NOTE:
Bring all the relevant reading, discussion, and lecture material to bear when you think about questions and your answers.
In each case, the question asks you to discuss a slice of history, taking into account the large social, economic, and cultural picture. In order to answer the question adequately you will need to use specific incidents or examples to support your interpretation.
Dates are useful to help you remember and organize your information, but the significance of events and their interpretation form the core of good essay answers.
Major Themes:
Shifts in the Spanish (and Mexican) approach towards Native American communities in the different northern provinces (American Southwest) during the last century of Spanish/Mexican rule.
Effects of larger economic and/or political changes occurring in Mexico and/or Spain that change the direction of change in the northern provinces or affect the conditions for development.
Development of different kinds of settler or Vecino communities in each of the regions of Spanish settlement.
Sample Questions:
Describe the economic and social effects that the Bourbon Reforms had on the northern-most Spanish provinces.
Compare and contrast the spiritual and economic goals, organization, and effectiveness of the missions in New Mexico, Texas, and Alta California during the late 18th century.
Analyze the kinds of historical (social, economic, and political) information that one can extract from the primary source readings assigned for the course. Include at least two of the sources in your discussion.
Why did Texas succeed from the Mexican Republic in the 1830s? If the US had not provoked a war and invaded, would New Mexico and/or California have revolted and won independence on their own, like Texas?
Compare and contrast the economy and society of New Mexico as depicted by Fray Morfí and Governor Chacón during the late colonial period (1781 and 1803) with that described by Ruxton and Magoffin in the 1840s.
What impressions and attitudes can you find in the writings of Dana, Ruxton, or Magoffin, that might be used to justify American occupation of the southwest by force?
Discuss the ways in which the cultural and environmental factors involving Native American communities shape Spanish settlement patterns and the mission programs of the Franciscans in the northern provinces.