HIST30243

This course examines Spain's culture, politics, and society from its creation out of a collection of small medieval kingdoms to the age of Columbus and the creation of a colonial empire, the collapse of this empire in the nineteenth century, and the path from dictatorship to democracy in the 20th century. It will include an emphasis on the Spanish values and beliefs that generated periods of religious cooperation and repression, experiments in absolute monarchy and constitutional government, and an ongoing tension between the desire for national unity and the recognition of regional differences. (EU)