This course examines the history of modern Latin America from the early nineteenth century to the present. It examines the emergence of independence movements against Spanish and Portuguese power, the nascent empires, nations and republics of the turbulent nineteenth century, and the growing influence of the US government in Latin American politics. It analyses the formation and consolidation of diverse Latin American identities, cultures and societies in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

The course covers a number of political, social, and cultural topics in several distinct regions, including the struggle for independence and democracy; the legacy of Spanish and Portuguese rule in nineteenth-century nations; the emergence of distinct racial and cultural identities; dictatorship and democracy in the emerging nation-states; politics, cooperation, and conflict; the growing presence of the US in Latin American politics and economies; the end of Spanish power in Cuba and Puerto Rico; economic and political relations with Europe, Asia and North America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; war, dictatorship, and revolution in Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina; comparing the modern nation-states of Latin America in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

This course also examines the patterns of migration from Ireland to various Latin American regions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Irish relations with the continent, and the numerous ways in which Irish immigration has shaped Latin American politics, culture, and society.