New Spain became Mexico virtually overnight, in 1821, although a decade of bloody civil strife preceded its final independence. Historian Eric Van Young uses the case of Mexico to examine the layered and contradictory nature of decolonization.

Speaker Biography: Eric Van Young is a historian and academic of the University of California, San Diego, focusing on colonial and nineteenth-century Latin American history, with an emphasis on Mexico. His publications include "The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Struggle for Mexican Independence, 1810-1821," "In the Vanguard of the Virgin: Popular Rebellion in Mexico, 1810-1821" and "From Empire to Nation: Historical Perspectives on the Making of the Modern World." He has been awarded the Thomas F. McGann Memorial Prize in History (1984); the Hubert Herring Award for the Best Article in Latin American Studies (1984); Conference Prize of the Conference on Latin American History (1989); and the Bolton-Johnson Prize of the Conference on Latin American history (2000).

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