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BORN IN BLOOD AND FIRE:a concise history of Latin America
by John Charles Chasten
Introduction© 2011 The Granger Collection.
http://www.granger.com
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Introduction: Latin America
• Shared country characteristics:
‣ Relatively young population
‣ Overwhelmingly Catholic
‣ Highly urbanized
‣ Dominant languages: Spanish, Portuguese
• Differing country characteristics:
‣ Literacy rates: Argentina (>90%) vs. Guatemala (70%)
‣ Geographic and population size: Brazil vs. Paraguay
‣ Health/Life expectancy: Costa Rica (77 yrs.) vs. Bolivia (63 yrs.)
‣ Racial/ethnic diversity: many indigenous groups, slaves, Europeans
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Introduction: Essential Question
Can we write a unified history of Latin America?
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Introduction: Latin America’s shared history
• If the people of Latin America have a shared history, what is it?
‣ Early encounters: Conquest, colonization, and independence
‣ Political trends: dictatorships, democratization
‣ Economic trends: debt, inflation, and stagnation; then came recovery
‣ Class struggle: rich vs. poor, conquerors vs. conquered, masters vs. slaves
PoliticsEconomic
sStruggle4
Encounters
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Introduction: A shared history of struggle
• Starting in 1492, Spanish and Portuguese colonizers imposed...
‣ Religion
‣ Language
‣ Social institutions
‣ Political institutions
religion
language
social institutionspolitical institutions
© copyright 2011 IMAGINE, all rights reserved.
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Introduction: The modern struggle
Liberalism:
• Progress over tradition
• Reason over faith
• Universal over local values
• Equality over privilege
• Democracy over other forms of government
• Emphasizes individual
Nationalism:
• Anti-imperialism
• Promotes social equality
• Force against white supremacy
• Emphasizes community
© Copyright Calum McRoberts
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Introduction: U.S. perspectives on L.A.
Prior to 1930s:
• Racial and environmental determinism
• Focused on race, culture, and climate
• Latin Americans as “defective goods,” lacking self-discipline, the Protestant work ethic, and intelligence
• Too hot (climate-based explanations)
1940 - 1970:
•Out with determinism and in with modernization theory
•The need to modernize backward mentalities and traditional social structures
•Blamed landowners and rulers
•Focus still on problems within L.A.7
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Introduction: Dependency theory
New perspective emerges in 1970s:
• Scholars reject idea of “blaming the victim”
• Looked outside Latin America
• Focused on role of former colonizers (“developed” nations) in keeping L.A. economies dependent and underdeveloped
• Critical of economic globalization (and liberalism)
Incans and pre-Aztec cultures built these structures without machines, steel, or wheels. Does this characterize laziness and
a lack of intelligence?
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Introduction: Vocabulary
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BORN IN BLOOD AND FIRE:a concise history of Latin America
by John Charles Chasten
Chapter 1: Encounter© 2011 The Granger Collection.
http://www.granger.com
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Chapter 1: The encounter
“For Latin America, conquest and colonization by the Spanish and Portuguese created patterns of social domination that became eternal givens, like the deep and lasting marks of an original sin.” (page 25)
Essential question: Should we judge the moral quality of European explorers?
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Chapter 1: Patterns of indigenous life
Non-sedentary
• Food: hunters and gatherers
• Location: open, arid plains (north Mexico, Argentina)
• Society: egalitarian structure
Semi-sedentary
•Food: slash and burn, shifting cultivation
•Location: forests, jungles
•Society: organized by tribe and gender; egalitarian
Fully Sedentary
•Food: sustainable agriculture
•Location: high plateaus (Mexico City, Cuzco)
•Society: stratified by class; specialization
The Pampas
The Tupi of Brazil
The Maya
CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture
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Chapter 1: Origins of the crusading mentality
Religio
n
Personal Riches Imperial Riches
Interst
ate
Rivalry
Colonialism
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Chapter 1: Two parallel encounters
Portuguese in Brazil
• Cabral landed in 1500
• Initially uninterested in establishing a colony
Spanish across Americas
•Columbus landed in 1492
•Immediate plans for colony
Bound for India
Accidental “discovery”
Religious goals
Seeking resources
Decimated local populations
Relied upon slave labor
Established colonies
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_New_Spain.svg
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Chapter 1: Slavery from Africa to the Americas
• How were slaves taken from Africa?
‣ Preexisting (though distinct) system of slavery within Africa
‣ Portuguese came for gold, left with slaves
‣ Slaves as a “commodity”
‣ Spanish and British soon to follow
• Why were slaves used to replace natives?
‣ Indigenous groups: difficult to contain, sensitive to “Old World” diseases
‣ Slaves: unfamiliar with land and language; long-developed immunity to microbes; familiarity with sedentary life, iron working, and domesticated animals PD-US
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Chapter 1: The conquest
Essential question: How did a few hundred Spanish soldiers defeat vast empires of the Aztecs and Incas?
• Experience
‣ Cortez was familiar with Aztecs, though Aztecs were unfamiliar with him.
‣ Germs
‣ Military technology
• Divide and conquer
‣ Empires demanded tributes from conquered groups.
‣ Dissatisfied groups helped Europeans.
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Chapter 1: Same encounter, different results
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Essential question: After the encounter, why did some indigenous groups vanish while others survived?
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Chapter 1: After the conquest
‣Intermarriage: birth of the mestizo; Spanish women come to Americas after conquest
‣Religious conquest: Cathedrals/churches built on indigenous holy sites
‣Political institutions: Spanish rulers take place of indigenous rulers
1. Diego Rivera depicts birth of mestizo (child of Gonzalez Guerrero).
2. Diego Rivera depicts Cortés, La Malinche, and Martín.
3. La Basílica de la Virgen de Guadalupe built on sacred indigenous site.
4. Aztec ruins discovered under cathedral in Mexico City.
1 2
3 4
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Chapter 1: Countercurrents
Essential question: Were all the Spanish and Portuguese arrivals equally destructive?
‣Bernardino de Sahagún: Franciscan who came to New World to proselytize; dedicated to the study of Aztec traditions and language; critical of “mass conversions”
‣Toribio de Motolinia: Franciscan who denounced practices of Spanish colonizers; worked to protect natives against abuses
‣ Bartolomé de las Casas: Dominican friar and former native slave owner; critical of colonial practices, calling them a crime against Christian morals; author of A Brief History of the Indies
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Chapter 1: Vocabulary
• Sedentary (non-, semi-, fully)
• Specialization
• Stratified
• Egalitarian
• Commodity
• Tributes
• Mestizo
