Web Explorations

In each section, the internet links will take you to Websites where you can find information and resources that will help you with the exploration questions.

1

The World of a Sugar Plantation in Brazil

This site offers an account of life on a Brazilian sugar plantation from the perspective of the plantation owner.

http://www.sc.edu/library/pubserv/reserve/scardaville/hist420/doc20.htm

Questions for further exploration:

How did Brazilian plantation owners regard their slaves? How did they threaten them? If they are mistreated, what might they do? What are the “Three P’s?” What social problems may the families of plantation owners face in raising their children?

2

The Hacienda

The hacienda was the rural centerpiece patron-client systems that dominated virtually all of Mexico and much of Latin America.

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1923hacienda.html

Questions for further exploration:

Describe in your own words the role of the hacienda in controlling land and labor in Latin America.

3

Simon Bolivar

Explores the life and politics of Simon Bolivar.

http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/CULPEPER/BAKEWELL/thinksheets/thsh-bolivar.html

Questions for exploration:

In his "Jamaica Letter," Bolivar outlined his political vision. How did this vision embrace Spain, reflect his hopes for the struggle for independence, and identify the obstacles it faced? How do the artistic representations of Bolivar provided at this site reflect the trajectory of his political career? How did Bolivar use and see history? How are his views expressed in language that was to become familiar rhetoric when employed by later modern nationalists?

4

Monroe Doctrine

This site offers an analysis of the origins and impact of the Monroe Doctrine.

http://campus.northpark.edu/history//WebChron/USA/MonDoc.html

Questions for further exploration:

What foreign policy influences as old as the American Revolution may have influenced the creation of the Monroe Doctrine? What domestic political factors may have behind Monroe’s actions? How did America’s role in the world change in their aftermath?

5

Jefferson on the Monroe Doctrine

This site offers the text of a letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison commenting on Madison’s recent speech that inaugurated what came to be known as the Monroe Doctrine.

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/thomas.htm

Questions for further exploration:

What did Jefferson think of Monroe’s speech? Did he believe the United States had important interests in Latin America? What part of that region did he think would be an asset if annexed to the United States. Why did he believe that it would be inappropriate for his country to make any effort in that direction?

6

William Walker and Nicaragua

William Walker was a famous adventurer who attempted to not only rule Central America, but to force its people to speak English and convert from Catholicism to Protestantism.

http://library.thinkquest.org/17749/walker.html

Questions for further exploration:

Why could Walker be considered a professional adventurer? What were the goals of his Central American operations? Why were these operations supported by the United States and opposed by Great Britain? Why did an offense to Andrew Carnegie’s transit company (which ferried passengers and freight across Central America before the building of the Panama canal) doom Walker to defeat and death?

7

Benito Juarez

This site compares the Mexican leader with Abraham Lincoln as the savior of a nation in turmoil,

http://mexconnect.com/mex_/history/jtuck/jtbenitojuarez.html

Questions for further discussion:

What problems did Juarez encounter while attempting to keep Mexico free of foreign intervention and preserve it against social division?

8

Liberalism and Latin American Politics

This site attempts to define Liberalism in the Latin American context and apply that concept to the policies pursued by leaders in Mexico and Argentina.

http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~hartman3/

Questions for further exploration:

What was largely the only tangible ideological difference between Liberals and Conservatives in Latin America? What did both seek to achieve in Mexico and Argentina mainly through authoritarian means?

9

Jose Hernandez

This site offers a very short description of Jose Hernandez’s masterwork, Martin Fierro.

http://www.sunypress.edu/sunyp/backads/html/hernandezgaucho.html

Questions for further exploration:

Hernandez’s poem about the gauchos is tragic as Hernandez sees them as contributors to what important victorious movement in Latin America? The tragedy is that they become victims of a process that soon followed the achievement of that victory. What process was that? What other peoples of the world fell victim to that process in the nineteenth and twentieth century and still do today?

10

The Spanish American War

These related Library of Congress sites provide an overview of the Spanish American War and a close study of Cuban society before and during the war.

http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/1898/intro.html

Questions for further exploration:

What spurred U. S. interest in Cuba prior to the war? What policies of the Spanish army in Cuba angered the United States? What were the results for Latin America of the American victory? What was the role of the Ten Years War in the Cuban insurrection? How did the Spanish American War not turn out as Cuban independence leader Jose Marti had hoped?


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