The course expands the story of Latin America from the time of their independence at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It surveys the challenges Latin Americans faced at independence and how they tried to meet these up to 1970. The course studies the histories of specific countries at various periods of the post-colonial period as illustrations of the generalizations that are made about the twenty countries. It provides students with the opportunity to compare the post-colonial experiences of a region outside Africa which fell under European colonial rule with those of independent Africa.