Latin America was born out of the complex, cataclysmic and oftentimes bloody encounter between Iberians (people from Spain and Portugal), Africans and the Indigenous people of the Americas. This course will explore the multiple meanings and impacts of European conquest as well as tracing the development of these colonial societies until their national independence in the early nineteenth century. I chose the readings to give a sense of the vast diversity of geographies and colonial experiences, but my aim is not to cover the particularities of every region or nascent country in the colonies. Rather, we will focus on several themes, including race relations between the Spanish, Indigenous and Africans, sexuality and gender on the frontier and in the city, and strategies of conquest and resistance.