Midterm Sample Questions With Answers PDF

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This document contains sample questions provided before the midterm with the accompanying answers....

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HIST 415 Midterm Exam Example Questions Question 1 Following Spain’s vast expansion into the New World, three very different cultures and societies were forced together under Spanish colonization. The Aztecs, Incas, and Spaniards are three very unique and varied peoples whose complex histories and rise to power attribute in their own ways to the eventual conquest of the Americas by the Spanish. Each one of these societies have a different reason why they were able to not only rise to the level of an empire but also why the were able to maintain their power for as long as they did. However, despite the numerous differences between these societies they each also share commonalities between their culture and societies as well and it is necessary to examine both in order to fully understand how conquest and colonization was able to occur. The Aztecs were one of the first people to come into contact with the Spaniards and see the disastrous results of what they brought with them from Europe. However, prior to Cortes’ now infamous expedition the Aztecs were a powerful and dominant empire in Central Mexico. The history of the Aztec Empire isn’t necessarily the same as the history of the Aztec people as the Aztecs were extremely proficient in manipulating their own history for political gain. The Aztecs or as they were known prior the “Mexica”1, according to their mythical origin story, originated from Aztlan a mythical homeland north of the Central Mexican Valley. The true location of Aztlan is unknown to historians but many speculate it is somewhere in north-western Mexico or the south-western United States. According to the Aztecs they left Aztlan under direction of their chief deity Huitzilopochtli a hummingbird god of learning. As the Aztecs found 1 Bakewell, P. J., and Jacqueline Zuzann Holler. 2010. A History of Latin America to 1825. 3rd ed. Chichester, U.K. ; Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell. (pg. 106-107)

the foretold valley of Tenochtitlan with the same cactus, eagle eating a snake, omen they decided to settle down in the already populated valley. The Aztecs, despite their strong military prowess were still looked down upon by the other tribes that were already inhabiting the Central Mexican Valley for their crude nature and the fact that they came from the north, they were even given the derogatory name of Chi Chi men. As the Aztecs continued to prove themselves more than competent warriors and began to take their place as an important tribe within strong military alliances, they began to alter their history and culture. The Aztecs began to claim that they were the descendants of the Toltecs to bolster their prestige as well as shift their religion as they changed Quetzalcoatl from a god of learning to a god of war. Along with their “Trippel Alliance” the Aztecs were able to put down its rivals and come out on top as the dominate empire in Tenochtitlan2. Despite being such a dominant military power, within the new Aztec Empires reach remained small kingdoms that maintained their independence. In order to maintain their dominance both internally and externally the Aztecs once again altered themselves for political gain. The Aztecs began claiming that Huitzilopochtli was the god that carried the sun across the sky and in order to complete this task he required a nearly endless supply of human sacrifices. Human sacrifice as a part of religious worship had also been prevalent in Aztec society but was highly sacred and extremely rare. However, once the Aztecs reached the level of a wide spanning empire, they changed their religious mythos and increased the number of sacrifices and began to demand tribute in the form of human sacrifices and hefty tolls of goods as was a way to cull and control the population. The massive toll the tributes took on those oppressed by the Aztecs made them very unpopular rulers and this would

2 Bakewell, P. J., and Jacqueline Zuzann Holler. 2010. A History of Latin America to 1825. 3rd ed. Chichester, U.K. ; Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell. (pg. 116-117)

lead to factions that would be very open to siding with the Spaniards against the Aztecs during Cortes’s conquest. The Inca came to power in a much different manner than the Aztecs. The Inca were originally one of many ayulls in the Andes region of South America. Ayulls were large family agricultural cooperatives, in which every family had a specific roll to play and everything was shared. The Incas came from the region near Cuzco and once the reigning powerful ayllu tribe of Tiahuanaco fell a power void was created that the Incas wanted to exploit. Similarly, to the Aztecs the Incas conquered a neighboring ayllu through force and were able to grow themselves to the point where they believed they could conquer more ayulls a create an empire. However, after their force battle the Incas began to differentiate themselves from the Aztecs. Despite having a large and powerful military the Incas, unlike the Aztecs, did not solely rely on threats of violence or sacrifice to maintain and grow their empire. Instead the Incas relied very much on diplomacy and negotiation to bring other ayllus under their control and were quite successful in this regard. The Incas were able to last so long as an empire thanks to their diplomatic prowess as well as the strict laws and regulations such as dress codes and a one language policy they put into place. The Spaniards also have a unique history that explains how they came to consolidate the Iberian Peninsula and become powerful enough to discover the New World. Spain had been under the control of three different empires prior to becoming the Spanish Empire that would conquer the New World. The Romans were the first to conquer what they called Hispania and established many cities and brought a lot of their own culture with them. After the Roman Empire fell the Visigoths came to control the region. The Visigoths how only ruled for about a century brought with them possible the most important institution to Spain and its history,

Christianity. Following the Visigoths, Iberia came to be conquered by the Moors which were Muslims that came from North Africa. The Moors brought with them a lot of technological and cultural advances, and under their rule Iberia thrived. However, in many sporadic battles over resources and land over a period of time eventually the last remaining northern Christian kingdoms were able to rally against the Moors and push them nearly out of Iberia. Despite not having anything to do with religion eventually the Reconquista period would come to unify Spain and establish many intuitions and ideas that would lead to an expansive Catholic Empire. In the same way the Aztecs changed their identity so did the Spanish in order to unify the many regions under one national identity. The push to defeat the Moors in Spain had almost nothing to do with religion but that quickly got forgotten. Spain after the Reconquista adopted this crusader or holy warrior type mentality. This not only unified Spain but gave them a purpose, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabela became the rulers of a unified Spain they took this divine mission seriously, they removed the last of the Moorish presence from Spain, began the Spanish Inquisition, and removed many non-Christians from Spain. With all these achievements and the feeling that Spain is quickly becoming the defender of Christianity in the world they began to sponsor explorations to reach India in an attempt to not fall behind the other European Empires. This is what led Christopher Columbus to become sponsored by Spain and discover the new world. Despite the many difference between these Empires they also had many similarities. First and foremost, each society started small and through ambition grew and conquered other peoples. The Aztecs used the manipulation of their own history to unify its people and help maintain its Empire much in the same way the Spanish used the idea of a crusader spirit after the Reconquista to unify Spain. Similarly, both the Aztecs and the Spaniards zealously used religion

as an excuse for domination as well as unifying their own people. The Inca and the Aztecs both demanded tribute and that eventually led both to have splintering factions that the Spaniards were able to exploit. Following the conquest of the New World it seemed that the bureaucratic governance of the Incas fit well with the new form of colonization the Spaniards wanted to bring to the Americas. So it seems despite not meeting and being nearly continents away in some cases these three cultures shared a lot of similarities that would eventually crash into one another when the first Spaniards landed in the New World....