From Conquest Myths to Non-Sovereign Futures
How did a Bolivian silver mine create global capitalism? Why do Caribbean islands remain colonies in the 21st century? This course traces 500 years from Spanish conquest myths to contemporary political struggles through four essential texts that reveal how Latin America and the Caribbean shaped—and continue to shape—the modern world.
Four Books, One Story
- Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest by Matthew Restall — How Indigenous allies, not European genius, toppled empires
- Potosí: The Silver City That Changed the World by Kris Lane — The Bolivian mine that funded global capitalism
- Three Ancient Colonies by Sidney Mintz — Jamaica, Haiti, and Puerto Rico as laboratories of modernity
- Non-Sovereign Futures by Yarimar Bonilla — French Caribbean politics beyond the independence question
Course Videos
Course Modules
Conquest Myths & Realities (Restall)
- Myths #1-3 — Columbus was wrong, conquistadors weren’t soldiers, Indigenous armies did the fighting
- Myths #4-7 — The conquest was never complete, Indigenous resistance continues
Silver & Global Capitalism (Lane)
- Potosí Introduction — Indigenous entrepreneurs and the mountain that ate men
- The Viceroy’s Great Machine — Mita labor, mercury processing, and the improbable global city
- Decline and Revolution — Why no Industrial Revolution? Four factors and the pact with El Tío
Caribbean Laboratories (Mintz)
- Caribbean Anthropology and History — The slavery-sugar-plantation complex and humanity’s greatest cultural achievement
- Jamaica — Proto-peasants, hypodescent vs. hyperdescent, and the invention of race
- Haiti & Puerto Rico — The unthinkable revolution and the Louisiana Purchase no one thanks them for
Contemporary Politics (Bonilla)
- Sovereignty and Non-Sovereignty — Why more Caribbean places are non-sovereign than sovereign
- Hope & Disappointment — Memory walks, the 2009 strike, and unspectacular transformations
Why These Four Books Matter Together
This combination reveals how conquest created racial categories (Restall), silver funded global capitalism while Indigenous people maintained autonomy (Lane), sugar plantations pioneered industrial labor and enslaved Africans forged new cultures (Mintz), and colonial legacies persist in supposedly “postcolonial” times (Bonilla). Together, they show Latin America and the Caribbean not as peripheral regions but as central laboratories where modernity was invented—and where its contradictions remain most visible.
The arc moves from historical to contemporary: Restall ends with us still in the age of expansion. Lane asks whether we’ve made a pact with the devil. Mintz mourns the disappeared peasantry. Bonilla alone asks what people are trying to do now—reimagining futures beyond sovereignty itself.
Course Archive
Explore The Americas Hub for broader perspectives. For the 2024 treatment of colonial Latin America using different texts, see Colonial Latin America.