Modules 2, 3 and 4 introduce you to the immediate aftermath of contact and the development of the colonial system in the Americas. In this “new world” Europeans, indigenous people and African descendants willingly and unwillingly created what would become Latin America. Your task is to respond to this transformation using the materials presented to you in the lectures and the materials folder.

Below are three prompts – you must choose one. Each prompt roughly overlaps with one of the modules, but you can bring readings and lectures from each/any lecture to bear on your answer/argument.

Prompt 1: History is written with surviving documents – how do the documents that historians use to write the early history of Atlantic exploration and “discovery” affect our understanding of this moment? What motivated early explorers to cross the Atlantic – and how do we know this? What accounts to we have that tell us about their experience and intentions – and what accounts do we have that tell us about how they were received by indigenous populations?

Prompt 2: The Spanish had a powerful and invisible ally in their conquest of indigenous peoples – diseases that Europeans were immune to coursed through the indigenous populations with fatal consequences. Using the primary sources assigned in the materials ans the lectures,convey your understanding of what indigenous societies were like before small pox & war altered them forever. How do reports from the early conquest reflect on native societies, and how does the scholarship on diseases and population help you understand what early colonial life was like, both for Europeans who were moving to New Spain after its conquest, and for the indigenous people that survived?

Prompt 3: To say the Spanish considered themselves superior to the people they colonized is obvious – that is what the conquest was. But marital/casual alliances were also part of this process in the early phase (see Hernan Cortés and Malintzin), so the the colonizers and colonized did not remain a distinct group for long. In the years, decades and generations that followed this would become ever more common, yet the ethnic hierarchy became embedded in society. Different parts of the Americas experience and integrate this social structure differently – but across Latin America social hierarchies of power & privilege become attached to ethnic and racial signifiers. Using the materials and lecture in module, explore and explain how this unfolded during the colonial period.
Watch the videos (about 50 min) and write a 800 words essay.
Chose a topic in the “Requirement”.