"The Caribbean in the making of the West"
May 2, 2025
9a - 2:30p
Marisa Fuentes, Associate Professor, Department of History and Women's & Gender Studies, Rutgers University
From a U.S. vantage point, the Caribbean stays in the background of our news cycle unless a hurricane or earthquake devastates a small island nation. Even then, only if that weather pattern is headed for U.S. shores. To recenter the Caribbean in world history, this seminar will explore the profound significance of early Caribbean history to the making of the ?West? from the first interactions between Europeans and Indigenous, to early forms of capitalism, racial slavery, racial hierarchy, and exploitative labor systems (plantations) that destroyed natural environments. We will read a mix of primary and secondary sources, maps, and images to understand the early developments and trajectories of economic and racial systems that began in the Caribbean and are still with us today. We will also explore Indigenous and African responses to these systems in armed conflict and cultural traditions.
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