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Colonial Latin America
Daily Lecture Questions



 
Lecture 1: Pre-Conquest Spain

How did the invasion by the Moors lead to a growing sense of unity and national identity?  How did Spain’s history of invasions and war affect the nation’s pursuit of adventure in the Americas? How does Spanish interest in Columbus’s expedition fit into broader trends of European exploration in the 15th century?  How does it fit in the context of the culture of Reconquista?  What signs of the Reconquista culture are evident in the first colonies?

 

Lecture 2: Americas prior to Conquest

How does the pre-Colombian history of the Americas compare to the history of Spain?  What aspects of native cultures help to explain the conquest?  Why is it important to understand the cultural background of Spaniards and Americans prior to contact? How did the early Maya and Inca civilizations compare to the Aztec empire? How might we explain their similarities? Differences? How can understanding the background of these cultures help us to understand the eventual mixing of cultures that will take place with the Spanish conquest?

 

Lecture 4: Conquest of Mexico

How did the Conquest of Mexico represent the fulfillment of the culture of the “Perfect Hidalgo?”  How did it solidify the Spaniards’ combined motivations of “Gold, God, and Glory” in the Americas?  How would you explain Cortes’s success in Mexico despite overwhelming odds?

 

Lecture 5: Conquest of South America

How does the conquest of the Inca compare to Hernan Cortes’s experiences with the Aztecs?  How did Cortes’s expedition become a model for other conquistadors?  What does the violence in Peru illustrate about the motives of conquest?  Why can we consider “settlement” versus “conquest” in Chile and Brazil?

 

Lecture 6: Consolidation of Empire: Conquest of Culture

How can we refer to the environmental and religious consequences of the Spanish involvement in the Americas as “conquest?”  How did the conquest of culture allow the Spanish even greater degrees of control over natives?  How was the Spanish system of honor and social prestige complicated by American society?

 

Lecture 7: Colonial Administration

How was the colonial administrative system extremely streamlined, yet inefficient in Latin America?  How did the relationship between the Church and Crown benefit each?  How did the legacy of colonial government affect Latin American and North American colonies in the divergent paths each would take after independence?

 

Lecture 8: Colonial Society

How did the patriarchy define social norms in Colonial Latin America?  What impact did the patriarchal society have on men and women?  How did the church reinforce patriarchal norms?  How did Latin Americans challenge the patriarchal system?

 

Lecture 9: Indigenous People in Colonial Latin America

How did the emerging labor system reflect the nature of colonial Latin American society? How did the Spanish try to force native peoples into labor systems for mining and agriculture?  What problems did the indigenous labor system create? 

 

Lecture 10: Slavery in Colonial Latin America

How did the emerging labor system reflect the nature of colonial Latin American society?  What problems did the various labor systems create?  How did slavery in colonial Latin America compare to other systems of slavery (such as the U.S. south)?

 

 

Lecture 11: Economic Development in the Colonies

How did the Spanish system of mercantilism in the colonies differ from other mercantilist systems?  How and why did Spain attempt to keep the colonies under such tight control?  Why did the system ultimately fail?

 

 

Lecture 12: Preludes to Independence: Rebellion

What propelled the Spanish monarchs to consider reform measures in the 18th century?  What objective did they have with their economic reforms?  Why did most 18th century rebellions occur in the Latin American colonies?  Was the “Age of Rebellion” an indication that independence was coming? 

 

Lecture 13: Age of Reform

What was the nature of most of the Bourbon Reforms?  What motivated the Bourbon monarchs to changed the way the colonial system operated?  What overall impact did the reforms have?  How did colonists react?  How can the reforms be seen as accelerating the process toward independence (instead of preventing it)?

 

Lecture 14: Brazil and Haiti

How did “new ideas” begin to influence the way European powers approached colonial policies in the Americas?  How did those ideas from abroad influence the way Latin American colonists viewed the role of the colonies?  How are the era of reform in Brazil and revolt in Haiti tied to new ideas and the age of rebellion in the Spanish colonies?

 

Lecture 15: Wars of Independence

What originally sparked independence movements and what did movements hope to achieve?  How did different areas of Latin America eventually become an independent nation?  Why were some areas resistant to independence, while other areas embraced it?  In your opinion, was independence inevitable?