Historical Course Assessment Questions and Answers

Topic

Historical Course Assessment Questions and Answers

Instructions

Please answer the following questions in complete sentences.

  1. What do the authors mean by “the invention of race”?
  2. What role did England and Spain play in the system of racial classification?
  3. Who were the Moors and what area of Europe did they control at the time of Columbus and for how many years?
  4. It is estimated that how many indigenous people occupied the Americas before Columbus arrived?
  5. What happens when a country colonizes another?
  6. List 3 causes of the dying off of indigenous populations once Europeans arrived in the Americas.
  7. Who was Mohtecuhzoma? What was his attitude toward Cortes upon his arrival?
  8. Who was Cortes?
  9. What role did the plantation system play in the “invention of whiteness”?
  10. What was an indentured servant?
  11. List at least 3 reasons Native Americans were not permanently enslaved.
  12. What was the Middle Passage? How long was the journey?
  13. What role did the inventor Eli Whitney play in the growth of the slave trade?
  14. Why did the former enslaved person Harriet Jacobs declare that slavery was much worse for women?
  15. Name at least 3 ways that enslaved persons fought back, that is, resisted their state of enslavement?
  16. Describe what happened to Rubin Stacy?
  17. What was the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
  18. What was the Trail of Tears?
  19. How did European immigrants to the U.S. become white?
  20. Define the term eugenics.

Answer preview

As far as the system of racial classification is concerned, both Spain and England played instrumental roles. In Spain, for instance, racial classification was commonly referred to as Las Casta. The racial classifications adopted by Spain and England were intended to show lineage, race, as well as breed. The goal was to ensure that lineage was kept pure. From the Spanish word Casta, the English formed theirs known as caste. The system was used as a way of differentiating locals from natives who were non-acculturated. Racial classifications in the two countries were founded on the belief that the quality and characters of individuals varied based on ethnicity, birth, origin, color and race.

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