Midterm Study Guide

World History / Andrews

Spring 2018

Midterm Study Guide

If you can write 6-minute answers on the following questions / topics, you should do well on the midterm.

1) What does it mean to be “modern”? What major events or ideas defined or began the Modern era?

2) What was the Great Dying? Was this a genocide? Was it a cultural genocide?

3) Why did Europeans come to the Americas, and why did they have an advantage over potential competitors & over native peoples? Cite 5-6 reasons in your answer.

4) What was unique about slavery as it was practiced in North America as compared to Brazil and the Caribbean?

5) The three major regions colonized in the Americas as we compared them in class were Spanish South America, Brazil/Caribbean, and North America. Who were the colonizers in these three regions? What products or industries drove these economies? Which groups of people did the labor? What were the resulting long-term demographic changes in these different regions?

6) How did European exploitation during the colonial era pave the way for economic disparities between wealthy nations and so-called “shithole” countries?

7) What is the “problem of Eurocentrism”? Is it still a problem today?

8) What was the Renaissance? In what ways was it inspired by Classical Greek Humanism?

9) What was the significance of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. Are Enlightenment ideas still relevant today?

10) Describe the “Atlantic revolutions” as they echoed across the Atlantic starting in the Enlightenment period. Include a discussion of the various movements that found their inspiration in these revolutions.

11) What is the Catholic perspective on colonialism as described in the Living Justice handout? Is it consistent with the Hallmarks? (We will discuss on Tuesday whether you will be able to use the handout during the exam.)