TOPIC AREAS: This exam will cover the following topics: Aztecs, Mayas, and Other Pre-Spanish Mexican Civilizations; Spain Before 1492; The Conquest of Mexico; The Spanish Empire in Mexico (prior to the Bourbon Reforms)

BOOK CHAPTERS: These topics are covered in sections 1-3 (chapters 1-13). I will assume that you have read the book when I grade your exam.

LECTURE NOTES: The lectures covered include:

• The First Mexicans: Life in Pre-Spanish Mexico
• Spain on the Eve of the Conquest
• The Hummingbird and the Hawk: The Conquest of Mexico--Cross and Sword
• The Birth of New Spain
• The Spritual Conquest of Mexico
• The Long Sixteenth Century: Silver and the Hapsburg Slumber
• Forging the Cosmic Race: Race and Ethnicity in Colonial Mexico

STRUCTURE OF THE EXAM: This will be an identification exam. You will be expected to do ten long identifications, ten point each.

• Doing Indentifications: You will be given a list of 15-20 terms, of which you will have to do ten, for ten points each. These should be substantive identifications, of about three to four sentences. To do an identification well, you must think of the five "W"s:
  • WHO is the person, or who are the people, involved?
  • WHAT is the event or feature?
  • WHEN did it happen or, in the case of a feature of human geography such as a border, when did it assume the position it had?
  • WHERE did it happen?
  • WHY did it happen or come to be the way it was? Why is it important in Mexican and world history? This is the "So what?" factor.
• Doing Substantive Identifications: Do not simply say on the exam "Christopher Columbus - Genoese sailor who discovered, while working for Spain, the route to the New World, 1492." You must go further to discuss the ramifications of the term. So you would have to continue. "His discoveries made possible a permanent link between the Americas and the Old World, which paved the way for the Spanish, Portuguese and other European empires, and the general destruction of Amerindian political systems. It also had the unintended consequence of a massive demographic disaster among the Amerindian people, who lacked immunity to many Old World diseases." While this is not the only possible answer, it is an example if the level of depth I will be looking for.