The History of Puerto Rico
(LCS 01:595:371/History 01:508:371)
Instructor: Aldo Lauria Santiago
This course will provide students an advanced introduction to the history of Puerto Rico in Caribbean and American contexts. The study of the post-conquest history of Puerto Rico history covers over five centuries. Four hundred years under Spanish rule and over 100 under US rule. Because of this persistent colonial history Puerto Rico is often presented as an exceptional place with a history unlike any other. Puerto Rico presents some unique characteristics because of its hybridity-a self-identified nation that is thoroughly integrated into the United States; a mostly Spanish-speaking country that considers itself part of Latin America and the Caribbean; a diasporic nation with millions of island-born people living on the US mainland.
Weekly Themes:
Week 1: Requirements and Goals; Geography and Demographics
Week 2: Conquests, Settlement and Marginalization in Caribbean and Imperial Context, 16th-17th Centuries
Week 3: The 18th Century: Cows, Enslaved, Plebeians and Forts:
Week 4: Reconquests, Slavery, Peasants, and Commercial Agriculture, 1812-1868
Week 5: Spanish Colonial Rule and the Landlord Economy, 1868-1898
Week 6: Liberation by Invasion: 1898: The Transition to US Rule in Caribbean Context
Week 7: Elite Politics of Negotiation, Adjustment and Accumulation--Colonial Rule 1898-1920s
Week 8: Working Class Life and Politics, 1898-1930s
Week 9: The Depression and Crisis: Elite Crisis, Labor Revolt and Nationalist Insurgency, 1929-1939
Week 10: New Deal, War and Reform Restructure the Colony, 1939-1952
Week 11: Economic Transformation and the Public Sector, 1948-1980
Week 12: Emigration and Diasporic Culture
Week 13: Manufacturing, Construction and Services: Crisis, Recovery and Crisis, 1975-2017
Week 14: The Never Ending Debate: Autonomy and Colonial Rule
Week 15: Transitions from Crisis, 2018+
