A summary about the profession the Americas Ia. The time period is from 1890 to 1970 in which the essential themes (such as the many wars, WWII, Cold War, Vietnam War) are discussed in the lectures and seminars with some primary texts.
Summary The Americas 1a Exam
1 MAIN THEMES (1890 – 1970)
- Spanish-American War and rise of the US as a global power
- Expansionism and empire
- Pan-Americanism and trans-atlanticism
- US diplomatic and military responses in Latin America and the Caribbean
- Immigration and demographic shifts
- WWII
- Cold War
- Castro and the Cuban Revolution
- Vietnam War
- Civil Rights Movement
1.1 EXAM INFORMATION
- Digital exam
- 3 hours
- 2 parts
Section A (70%): choice of 10 questions, answering 7 (200 – 300 words),
describing historical events (mention year or decade) and describe
primary sources in detail (use quotes).
Try to be detailed to show knowledge of the subject.
Section B (30%): choice of 2 – 3 essay questions, and basically just write
an essay in which to use clear arguments with good evidence. No worrying
about presentation and no need for a works cited list.
1.2 STUDY STRATEGIE
- Read notes + slides from seminars + lectures
- Read LEP chapters partially + read primary source texts partially
- Make a summary from week 2 to week 7
Main historical events of the periods (mention dates)
Texts analysis’s of primary sources (mention quotes)
,2 INTERNATIONALIZING THE UNITED STATES,
WHY AND HOW? (BACKGROUND
INFORMATION)
2.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND LECTURE NOTES
What do we mean when we say America?
Latin-America (Jose Marti – Our America 1891)
Native America
The United States
The entire continent
The discovery of America was done by Amerigo Verspucci
The father of American studies is Vernon Louis Parington – Main Currents in
American Thoughts (1927)
First program History and Civilization (1940) on Harvard University
Interdisciplinary: Ward (1942) “reality lies in the whole and not in the
parts, that the part has meaning only in relation to the whole.”
Johan Gottfried Herder came up with the term: cultural nationalism – every culture is
very different and unique
Question arises: What makes the US so special/different?
Melting pot ideal – A + B + C = D (Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, 1782)
By putting multiple ingredients in the mix you create something entirely
new
Declaration of Independence (1766) hold the most important ideals: freedom and
democracy
The ideology of American exceptionalism arises from these principles/ideals
Example Puritans: “city upon a hill” (1960), originally referring to Boston
and later to the entire US would be as a city upon a hill, not hidden, but an
example to the rest of the world
Bringing liberty and democracy to the rest of the world (often used as
excuse for war)
American studies started in Europe: after WWII because of the Cold War
Used as diplomatic tool for preventing communism to spread to Western-
Europe, continuing till the 1960s
, From 1960 onwards: programs in ethnicity, race, sexuality, slavery and
postcolonial studies
- First time these problems of the US were addressed and these changed
the program
- Challenges the idea of American exceptionalism (the US as a perfect
country), maybe not so different from other powerful nations
The distinction between history and historiography
History: what actually happened (truthful)
Historiography: what was written about it (biased)
David Thelen “the modern practice of history was born a couple of centuries ago …
to invent narratives and persuade people to interpret their personal experiences
within national terms”
First President of the American Historical Association, Andrew White (1884): “All
history must be rewritten from an American point of view” (THELEN TEXT)
Historiography is subject to scholarly fashions, paradigms, ideologies
The importance of multiple perspectives for American Studies
Different insights to historical events
Newest aspect of American Studies is internationalization (recent, around 2000)
9/11 backlash
Discussion of Latino’s as “unmeltable etnics”
English Only and First movements
2.1.1 United States – Latin American Countries relations
From US – LA (early stage) towards LA – US (latest stage)
1820s: Edward Everett: “Anglo and Spanish Americans are from different stock”
1823: President James Monroe: strategic importance of Latin America, its turn
towards democracy is best guided by the US
Make sure the European influence does not spread towards Latin America
(Monroe doctrine)
Uruguayan José Enrique Rodó: regards Europe as cultural and spiritual ideal,
objecting to the materialistic US
Wants to stay independent
Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar: sees the US as a political and military
threat
, Manifest Destiny – justification for the expension of the US
Forms of US interventions: military, diplomatic, economic, trade, investments
Example: Panama Canal (1914) military intervention boosting the
indepence of Panama from Colombia resulting in better trade for the US
1930s: Good Neighbor Policy
Friendly relations
Cold War after WWII destroys this policy
1950s: Cold War ideologies determine foreign policy
Example: Guatemala ?
Concept of “National Security”
Important term during the Cold War
US support for dictatorial regimes
If they provided stability (not likely to fall under communism)
US system of capitalism and democracy failed in Latin countries:
System build for a large middle class – most Latin countries did not have
this (large poor group and small elite) – only elite profited – this caused
revolutions because the poor were dissatisfied
Elite profited from US influence
Larger group did not profit – grow of “Anti-Americanism”
Francis Fukuyama – The end of history and the last man (1992):”What we may be
witnessing is not just the end of the Cold War, or the passing of a particular period
of post-war history, but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of
mankind’s ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal
democracy as the final form of human government.”
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831): dialectical evolution of history
9/11 ---> paradigm shifts (maybe still threats to Western liberal democracy)
With the soviet communism ideology gone, with 9/11 there emerges a
new ideology
Latinization of states such as Florida, Texas, Arizona, California, or New York
Most important US trading partners: Canada and Mexico
Most important US energy resources: Venezuela, Mexico, and Canada
Summits of the Americas
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