Sample History Questions Paper On Latin America
Question 1.
Yes, the Latin America should be considered part of the western world. The western world, also referred to as the occident, is a term which refers to different nations with respect to some contexts. The concept of the western world has its roots in the advent of Christianity and the Greco-Roman civilization in Europe. Initially the term was used to refer to the western part of Europe and the North Americas who shared a lot of characteristics in terms of demographics and culture. However, in contemporary times, the western world includes Europe, countries of European colonial origin with a significant European ancestral populations both in the Americas and Oceania. As such, the Latin America should be considered part of the western world since it already has a significant European ancestral populations and its contemporary culture is akin to that of the Europeans. Additionally, all the Latin Americas have European colonial history hence justifying whey they should be considered as part of the western world.
Question 2
According to the video, Green mentions that nationalism needs an international war. He compares the rise of European nations and also the North American countries and one thing seems to be the same for all these nations. Al of them experienced a major international war which changed the structure of living in the involved countries. As such, all the countries with high levels of democracy and powerful economies were in at least one time involved in a major international war, something that has never happened in Latin America. In his example, he shows the differences between Europe and Latin America s such the major diversity experienced in Europe, a more unified culture throughout Europe, the democracy in Europe and the economic super powers harbored by Europe.
Question 3
According to Green, Freedom, Independence, and Autonomy are complicated terms that mean different things to different people at different times. With respect to Latin America, independence entailed being left alone by the colonials and hence the native people being able to live without the oppressive rules of the colonials. Additionally, the Latin natives had been used to self-governance which proved to be better than that of the colonials. As such, independence would mean laying off the governance of colonials such as the Spaniards and the Portuguese. Autonomy also meant freedom from external control especially the repressive control meted by the whites upon the native Latin Americans. Lastly, revolution encompassed an uprising which involved armed conflict with the aim of reclaiming the freedom of the Latin Americans and hence implementing autonomy on their lands.
Question 4
In the video clip, ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin expostulates on the isolated and the uncontacted tribes in the Amazon rainforest. In the clip he shows how, the people survive with their environment and how their shamans use incredible medicinal plants to heal almost any known sickness. These people live harmoniously with their environment which is their source of food, shelter, medicine and even recreation without much influence of the outside world.
Question 5
Some of the major media issues in Latin America is selective presentation of information. It is shown that some sensitive information such as the existence of low income neighborhoods in major cities such as Rio’s favelas are never shown by the media. Additionally, the faulty designs in the Panama Canal are never shown to the outside world despite the fact that the canal is an international phenomenon. In the contemporary Latin America, identity is majorly dictated by the social class which an individual belongs to hence we have the rich, the moderately rich people and the poor neighborhoods in Latin settlements. One major difference between wealth distribution between the Latin American people and their European counterparts is the bigger gap between the rich and the poor in South American countries. Additionally, Latin American governments take very little care of their citizens when compared to their European counterparts hence it can be shown that there isn’t fair distribution of resources among the Latin people. As such, there is a lot of immigration from some areas to those with more income generation opportunities in addition to some people immigrating to other countries in different continents.