Latin America: Conquest and Colonisation

This course provides an overview of the conquest and colonisation of Latin America. It does so in the context of the major theoretical perspectives and controversies surrounding this process. Topics dealt with will include the nature of two pre-Columbian empires - the Aztecs and the Incas, the motivations for the conquest, the dynamics of settler societies, theoretical perspectives on colonisation and the rise of the west and key political and economic structures of colonial Latin America. These topics are dealt with in terms of the Implications of each for Latin America today.