This course surveys the history of Latin America from the late fifteenth century to the present. The colonial era will be examined in the first term by concentrating on the encounter between Europeans, Amerindians, and Africans. Colonialism will be presented as a multiethnic conversation, one that was filled with violence and informed by power relations, but one that also saw all ethnic groups participating in the formation of colonial societies and hence to the general shape of Spanish and Portuguese rule. The modern period of Latin America will be studied in the second term by focusing on how people from all ethnic groups participated in the process of nation building and hence to the shaping of their daily lives. Taking into consideration the ongoing influence of colonial legacies, the multiethnic conversation of the initial encounter will be followed through independence, caudillo rule, progress and modernization, populism, revolution, the Cold War, and neoliberal reforms.