History Of The Caribbean

Front 1

What are the two sides of history that Trouillot describes?

Back 1

1) The sociohistorical process - what actually happened
2) Retrospective narratives - what people say happened

Front 2

What are the four stages in the production of historical narratives that Trouillot describes?

Back 2

1) Fact production - making sources
2) Fact assembly - making archives
3) Fact retrieval - historical research
4) Retrospective significance - producing narratives

Front 3

What centuries-long conflict on the Iberian Peninsula was ending around the time that Columbus made his initial voyage into the Caribbean?

Back 3

The Reconquista - a religion fueled war between Catholic kingdoms and Muslim rulers that culminated in the expulsion of the Moors from Granada.

Front 4

Trouillot argues that history has two sides. What are they?

Back 4

What happened (the sociohistorical process) and what people say happened (retrospective
narratives).

Front 5

Why does that long Iberian conflict matter for Caribbean history?

Back 5

The long conflict put the Catholic kingdoms on a distinctly militaristic footing and aimed them
toward both expansionism and a form of expansion that was explicitly fueled by religious zeal.

Front 6

Up until Columbus’s voyage, which European kingdom introduced most of the important
advances in sea-borne navigation, including both techniques and discoveries?

Back 6

The Portuguese (and one could point to the Italian city-states of Genoa and Venice, for example,
as well).

Front 7

Multiple waves of migration peopled the Caribbean islands over several millennia. When
societies stabilized around the seventh century, about how many people were there in total?

Back 7

Year 600 was a turning point in the Caribbean’s pre-European history; There were about 1 million people.

The Columbian era began with 2 million.

Front 8

In 1510, after prolonged debate on how to approach the peoples of the New World, the
Spanish decided to read indigenous peoples the requerimiento. Describe, in a couple of
sentences, what the document said.

Back 8

The document identified the Spanish as Catholics first, and subject to the rule of the church and
its Popes, and also subjects of a king. It specified that the people should adopt the Spanish
religion and submit to their rule (as others had) or suffer war.

Front 9

Describe two institutions the Spanish established to manage their new colonial possessions in
the New World.

Back 9

1) Casa de Contratación - governed all trade in the hemisphere,
2) Council of the Indies - advised the king on bureaucratic/legal/political matters.
3) Audiencias - courts that oversaw particular regions
4) Cabildos - town councils.

Front 10

Why did Spain’s focus on the Caribbean islands diminish considerably after the 1520s?

Back 10

Because it turned its attention squarely toward silver mines in Mexico, and then the Andes.

Front 11

Before colonizing the Caribbean, did Europeans eat sugar?

Back 11

Yes, thought only the wealthy had access, through the Mediterranean trade first, then Atlantic
islands.

Front 12

Which European power established the first slave-trading port on the African coast?

Back 12

The Portuguese

Front 13

We listened to a Shango song from Trinidad. What religious tradition does it represent?

Back 13

Literally, the Shango tradition, which is a syncretic blending of Yoruba, Orixá-based beliefs and
Catholicism.

Front 14

Which European empire seized some Brazilian sugar production from Portugal, became a
significant slave trader, and transferred sugar technology to the Caribbean?

Back 14

The Dutch

Front 15

Describe one technological innovation in the seventeenth century sugar industry

Back 15

The vertical three-roller mill, manuring, cane-holing, the Jamaica train. The first a more efficient
grinding design, the second addressing soil fertility, the third erosion, and the last fuel efficiency.

Front 16

Why did Americans (from the U.S.) make Columbus a “Yankee hero”?

Back 16

He fit the bill as an origin figure in a narrative of U.S. history that led from European “discovery”
directly to American (i.e. U.S.) greatness.

Front 17

Which century saw the largest number of slaves taken from Africa to the Americas?

Back 17

The 18th (or the 1700s).

Front 18

Describe at least two tenets of the economic philosophy of mercantilism.

Back 18

1) Saving helps build wealth better than consumption (or trade)
2) precious metals are an equal form
of wealth to land (or better)
3) various powers vie with one another in a zero-sum game so to get rich someone else must lose wealth
4) all commerce must be strictly controlled by the state (king).

Front 19

Why did many Caribbean islands change hands so often, shifting from one empire to another?

Back 19

The islands were captured and recaptured or ended up serving as pawns or trading pieces sometimes in the treaties that ended these conflict.

Front 20

Between 1500 and 1800, slavers brought about 10 million Africans to the Americas. The
same period saw roughly how many Europeans travel to the western hemisphere?

Back 20

2 million

Front 21

Name the cargoes flowing along the three sides of the Triangular Trade.”

Back 21

Cloth or glass or alcohol from Europe -> Africa; slaves from Africa -> Americas; sugar, rum, and other commodities (coffee, tobacco, etc.) from the Americas -> Europe