Undergraduate Course: Resistance, Resilience and Rebellion in Colonial Latin America (HIST10452)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | The course is an introduction to the history of colonial Latin America with a particular emphasis on understanding the experience of Indigenous people and their efforts to resist colonial impositions. We will consider ways in which aspects of local culture survived and facilitated the creation of new colonial identities that eventually were integral to the overthrowing of Spanish and Portuguese rule. |
| Course description |
In this course, students will study the history of colonial Latin America from the rise of the Inka and Mexica in the fifteenth century to the wars of independence in the early nineteenth century. As we cover this period of more than four hundred years, we will consider how the Spanish and Portuguese conquered and colonised the people of the Americas while at the same time paying attention to the resilient aspects of indigenous culture that survived despite efforts of colonisers to eradicate them. We will study Iberian efforts to change local culture through the introduction of a new religion, language, and societal practices and see how these specific impositions were both accommodated and resisted by Indigenous communities. These forms of resistance were eventually influential in the movements to reject Iberian authority and the course will end with discussions of the various rebellions and revolts in colonial Latin America that ultimately led to the independence of many of these countries. Throughout the course, students will analyse primary sources translated into English, as well as study non-textual sources such as paintings, material objects, and architecture, which shed light on the colonial experience of Spanish and Portuguese America.
Content note: The study of History inevitably involves the study of difficult topics that we encourage students to approach in a respectful, scholarly, and sensitive manner. Nevertheless, we remain conscious that some students may wish to prepare themselves for the discussion of difficult topics. In particular, the course organiser has outlined that the following topics may be discussed in this course, whether in class or through required or recommended primary and secondary sources:torture, sexual, racial and religious violence, classism, racism. While this list indicates sensitive topics students are likely to encounter, it is not exhaustive because course organisers cannot entirely predict the directions discussions may take in tutorials or seminars, or through the wider reading that students may conduct for the course.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | A pass in 40 credits of third-level historical courses or equivalent.
Before enrolling students on this course, PTs are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Administrator to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 504030). |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 44,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
348 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
80 %,
Practical Exam
20 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
2 essays of 3,500 words (20% each, 40% total)
1 essay of 5,000 words (40%)
Class participation (20%), with a breakdown of:
a. lead seminar twice (5% each, 10% total)
b. 10% class participation (5% for each semester) |
| Feedback |
Students will receive feedback on their coursework, and will have the opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser during their published office hours for this course or by appointment. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate, by way of coursework, command of colonial Latin American history;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework, an ability to read, analyse and reflect critically upon the impact of colonialism on indigenous peoples in the Spanish Americas;
- demonstrate, by way of coursework, an ability to understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- . demonstrate, by way of coursework, the ability to develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
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Reading List
Key texts will include:
Earle, Rebecca. The Body of the Conquistador: Food, Race and the Colonial Experience in Spanish America, 1492¿1700. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Echeverri, Marcela. Indian and Slave Royalists in the Age of Revolution: Reform, Revolution, and Royalism in the Northern Andes, 1780-1825. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
Herzog, Tamar. Frontiers of Possession: Spain and Portugal in Europe and the Americas. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2015.
Ireton, Chloe L. Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic. Cambridge, United Kingdom; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2025.
Sabato, Hilda. Republics of the New World: The Revolutionary Political Experiment in Nineteenth-Century Latin America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018.
Townsend, Camilla. Annals of Native America: How the Nahuas of Colonial Mexico Kept Their History Alive. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Skills in research development and analysis
o The ability to critically analyse historical processes and events through a close reading of primary and secondary sources, and through comparative and diachronic perspectives.
o The ability to sustain arguments with recourse to written, visual, and other kinds of evidence.
o The ability to critically analyse complex concepts and their historical interpretations.
o The ability to critically engage with current academic debates through historiographical and methodological considerations.
o The ability to formulate meaningful research questions, adequate to be addressed within an essay.
o The ability to independently manage one's time and work, including engaging with feedback, supervision,and seminar discussions.
o The ability to employ digital and bibliographic skills to identify, retrieve, and present information.
Oral communication skills
o The ability to contribute to academic discussions in a seminar setting, relating one's contributions to one's close reading and interpretation of sources.
o The ability to contribute towards short, collaborative presentations and to facilitate discussions, possibly utilising multimedia resources (e.g., slides).
Written communication skills
o The ability to sustain arguments in essay format while observing academic and bibliographic conventions.
o The ability to employ the above mentioned Research and Analytical Skills in the framing, pursuit, and presentation of written arguments.
Group working
o The ability to contribute to seminar discussions in a constructive, respectful, and open-minded manner.
o The ability to contribute to the planning and facilitation of a seminar discussion with peers with possible recourse to multimedia resources. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr André Jockyman Roithmann
Tel:
Email: Andre.jockymanRoithmann@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | |
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