HIST278 Midterm Essay Questions (General Course)

What are the origins of the word “Caribbean”?

Named for Indigenous peoples labeled carib by European invaders. Stereotypes as violent cannibals, supposedly contrasting with the friendly Arawaks (Taínos)

What were myths used for during the Conquest Era?

To justify conquest and colonization.

What is the myth of “Pristine Wilderness”?

By William Denevan, the belief that the Americas before the landing of colonizers was a “virgin wilderness”, untouched and sparsely settled. “Empty of mankind and its works”, “untrammeled by man”.

What is the counter-view of the myth of “Pristine Wilderness”, regarding the impact that Indigenous people had on the land?

Indigenous people indeed had effect on the land, shaping much of the agriculture, such as terra preta in the Amazon and conucos of the Caribbean, and creating very technologically advanced cities and communities.

What is the counter-view of the myth of “Pristine Wilderness”, regarding the population size?

The environment in the Americas supported many more people that previously believed, with estimates of much higher now than before. The so-called primeval wilderness “in fact has been managed by people for the millenia”

What is the myth of the “Backwards Indians vs. Advanced Europeans”?

A backwards belief that European colonists created a “civilization where no existed”.

What is the myth of “Plucky Spaniards with Superior Technology”?

The belief that a “handful of daring and brilliant adventures used tricker/superior technology to convince ignorant Indians that they were gods and to overthrow large empires.”

What was the counter-view of the myth of “Plucky Spaniards with Superior Technology”?

Most historians of the Conquest argue that the Aztecs did not view the invaders as gods—or, if they did, they got over that view quickly, especially when the Aztecs realized they could kill the Spaniards

What advantages did European technologies have?

The ability to use firearms and animals—horses, canons, guns, dogs—to their advantage in crucial massacres.

What disadvantages did European technology have?

In tropical conditions, metal amor was too hot and heavy for tropical areas, canons and guns were inaccurate, and terrain was not suited towards European-style warfare.

What was one of the most detrimental things to come to the Indigenous people?

Disease—weakened empires/states/cities, sometimes even before Spaniards arrived. Decimated the indigenous population to an extreme extent.

When did Hernán Cortes arrive in Mexico?

1519

Who rallied with Hernán Cortes?

Tlaxcalans

When did the Spaniards, led by Hernán Cortes, and their indigenous allies conquer Tenochtitlan?

1512

What was the myth of “Daring, active Spaniards vs. Passive ‘Indians’ in the Conquest”?

The belief that courageous Europeans effortlessly defeated Indigenous populations because Indigenous people were either too paralyzed, superstitious or primitive to fight back.

What was the counter-myth of the Black Legend (Leyenda Negra)

The Rosy Legend (La leyenda rose)

What was the Rosy Legend (La leyenda rose)?

The belief that conquest was justified because it brought Christianity, civilization, and modernity to the Americas. Also believes that the number of indigenous deaths were inflated, and that conquerers were heroic.

What are counter-views against both Black and Rosy Legends?

All European empires massacred/exploited, enslaved and forced Christianity in many parts of the world. Spanish conquerers governed over some sedentary civilizations, and sought to protect those subjects in order to get taxes and labor from them. Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition did target “heretics” but stronger and more violent in the Iberian Peninsula than in Spanish America, and some Spaniard (e.g. las Casas, Montesinos) and Portuguese wrote critiques early on.

Who were the main carriers of protest activity during the Cochabamba Water War?

Neighborhood associations and potable-water committees, and many different groups of peasants and indigenous people. Eventually formed the Coordinadora.

What were the origins of the Water War in Bolivia?

Severe economic crises in 1980s, government adopts neoliberal reforms for stabilization which included privatization of state-owned industries, reduction of government in the economy, and structural adjustment programs supported by international financial institutions (World Bank, IMF).

How did Bolivians view water privatization?

At their expense. They saw this as giving too much power to foreign corporations, weakening the state, and making basic necessities expensive.

What was the state of Cochabamba’s water problems?

The public water company SEMAPA was inefficient and unable to provide adequate water. Poor neighborhoods did not have reliable access, and resorted to buying from private vendors, using wells, and organizing community water systems.

What company was given control over the water system in Cochabamba?

The multinational consortium Aguas del Tunari

What was the law that formalized the privatization of the Bolivian water systems?

Law 2029

What was the argument against Law 2029?

Argument that the law gave too much power to private companies, threatened existing community water systems, forced communities to pay for water systems that they themselves developed, and failed to recognize traditional water rights.

What happened after Law 2029 was passed?

Water rates increased dramatically and became unaffordable to working-class and poor families.

When did the Cochabamba Water War occur?

Late 1999 continuing into 2000.

What were the demands of protesters in the Cochabamba Water War?

Lowering water prices, repeal or modification of Law 2029, ending privatization, and recognition of community water rights.

How did the government respond to Cochabamba Water War protests?

With police repression and violent escalation. They then declared a state of siege, with the conflict becoming national news.

What is believed to have happened to Caribbean Indians?

Indigenous people of large islands were largely decimated. 1540 Census of Hispaniola only reported 250 indios, then by the following century as virtually zero. Enslaved Africans and their descendants made up the majority population.

What is a counter-view of what happened in Indigenous Caribbeans?

The belief that they held out in smaller islands and violently resisted Europeans. They moved throughout the Caribbean and across imperial boundaries. Also that they mixed with Africans and their descendants.

What was the outcome of the Cochabamba Water War?

Success in the grassroots resistance in pushing out Aguas de Tinari. Protests effective in reversing privation, but the water problems are still not completely soleved.

What was the Caribbean plantation complex?

An oppressive, industrial-style agricultural system based on monoculture crop production and enslaved labor throughout the 17th-19th centuries.

What were commodities for export in the Caribbean?

Indigo, tobacco, coffee, cotton, sugar

What was unique about the general Caribbean population after the rise of plantations?

The majority of the population was enslaved, creating racial reconfiguration and hierarchy. 85-90% of the population was enslaved.

How did Caribbean plantation complexes affect their mother countries?

The wealth of England and France increased greatly, with these systems driving their wealth and rapid movement.

What did Caribbean slavery do to group identification?

It isolated and defined one group in racial terms of African descent.

How was the slave population maintained?

Mainly by constant imports from the slaver trade, because deaths among the enslaved greatly outpaced births — low fertility rates ad high infant mortality rates.

Who popularized the Plantation Machine idea?

Trevor Burnard and John Garrigus

What is the idea of the Plantation Machine?

Conceptualizing colonial plantations as complex, rigid systems with high coordination of proto-industrial agriculture designed to maximize profit through extreme exploitation and enslaved labor.

What was “creolization”?

The process where enslaved Africans, Europeans, and Indigenous peoples mixed their cultural traditions, languages, and social habits to create entirely new forms of expression.

What was the Transatlantic Triangular Trade?

After Europe gains maritime access to sub-Saharan Africa in 1440s, the beginning of the massive movement and shipment of enslaved Africans, set to replace the decreasing traditional sources of slavery.

Where were the enslaved Africans from the Transatlantic Triangular Trade shipped to?

Portugal and Spain, Atlantic Islands, Santo Domingo, and the New World.

What was referred to as the “racialization of the slave population”?

As the slave trade increased and the Black Sea and Mediterranean slave trades no longer flowed into southern Europe, enslaved Africans increasingly became the main slave population, and after the mid-1500s, slavery would be isolated to people of African descent in Spanish America.

What happened to the Native population in Santo Domingo in Spanish American colonies?

They were divided among European settlers and forced to work for “Christians” and virtually enslaved. They were usually captured in battle during Spanish conquest or raids, and if these populations were deemed “at war”, it provided a legal justification for capture and enslavement.

What was the Crown’s response to the illegal enslavement of indigenous Americans in Spanish American colonies?

The Crown increasingly cracked down on it, of those “who had not, in fact, been captured in authorized warfare…”. In 1540, Spain banned new enslavement of free Indians including prisoners of war, even though “major exceptions continued to be made”.

Why did sugar plantations increase in Spanish American colonies, especially Santo Domingo?

Gold mines in Santo Domingo became increasingly unproductive in the early 1500s and eventually with the importation of more slaves to Santo Domingo.

What were the weaknesses of colonies in Santo Domingo?

Lots of “dense, untamed terrain” that made it easy for enslaved people to escape and hide. Eventually, large numbers of slaves escaped and rebelled with Indians against Spanish rule.

When did production fall drastically in Santo Domingo?

Mid-1850s

What happened to colonies in the late 15th c.?

Colonies began to fail and decrease in production, many Spaniards sold slaves for money and some slaves purchases their own freedom. Majority of populations now were escapees or freed slaves living independently.

When and what was the rise of diversity in colonial society?

1500-1800, development of slaves and free Black people changing the view on placing Black individuals in one state. Large Black and mulatto populations that were free in 1800s. Rise of African religious congregations, colonial militias, artisan guilds, and large families.

By the 1600s, where was the most important center for Latin American plantations?

Brazil

Where did slaves come from?

Congo, Angola, Atlantic coast of West Africa. As slave demand increased, merchants expanded more inland.

What was the general demographic of slaves?

Predominantly African adult males, relatively young

What was the “pre-Columbian Period”?

Pre-1492

What was the Colonial Period (Spanish/Portuguese Empires)?

1500s to 1820s

What is the Modern/National/Post-Colonial Period?

Circa 1820s to the present.

What is the Paradox of Enlightenment and Free Trade?

Greater freedom to trade and invest led to the movement of unfree and commodified bodies of enslaved human beings. More enslaved bodies = more displacement, suffering, deaths, torture, and profits.

Which was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery?

Brazil

In Spanish colonial colonies, what system was diversity organized through?

The caste system

What was the caste system based off of?

Ancestry, birthplace, skin color, and societal status.

What was the caste label for a Spaniard?

Español

What was the caste label for an Indigenous person?

Indio

What was the caste label for a Black person?

Negro

What was the caste label for a mixed European/Indigenous person?

Mestizo

What was the caste label for an African/European person?

Mulata/Mulatto/Pardo

What was the caste label for an Indigenous/African person?

Zambo

What could a person’s caste change depending on?

Wealth, marriage, occupation, reputation, physical appearance, location, social connections.

What did the caste system effect, on society?

Taxation, occupations, access to education, political status, social prestige…

What was The Republica de Indios?

Indigenous communities that were organized into separate political communities with their own certain protections including communal lands, local government, and indigenous authority. In exchange, they paid tribute and supplied labor.

What was the contradiction of Indigenous communities under colonial rule?

Indigenous people were simultaneously protected by special laws yet treated legally and socially as inferior.

In what ways did enslaved people pursue their own freedom?

Military service, escape, lawsuits, self-purchase, purchasing relatives, rebellions, etc.

What was the “Free Womb” Laws?

Children born to enslaved mothers were technically declared free, but often remained under the control of enslavers until adulthood.

What was the myth of Racial Harmony?

Leaders portrayed new republics as societies where caste discrimination had been abolished with an ideal of racial equality. However, there was a contradiction between the legal situation where racial equality existed, but socially discrimination and racial hierarchy remained.

What was the idea of a “caste war”?

Leaders could use “racial equality” as a tool to portray anyone that complained about discrimination as a threat to national unity. Black and pardo activist would therefore be accused of promoting this.

What was the idea of “mesitzaje”?

The idea that racial mixing, or “whitening” could create a unified national population.

What were the various meaning of Creole?

Also crioulo/criollo, Spanish descent born in the New World

What was “honor” in colonial society?

A person’s reputation and status, which would be maintained and defended.

What was a woman’s honor attributed to in colonial society?

Sexual reputation, modesty, chastity, obedience, and proper behavior.

What was a man’s honor attributed to in colonial society?

Authority, courage, ability to defend themselves and family, public reputation.

How did women actively participate in the culture of honor?

They could bring accusations against others, defend their reputations in court, deny accusations, challenge insults, demand punishments for those who dishonored them, use legal institutions to protect themselves, and get into physical altercations.

What was the Paradox of Honor, in terms of women in colonial society?

The honor system restricted women by demanding that they behave according to strict gender expectations, but those same expectations gave women a language through which they could demand respect.

Who wrote the source 1491?

Charles C. Mann

What was the main idea in 1491?

America in this time period was more populated, developed, and environmentally modified than historians traditionally believed. Native Americans has large societies, sophisticated agriculture systems, cities, etc.

Who was the author of The True History of the Conquest of New Spain?

Bernal Díaz del Castillo

What was the main idea in The True History of the Conquest of New Spain?

Providing a more accurate historical record of the Spanish victory over the Aztec Empire, achieved by the collective bravery of ordinary foot soldiers, and not just Hernán Cortes. Also providing a true, realistic picture of Meso-america and Indigenous societies.

Who wrote A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies?

Bartolomé de las Casas

What was the main idea of A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies?

Exposing the brutal atrocities, mass slaughter, and harsh exploitations inflicted on Indigenous Americans by Spanish colonizers, in order to appeal to the Spanish crown, and vie for colonial reformation and end to the encomienda system.

Who was the author of Afro-Latin America?

George Reid Andrews

What was the main idea of the source, Afro-Latin America?

Emphasizing interactions between the mutual impact of large structural forces and human agency (both individual and collective). How the “actions and initiatives of slaves and free people of color” challenged the plans of colonial authorities, and thus shaped the system and society overall.

Who was the author of From Caste to Race?

Nancy P. Appelbaum

What was the main idea of the source From Caste to Race?

Spanish American societies were extremely racially and culturally diverse. Under Spanish colonial rule, this diversity was organized through a caste system, which then was attempted to be abandoned yet left a legacy of racial inequality. This transformation was not simply imposed by elites, but actively shaped by all colored individuals to make a new political order.

Who was the author of A Slap in the Face of Honor?

Sonya Lipsett-Rivera

What was the main idea of A Slap in the Face of Honor?

Examining how women in late-colonial Mexico, understood, defended, and sometimes challenged the social expectations surrounding honor.