Modern Brazil

In this course we will study the history of modern Brazil from independence to the present day. We will pay close attention to the construction of national institutions and culture in the 19th and 20th centuries. We will examine the major political, economic, and cultural movements that defined Brazilian history during the empire and abolition as well as the Vargas and military dictatorships of the 20th century, and the representative democracy from the 1980s to the present. Finally, we will compare the major developments in Brazil to that of its neighbors, particularly Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.