HIST 422: China and Latin America

China and Latin America

Using the long-term relationship between China and Latin America as a focal point, this course will examine the four topics of trade, migration, transfer of knowledge and ideas, and cultural interconnectedness. Organized chronologically, the course will cover the period from the 16th century to the present focusing primarily on the past two centuries. It will examine the early modern silver trade and its political, economic, and cultural importance in China as well as the impact of silver extraction on Latin American sites such as Mexico, Bolivia, and Peru; the movements of plants, including chili peppers and potatoes, from Latin America to China and the cultural and social impact of those new crops in China; Chinese labor migrations to Latin America and the Caribbean, including Mexico and Cuba, in the nineteenth century and more recently; twentieth century ideological connections between Maoism and Latin American liberation and revolutionary movements with a particular focus on Peru and Cuba; China’s neo-imperialist soft-power and influence peddling strategies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, with a focus on Costa Rica and Nicaragua; direct trade and economic relations between China, Brazil and Mexico in the twenty-first century; and cultural connections throughout the period including Spanish colonial treatises and imaginings of China in Mexico and cultural activities like salsa dancing in contemporary China.