HIST 1410 - Latin American History: Cuba and Puerto Rico

Goals: To develop an understanding of key developments in the history of Cuba and Puerto Rico.

Content: This course considers the related but distinct histories of Cuba and Puerto Rico. We will examine both the similarities and divergences of their experience as Spain’s longest-held colonies in the Americas, as well as their different but intertwining struggles for independence and social and economic development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Topics to be considered in the course will include the context of Puerto Rican and Cuban development within the Caribbean region and the Spanish Empire, the economic, geographical, strategic, cultural and demographic factors that have shaped each island’s history, comparisons as well as connections between Cuba and Puerto Rico, and the nature of each island’s relations with the United States.

Taught: Every other year

Credits: 4