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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
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?