HIST 119, Introduction to Latin American History

Take Home Final Exam

Short essays: Write a
2-3 page essay (1,000 words) in response to the following questions.
(That is, to write a minimum 2-page essay for each.) Each essay is worth 25 points. (Partial credit will be given provided that the portion of the answer given is correct.) You may retype the questions along with your answers on a separate Word document.

PLEASE NOTE: You may use class readings, notes, and other materials, but DO NOT copy answers from other sources as your responses. Wikipedia, History.com, and other such sources are not adequate sources. I will be submitting these exams through Safe Assign in Blackboard. I also have an AI account. Do your own work. Copying or paraphrasing (changing a few words) from sources is still plagiarism, and will be counted as zero. A quote, or series of quotes or paraphrases from other sources, without adequate explanation or analysis of the issues is still passing along someone else’s work as your own and is not acceptable.

1. How did Spanish conquistadores manage to conquer the Aztec and Inca empires? (Provide examples for both cases.)

2. Post-independence Latin America remained divided societies by class, race, gender, and ethnicity, yet power and privilege remained among the European-descendent creole elites. Politics was divided between liberals and conservatives. Explain the differences between liberalism and conservatism in nineteenth-century Latin America? How did these two opposing views try to appeal to the traditionally excluded people (non-whites, women, indigenous people, working-class and rural poor)?

3. What factors led to the October Revolution in Guatemala in the 1940s and the rise of a Socialist President in Chile in the 1970s? How did the United States respond in both cases?

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