Assignment
PART II: One three-part comprehensive essay. Answer this essay in at least five substantive, well-developed, and well-argued body paragraphs with specific examples (your introduction and conclusion, separate, can be brief). Answer all parts of each question and be sure to provide specific examples drawn from your lecture notes, Kicza’s “Resilient Cultures”, Lepore’s “Encounters in the New World,” Benjamin’s The Atlantic World, your handouts and your films. Length of your essay: At least five substantive, well-argued, and well-supported body paragraphs (your introduction and conclusion, separate, can be brief).
This big question has three parts- answer all three parts in about 5 well developed body paragraphs with specific examples (your introduction and conclusion, separate, can be brief).
a) Native Peoples. Describe in detail the native societies of the Americas before the conquest (by the year 1491). How did native peoples organize their societies and their work? Be sure to discuss all three broad categories: fully sedentary, semi-sedentary and non-sedentary and give specific examples for each. (Bring in some examples from each of your films here)
b) The Conquest, Settlement and Consequences. Now, discuss in detail the process of the conquest and settlement of the Americas by Spain and Portugal and the consequences of the conquest on the native peoples of the Americas. Take them in order and carefully discuss each: from the “Reconquest” of the Iberian peninsula; to the Caribbean; to the mainland (Mexico; then Central America to Peru); then the conquest expeditions beyond central Mexico and Peru. In what became Portuguese America, discuss the conquest and settlement of Brazil. Be sure to include all of the reasons the conquest of all of these native peoples was so one-sided. Consequences: what specific consequences did the Conquest have for native peoples? Here you’ll discuss disease and all of the ways the native peoples were subjugated; the encomienda (and what that meant for natives; native slavery. What did the emerging economy and society begin to look like in the first generations after the conquest, including the process of mestizaje and cultural change? How about in the “periphery” (the areas away from the fully sedentary peoples)- how were nonsedentary and semi-sedentary native peoples affected by conquest and colonization in those areas?
c) The Spiritual Conquest. Lastly, briefly discuss the role of the Church in the Conquest as well as the “spiritual conquest” of the native peoples in Spanish and Portuguese America. Tell me about the complexities of the spiritual conquest among the fully sedentary natives as well as the mission system among the non-sedentary and semi-sedentary people.
Be sure to bring in specific examples from your our lecture material, our films, Kicza’s chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5, our documents in our Lepore reader, and our articles from Benjamin’s The Atlantic World. (Use our sources, not sources like Wikipedia or other online sources).
