History 355H - The Caribbean

This honors course surveys the cultural, social, economic and political history of the Caribbean from the late fifteenth century to the present. This lecture and discussion course focuses on the Greater Antilles (i.e., Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will explore key historical moments in the region to better understand how the peoples of the Caribbean negotiated concepts of sovereignty, labor, economic independence, and self-determination. Topics include conquest and settlement, colonialism, slavery, independence, paternalism, informal and formal imperialism, Pan-Americanism, Pan-Africanism, caudillismo, political and social revolution, and neo-liberalism. Over the course of the semester, students will gain familiarity with some of the major thinkers and political actors engaged with these debates, such as Toussaint L?Ouverture, Jose Antonio Aponte, Samuel Sharpe, Jose Marti, Frederick Douglass, Ramon Emeterio Betances, Evangelina Cisneros, Isabel Gonzalez, Marcus Garvey, Rafael Trujillo, Fidel Castro, Ernesto ?Che? Guevara, and Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier. As an honors course, this reading and writing intensive class requires both independent research and active in-class participation.

This course is open to Senior, Junior, and Sophmore Commonwealth College students only.