created and persist over time? What are “critical junctures”? What is “punctuated equilibrium” What is hegemony (Marx & Gramsci), and why do ideas and social constructions matter so much? What key economic, social, and political institutions emerged in the colonial period?... Let’s see

Is there anything we need to know about life in the Americas before the Europeans arrived? Who lived in the Americas before the Conquest? Between million, mostly non-sedentary, people without much in the way of livestock (gender and disease implications)… Isolated from EU/Africa Three indigenous empires: Aztecs (15-29m, in Central Mexico), Mayas (mostly gone, Central America), and Incas (5-10m stretching from Colombia to Chile). Why did the Europeans come? Ships (but Chinese had them, too!), God, Gold, & Conquest: The Spanish were emerging from 700 years of war and Moorish rule How did the Europeans win? Mostly disease (25-70% die-out rate in European cities in the 1300s); Mexico’s population went from around 25 million in 1519 (Cortes) to 2m. Politics & ethics: The Spanish conquered divided empires that were already used to a repressive hegemony; And they were used to subjugating non-Christ. pops. Technology: iron, horses, dogs, and Spanish steel… Social complexity & military Writing; the Conquistadores were tactical experts bc of accumulated knowledge

What were the basic differences between the economies of colonial Latin America and those of the United States? US vs. Lat Am: How long did meaningful colonial control last? What was its scope? What was its main purpose? What did the different colonies produce? How valuable was this production to the security and interests of the “mother” countries? How did rates of taxation (the quinto real) compare and what political and social implications does this have? How important were colonies as a market vs. as a supplier of raw materials? Who did the work in new areas? How was labor structured? How geographically centralized was trade and production? Why does this matter? Why was Brazil a lot more like the feudal American South than like New Spain?

What were the basic differences between the political systems of colonial Latin America and those of the United States? What kind of people settled in Latin America (low elite replicators; agents of the Spanish state) vs. North America (fleers; entrepreurial interests at first)? What did they see of value in the people who were there already? Why did the economics lead to more bureaucracy and political hierarchy in the south than in the US? Why so little self-rule? How did colonial governors and assemblies (US) differ from the 4 regional viceroyalties (Latin America)? What key political ideas shape notions of state and citizenry? What does Louiz Hartz mean when he says that Latin America has a “feudal” tradition, while the US has a “liberal” one? What happens in “fragment” societies over time as they develop separately from “mother” nations?

Why does religion and race play such a different role in early Latin American and the United States? What were the major differences between Catholicism and the Protestant faiths? How did they view hierarchy? Fate? Why did religious institutions become so powerful in Latin America, and why were they compratively absent from much of the American founding? How did religious beliefs reinforce economic and political structures? How and why did slavery and race take on such different meanings in these “pre-enlightment” societies? How did religion impact ideas of race? Why multi-racial vs. bi-racial systems? Some key terms: Peninsulares, Criollos, Metizos / Mulatos, indigenous /African people