Directions: After reading the chapter in your textbook, Read and Consider the following study materials very carefully, and Answer the study questions as succinctly as possible.

 



 
Week 2: Latin America:  Stav 4. LEARN WHAT SOCIAL/STRUCTURAL MEANS. 
1) Precolonial Latin America: 
 highly developed empires/civilizations; tribes, villages. 
  with cities, advanced agriculture, astronomy, math, architecture, art; non-producing 
  classes; authoritarian politics 
 Aztecs: Tenochtitlan, largest city on earth. 200,000; 25 million in valley of Mexico; 
 Spanish lopped off head of polity; intermarried with surviving nobility; INCORPORATED 
  natives; Why were natives so vulnerable? technologically, biologically, politically, 
  psychologically 
 English: killed or removed tribes/villages/ found no civs 
 90% died in Americas: est 100 million (50 an old est); down to 10 (not 4) by 1600; disease, 
  forced labor. 
 What was the Catholic Church attitude toward Indians? 
 
 
What are the origins of underdevelopment? Differences between Latin and US America? 

 
2) Who colonized it. 16th Century Spain, itself lagged in econ development; little industry; few commercial centers; little science, internal trade; bourgeoisie insignificant; crown controlled economy; capital (gold) spent elsewhere; not invested at home, no linkages; little capital accumulation in hands of merchants. 
 Politically; feudal, aristocratic; authoritarian; Church-controlled 
 The Church a major impediment; Spain obsessively religious, mystical, otherworldly outlook; 
  no Protestant reformation; inquisition; censorship; 
  no Enlightenment, scientific revolution; no secular outlook; 
 
 In Spanish America, a RELIGIOUS, LANDED CLASS DOMINANT most Spanish migrants wanted to become landlords, presiding over mestizo or slave, or native labor; Church a major owner of slave plantations and haciendas; mostly men came to new world: thus few white Spanish men, many natives; mulatto and mestizo population. 
 haciendas, mines, plantations using serf or slave labor, through debt peonage, 
But not just who colonized you explainsTHE ORIGINS OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT: 
  Crown wanted gold; then for-export commodity production; 

17th Century England: MERCANTILIST TOO; bourgeoisie, trade, beginnings of capitalism; capital 
  accumulation; investment in textile production; (See Stav p. 86) Spanish   Dependency: 
  significance, p. 87.*** 
 Commercial not feudal agriculture; diversified agriculture and diversified economy; most 
  people small, independent farmers; proprietors; healthy, internal circulating market 
  economy w/many linkages; 
 Not religious fanatics: few witch burnings, the inquisition never came to England; little 
  censorship, Protestant reformation secularizes culture, separates Church and State; 
  freedom of and from religion; widespread literacy; secular, education. 
 Those who came to New England wanted to work the land themselves; but in the South, 
  landlords and slaves; 
 Few natives (killed or driven off); many English men and women; practically no intermarriage; 
  race more definite, more of a social factor; more of a divide. 
THUS: CLASS STRUCTURES: explain p. 165 how social patterns relate to political stability. 
Stav. p. 89: Who colonizes not enuf to explain dependency: 
1) Mercantilism and dependency: Crown economic policies also caused dependency and 
 underdevelopment in the colonies: Colonies to provide products and markets for owning 
 country; state monopolies, price fixing, regulation; forced production and export of raw 
 commodities: name them; import of manufacturers; forbidden to mfg any competing stuff  in 
 colonies; what was the source of colonial wealth? What did colonial wealth finance? (their own   colonization; Spain and Portugal’s dynastic and religious wars). 

 
2) But Spain unable to absorb (provide market for) all the commodities produced in colonies, Spain's 
 market small, didn't mfg much itself; few independent traders, entrepreneurs, manufacturers; no 
 modern financial or commercial sector; nobility looked down on commerce; Spain took the 
 gold, but spent it on a) wars, and b) mfg; exported raw mats: wool, iron, wine; imported mfgs  (cloth, iron) from Belgium, France, England who profit; foreigners controlled much of foreign trade in Spain and Portugal. (1580-1640 Portugal under Spanish rule) 

THE LATIN AMERICAN PLANTATION ECONOMIES: (the American South too) mines haciencas, 12 million slaves. underdeveloped vs. diversified, independent, capable of development: 
monocrop capable only of growth: explain growth without development 
vertical vs. horozontal linkages: internal circulating economy: transportation; 
Can plantation economies generate internal horozontal linkages? Why or why not? 

 versus: Colonial North America: independent, diversified, small producers for domestic consumption AND export: therefore wealth stays at home: little wealth, poor soil, climate; mercantile restrictions; 
So, Am colonies supplied carrying trade & Caribbean: fish, beef, grain for rum, to Africa for gold, slaves; No direct supervision by England. 

p. 97 Why was European trade with Latin America more lucrative that with India and China together, even as late as 1807? 

 
WHAT DOES THE EXAMPLE OF BARBADOS (Stav 89) TELL US? CUBA? Barbados: sugar cane introduced in 1640 with what consequences? 

 
The NATURE of the colonial economy explains dependency: Large plantations destroy or marginalize rural smallholders, the independent farmers who could provide an internal economy w/linkages; slaves not consumers. 

What ELSE happens in a monocrop economy re: the example of Guiana p. 97?  

What can you conclude about plantation economies? ruins local economy, ecology; replaces it with forced labor monocrop, for export; extractive infrastructure; SAME PATTERN TODAY. 

Stav. p. 95: chart: If one in four made it, how many people came out of Africa? 



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