History of the Caribbean Since 1898 595:205/508:272

Chavez : Tue 3:20 – 6:20pm, LSH A256, Livingston

This course examines the history of the Caribbean since 1898, with an emphasis on Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico. We will also consider smaller islands and the “circum-Caribbean” region, including the Caribbean coasts of Central America, South America, and the United States. The Caribbean has shaped cultural and intellectual currents through music (ska, reggae, salsa, calypso), religion (Rastafarianism, santería), politics (Marcus Garvey, Fidel Castro, Frantz Fanon, C.L.R. James, Aimé Césaire), and literature (nobel prize winners V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott), not to mention the millions of people living in Europe and North America. Yet despite its significance for global history, the Caribbean is frequently depicted in the mainstream media as a center of political turmoil or a tourist destination, with little effort made to explore its complexities. Situated at the historical crossroads of Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the United States, the Caribbean has played a pivotal role in global transformations since 1492. The Spanish-Cuban-American War of 1898 marks an important historical milestone in the region. After this war, the United States took possession of Cuba and Puerto Rico and eventually expanded its role in the region with direct interventions in Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the Virgin Islands. The region’s past illuminates many of the critical junctures and central contradictions of modern history: colonialism and independence, slavery and freedom, racial hierarchy and political equality, despotism and revolution, nationalism and transnationalism, and migration and creolization.