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.
 


 
 Stavrianos Ch: 9  Latin America 

Remember: in class discussion, you must provide evidence of close reading, analytical thinking, and having made effective generalizations. You must use examples for illustration. Avoid poor analysis like “exploitation” or “power” in favor of stating exactly what happened without editorial comment. 

1. Describe the class system in Latin America on the eve of independence. 

2. What did political independence mean for Latin America? 
Unrestricted trade 
control over local markets 
 p. 178 characteristics of Spanish mercantilism 
 p. 179 mercantile versus modern 

3.  What was the significance of Father Hidalgo’s rebellion? What were his demands? Why were they not realized with revolution and independence? 

4.  Describe the culture of neocolonialism. Attitudes of the national elites? 
 Materialism, racism, rigid social stratification, low literacy 

5. In the U.S. northern industrial protectionists versus Southern free traders. 
a.  184-85 Grant cites early British protectionism/mercantilism as allowing the growth of U>S> power, and why preference for “free” trade (read: unrestricted access to markets where one has strength) appeared later.  What are the implications for the third world today of the historical experience of the U.S.? 

6. Describe the main characteristics of Latin American society after independence. 
 LA more controlled by Spanish and Portugese than Britian’s colonies. 
 no internal economy; depressed status of castes; NOT consumers 
 lack of capital 
 attitudes towards manufacturing (part of the culture of neocolonialism) 
 plantation interests stronger; protectionist/mercantile/industrial interests weak; thus native mercantile/industrial interests left with only local trade; mass trade dominated by whom? 
 19thC conservatives: creole landowners=internal market; liberals; merchants = global market 
 accelleration of investment in LA in 19thC; railroads, ports, ships, canals, refrigeration 
                      use stats p. 188 as examples 
 p. 189: how was all this new wealth distributed? What is “spread effect”? (p. 189)

7. What are “enclave economies”? 

8. What kind of social relations do export agriculture and mining produce: ninety percent of rural households were propertyless on the eve of the Mexican revolution. 
“growing dissatisfaction and conflict” 

9.Or, Why was Mexico the site of the first third world revolution of the twentieth century? 

10. WHY DID PEASANT CONDITIONS WORSEN IN LATIN AMERICA IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY? 

  “Worsen” means describing WHAT changed. Worse than what?  These are not still colonial areas; all have become independent nations. What did political independence MEAN for these areas? P. 185, characteristics of L. Am. after independence. 

11. WHAT ROLE DID NATIONAL ELITES PLAY IN THIS?
 a. free trade/ world trade/ technology 
 b. peasant production accelerated; new lands brought into raw commodity production for 
  export; much new wealth 
 c. mechanized extraction (including railroads) 
 d. more net wealth created; less distributed 
 e. no regional economic development 
 f. importation of finished goods 
 g. reduced tariff protection under “free trade” pressures 

12. What happened to the peasants? 
 a. widening social gap; class system and distribution of wealth 
 b. monetized society 
 c. land grabs, further growth of plantation and mine areas; more landless wage labor 
 d. wages low 
 e. raw material prices low worldwide (most bulk commodities under free trade) 
 f. increased forced work 
 g. increased taxation 
 h. few linkages grow in local economy 
 i. little political participation 
 j. what little manufacturing there was did not absorb masses of landless peasants 
 k. social structure: landlords vs. peasants with small middle class; 
 l. peasant villages do not retain wealth they create 
 m. what is the culture of neocolonialism? 
 

13. Therefore, WHAT WERE PEASANT NEEDS AND DEMANDS? 

14. National Elites: Creoles, Tanzimat, etc. 
 a. retain status quo 
 b. seize land 
 c. become middlemen through plantation ownership or merchant activity in extracting 
  raw materials and importing foreign goods. 
d. Examples 
. * Turkey: Anglo-Turkish Commercial Convention 1838  

*Mexico: 90% of rural peasant households propertyless 
  Father Hidalgo’s Rebellion 
  In Latin America: only 2-4% of males could vote



 
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