HIST 4510 (Spring ’12)
Final Exam
Overview: This is a take-home essay exam over material from the second half of the semester, covering the spiritual conquest through the independence wars.
Topics: This exam covers the following lecture and discussion topics.
Readings: This exam covers Eakin, 8-13; Socolow, 4-8 and 10-11
Instructions: You will write two essays, chosen from the questions below. Be sure to consider all parts of the question, and to use concrete details in your answers. I will assume that you have done the appropriate readings when grading these exams. Each essay should be 500-800 words long.
DUE DATE: This essay is due no later than Friday, May 10, at 4:00 pm. You may deliver them in person to my office or leave them in my mailbox in the History office. You may also email them to tcorse@tnstate.edu. If you are taking a Maymester course and need your grade reported early, please let me know (and turn your exam in as quickly as possible).
Essay Questions:
1. How successful was the "Spiritual Conquest"? What were its success and failures?
2. What strategies and tools did the Spanish and Portuguese empires use to control their empires? What were the strengths and weakness of these techniques?
3. What does the history for freedom in marriage choice tell us about Iberian values and the ways and reasons those values changed?
4. Why was there so much diversity in colonial families, particularly given the existence of a hierarchical state and a conservative church? Explain your answer.
5. What was the role of race in shaping individual identity in the Iberian colonies? Give at least three examples of different racial groups and discuss how race shaped their identities.
6. The colonial empires were a rebellious place. Explain that idea, and why it did not (for three centuries) result in independence.
7. Why did independence happen when it did? Who resisted independence, and why?
8. How and why did women resist the gender roles church and state demanded of them? Who resisted, and who didn't?