LAH 2023 History of the Caribbean

This course introduces students to some of the main issues and debates in Caribbean history from the eve of Columbus' arrival to the mid-twentieth century. Approximately equal attention is given to Anglophone, Francophone, and Hispanophone regions, and to political, cultural, and economic developments.

No other part of the world has been shaped so completely as the Caribbean by the two institutions of European colonialism and plantation slavery. The rise and fall of these institutions in this region, and their shaping the contemporary Caribbean constitute the dominant themes of this course. This course focuses on the types of society that evolved the region and the internal and external forces that influenced their development.