Deck 2: Race, Nation, and the Meaning of Freedom, 1821-1888

Question 1

The rise of José Antonio Páez illustrates the

A) democratization of political life and disregard for color lines following independence.
B) renewal of the old colonial ruling class by admitting military caudillos of humble origin.
C) admission of peninsular Spaniards to high political office.
D) prominent political role of the clergy following independence.

Answer 1

renewal of the old colonial ruling class by admitting military caudillos of humble origin.

Question 2

Which of the following did NOT benefit from Brazilian independence?

A) Slaves.
B) Slaveowners.
C) Fazendeiros or large landowners.
D) Monarchy.

Answer 2

Slaves.

Question 3

The guano boom enabled the Castilla regime in Peru to

A) put guano revenues into economic development projects.
B) reduce indigenous tribute burdens.
C) set free the black slave population of Peru.
D) pay off Peru's foreign debt.

Answer 3

set free the black slave population of Peru.

Question 4

Historians like Frank Tannenbaum traditionally argued that Latin American experience with slavery was different than in the United States because creole independence leaders like Simón Bolívar

A) were far more conservative and avoided discussions of emancipation.
B) uniformly opposed slavery and secured its abolition without violence.
C) favored gradual abolition of slavery, but opposed racial discrimination.
D) never embraced racism, although they supported slavery.

Question 5

The most tenacious resistance to abolition of slavery in Brazil came from

A) the sugar planters of the Northeast.
B) the states of Amazonas and Ceará.
C) the coffee planters of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro.
D) the cattle raisers of Rio Grande do Sul.

Question 6

Which of these did not contribute to Cuba's transformation to monoculture?

A) The French Revolution, 1789-1815.
B) The Seven Years' War and the British occupation of Havana in 1762.
C) The American Revolution, 1776-1783.
D) The Haitian Revolution, 1791-1803.

Question 7

President Manuel Pardo helped to precipitate the War of the Pacific by

A) sending a threatening diplomatic note to Chile.
B) imposing heavy taxes on Anglo-Chilean companies in Tarapacá.
C) expropriating foreign companies and creating a state monopoly of nitrates in Tarapacá.
D) setting sharp limits on the sale and export of nitrates from Tarapacá.

Question 8

Dom Pedro's abdication as emperor of Brazil was precipitated by

A) the costly and fruitless war with Argentina over Uruguay.
B) his favoritism to the Portuguese courtiers in his court.
C) his involvement in Portuguese politics.
D) the French Revolution of 1830.

Question 9

Brazil's Rio Branco Law

A) freed all slaves over age 18 but required them to work for their masters until the age of 21.
B) created a fund to be used for the manumission of slaves.
C) was a tactical retreat designed to delay solution of the slavery problem.
D) freed all slaves who had volunteered for service in the Paraguayan war.

Question 10

When Bolívar assumed power in Peru in 1823, he

A) reduced the payments made by indigenous sharecroppers to their landlords.
B) abolished compulsory personal service of tenants to their landlords.
C) ordered division of indigenous communal lands into privately held parcels of land.
D) expropriated all church lands.

Question 11

To secure control of labor and protect property rights against slave rebellions, early republican elites favored "Free Womb" legislation, which

A) guaranteed reproductive freedom to slave women.
B) liberated female slaves and their children, but prohibited male manumission.
C) compromised the interests of slaveowners and free blacks fearful of wage competition.
D) freed children of slaves, but required them to serve their mother's master until adulthood.

Question 12

A more recent revisionist interpretation of slavery's demise in Latin America

A) stresses the influence of Enlightenment ideas on freedom and equality.
B) centers on republican elites and their activities.
C) focuses on the behavior of slaves and free people of color.
D) spotlights the role of a benevolent monarchy.

Question 13

The most pressing issue facing the young republic of Gran Colombia was

A) slavery.
B) government debt.
C) a stagnant economy.
D) international trade.

Question 14

The Ten Years' war

A) ended in a bitter stalemate between Cuba and Spain.
B) was won by the United States.
C) ended with a total Spanish victory.
D) resulted in Cuban independence.

Question 15

Antonio Maceo opposed the Pact of Zanjón, ending the Ten Years' War, because it

A) abolished slavery and established a period of apprenticeship for liberated slaves.
B) offered the prospect of free, unlimited trade with the United States.
C) provided greater political autonomy to Cuba, but preserved the institution of slavery.
D) failed to achieve both national independence and abolition of slavery.

Question 16

Cuba developed into a major sugar producer in the first part of the nineteenth century because

A) U.S. investors rushed into the island after the War of 1812.
B) a civil war in Jamaica destroyed it as a sugar producer.
C) the British invested heavily in the island.
D) Haiti was knocked out as a sugar producer by its devastating war for independence.

Question 17

Two important factors that influenced the shape of postcolonial national political and economic institutions were

A) slavery and race.
B) piracy and indigenous rebellion.
C) decline of export markets and dependence on foreigners.
D) women's liberation and growing social equality.

Question 18

The U.S. entrepreneur, Henry Meiggs,

A) made a large contribution to the modernization of Peru's coastal agriculture.
B) assisted in initiating a new flow of foreign loans to Peru.
C) pioneered the construction of a railroad system in Peru.
D) created a large merchant fleet to serve Peru's export trade.

Question 19

Contrary to Tannenbaum, a later interpretation of the motivations for Latin American abolitionism stressed republican elite's

A) moral outrage against slavery.
B) fear of armed slaves.
C) Enlightenment inspired belief in human equality.
D) interests in political and military expediency.

Question 20

A decisive event in the history of Brazilian slavery was

A) the Anglo-Brazilian Treaty of 1830.
B) the Queiroz anti-slave-trade law of 1850.
C) the decline of the sugar-growing Northeast after 1850.
D) the growing prosperity of the coffee-growing zone after 1850.

Question 21

The Federal war produced some social change in Venezuela by the

A) distribution of large estates to former peons or tenants.
B) passage of laws forbidding racial discrimination.
C) acquisition of Conservative-owned estates by Liberal officers of humble origin.
D) abolition of debt peonage and company stores.

Question 22

The main difference in the programs of the Colombian Conservative and Liberal parties up until the late 1840s concerned

A) church-state relations.
B) economic policy.
C) federalism versus centralization.
D) relations with the United States.

Question 23

What role did slavery and race play in the mid-nineteenth century movement for Cuban political independence?

Question 24

Why did Cuba remain loyal to Spain during the early 19^th century when the rest of the Spanish American colonies fought national wars of independence?

Question 25

The Venezuelan congress responded to the 1830's coffee boom by

A) making credit available to the coffee growers on easy terms.
B) tightening credit to prevent inflation.
C) passing a credit law that removed all traditional controls on contracts.
D) forbidding the seizure of coffee planters' estates for debts.

Question 26

Colombian Liberals believed in "mestizaje," an ideology used to justify the

A) abolition of racial hierarchies bequeathed by Spanish colonialism.
B) rich diversity of indigenous ethnic and racial identities.
C) abolition of compulsory tithes and ecclesiastical fueros.
D) redistribution of indigenous and African communal lands to hacendados.

Question 27

What were the Sabinada Revolt, the Balaiada Rebellion, and the Revolution of the Ragamuffins, and how did they affect the institutions of monarchy, slavery, and the fazenda in Brazil?

Question 28

What was the economic, social, and political impact of ending the slave trade to Brazil?

Question 29

A major demand of the Democratic Societies was

A) universal male suffrage.
B) abolition of slavery.
C) abolition of peonage.
D) religious toleration.

Question 30

Compare and contrast the nineteenth-century struggles between the Conservative and Liberal parties in Venezuela and Colombia and explain how abolitionist movements affected both.