Early Latin America

A brief general history of Latin America in the period between the European conquest and the independence of the Spanish American countries and Brazil serves as an introduction to this quickly changing field of study.

The updated and enhanced third edition of A History of Latin America to 1825 presents a comprehensive narrative survey of Latin American history from the region's first human presence until the majority of Iberian colonies in America emerged as sovereign states c. 1825. This edition features new content on the history of women, gender, Africans in the Iberian colonies, and pre-Columbian peoples Includes more illustrations to aid learning: over 50 figures and photographs, several accompanied by short essays Concentrates on the colonial period and earlier, expanding coverage of the period and incorporating more social and cultural history with the political narrative Part of The Blackwell History of the World Series The goal of this ambitious series is to provide an accessible source of knowledge about the entire human past, for every curious person in every part of the world. It will comprise some two dozen volumes, of which some provide synoptic views of the history of particular regions while others consider the world as a whole during a particular period of time. The volumes are narrative in form, giving balanced attention to social and cultural history (in the broadest sense) as well as to institutional development and political change. Each provides a systematic account of a very large subject, but they are also both imaginative and interpretative. The Series is intended to be accessible to the widest possible readership, and the accessibility of its volumes is matched by the style of presentation and production.

The updated and enhanced third edition of A History of Latin America to 1825 presents a comprehensive narrative survey of Latin American history from the region's first human presence until the majority of Iberian colonies in America emerged as sovereign states c. 1825. This edition features new content on the history of women, gender, Africans in the Iberian colonies, and pre-Columbian peoples Includes more illustrations to aid learning: over 50 figures and photographs, several accompanied by short essays Concentrates on the colonial period and earlier, expanding coverage of the period and incorporating more social and cultural history with the political narrative Part of The Blackwell History of the World Series The goal of this ambitious series is to provide an accessible source of knowledge about the entire human past, for every curious person in every part of the world. It will comprise some two dozen volumes, of which some provide synoptic views of the history of particular regions while others consider the world as a whole during a particular period of time. The volumes are narrative in form, giving balanced attention to social and cultural history (in the broadest sense) as well as to institutional development and political change. Each provides a systematic account of a very large subject, but they are also both imaginative and interpretative. The Series is intended to be accessible to the widest possible readership, and the accessibility of its volumes is matched by the style of presentation and production.

This volume presents a selection of translated public and private letters, written by Spanish officials, merchants, and ordinary settlers, aiming to illuminate the panorama of sixteenth-century Spanish American settler society and its genres of correspondence. Letters written by Native Americans, a few of whom at this time were beginning to practice European-style letter-writing, are also included. It is hoped that readers will feel the colorful humanity of the letter-writers, and also see the wide array of social types and functions during this era in the United States' Southwest.

A History of Colonial Latin America from First Encounters to Independence is a concise and accessible volume that presents the history of the Iberian presence in the Americas, from the era of exploration and conquest to the disruption and instability following independence. This history of the Iberian presence in the Americas contains stories of curiosity, vision, courage, missed communication, miscalculation, insatiability, prejudice, and native collaboration and resistance. Beginning in 1492, Ramirez establishes the context for the era of exploration and conquest that follows. The book then surveys the activities of Cortes and Pizarro and the impact on native peoples, Portuguese activity on the eastern coast of South America, the demographic collapse of the native population, the role of the Catholic Church, and new policy initiatives of the Bourbons who inherited the throne in 1700. The narrative involves Spaniards, Native Americans of innumerable ethnic groups, Moorish, native, and black slaves, and a whole new category of people of mixed blood, collectively known as the castas, acting in the steamy tropics of the lowlands, marching across parched deserts, trekking to oxygen-low mountain summits, and settling all the ecological niches in between. The book includes important primary documents and maps to provide students with even more context to this important part of Latin American history. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Latin American history and culture.

This is an authoritative large-scale history of the whole of Latin America, from the first contacts between native American peoples and Europeans in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to the present day.