“Independent” Latin America, Laboratory of Capitalism: Two Centuries since the Monroe Doctrine
Instructor: Stuart Parker
Course Objectives
We often stereotype Latin America as a supposedly “backward” place relative to Anglo America but, as Andre Gunder Frank observed in his seminal text on Dependency Theory, this supposed “underdevelopment” is caused by the action of global market forces that seek to deindustrialize and destabilize the region.
In fact, because of Latin America’s place in the US imperial project, underdevelopment is just one of a series of capitalist projects tested on the peoples of the Luso-Hispanic Americas and developed regionally before becoming a global phenomenon. Indeed, an important reason for supposed Latin American underdevelopment has been its place as a testing ground for neoliberalism, “structural adjustment” and a host of other capitalist reforms.
The region’s place as a testing ground for various elements of modern capitalism is one established in the mid-nineteenth century through the reinterpretation of a piece of US foreign policy known as the Monroe Doctrine, proclaimed in 1823. But the process by which the region became not just a set of vassal states but a testing ground for American capitalism is complex and contingent. And that is what this course examines.
Difficulty Level
This course’s lecture content requires no prior specialized knowledge and is based on general knowledge widely available to any high school graduate who keeps up with the news. The one challenging element of the course is a couple of the readings, which are academic articles that are not very accessibly written. To accommodate this, questions are expected, welcomed and encouraged for those seeking basic clarifications of opaque language and occult terminology in anything they are asked to read for the course.
Texts
At the beginning of the course, students will receive a series of Dropbox links to download each of the videos and readings we will be discussing.
Class Schedule
We will be meeting twice a week via Zoom 5:30pm Pacific Time (8:30pm Eastern, 2:30am Greenwich) on Mondays and Wednesdays. Participants will also be subscribed to a Google group and a Facebook group to carry on discussion outside of class time. In all, the class will have thirteen episodes. The course begins on April 6th.
| Date | Lecture | Readings/Film |
| April 6th | The Post-Napoleonic Vacuum: Francisco Morazán, British Honduras and the Monroe Doctrine | James Monroe’s address |
| April 11th | Open Door Imperialism: Post-1861 American neo-colonialism, from the end of the filibuster to the partition of Colombia | None |
| April 13th | The Banana Republic System: The rise of free labour plantations and corporate neo-feudalism | Shattered Hope excerpts |
| April 18th | The Spanish-American War: Concentration camps and the neocolonial protectorate | “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” |
| April 20th | School of the Americas in Embryo: The Nicaraguan National Guard and the war with Augusto Sandino | None |
| April 25th | The First Rust Belt: Deindustrialization and peripheralization in the post-war Southern Cone | None |
| April 27th | The Brazilian Dictatorship I: Surveillance, managed democracy and urban guerilla resistance | Four Days in September |
| May 2nd | The Brazilian Dictatorship II: Diversity, gender identity, deindustrialization and sex tourism | Beyond Carnival excertps |
| May 4th | SOA and Alliance for Progress: Cold War experiments in empire and the strange case of Peruvian land reform | None |
| May 9th | Pinochet’s Chile: Laboratory of neoliberal reform and austerity | Missing |
| May 11th | Post Falklands Argentina: Austerity versus democracy and the birth of Structural Adjustment | “Social disarticulation” article |
| May 16th | Contemporary Experiments Ripped from the Headlines | None |
| May 18th | Course Conclusion | “McCondo” article |
