Study Guide –Desmond and Emirbayer, Chapter 2
1. Which two European countries, according to the authors, had more influence than
others in creating the system of racial classification we know today?
2. During the fourteenth century, which country’s citizens were regarded as nothing short
of “savages” to England?
3. What form of identity could we see in its beginning stages within fifteenth century
Spain?
4. Which term refers to a historical era marked by the rise of nationalism, development
of capitalism, global expansion, and disenchantment of the world and rapid
growth of scientific knowledge?
5. What term refers to when a foreign power invades a territory and establishes
enduring systems of exploitation and domination over that territory’s
indigenous populations?
6. For what reasons did Spain desire to colonize the Americas?
7. What are the terms for the two steps used by the English to create the concept of
“The Indian”?
8. How many years did the violence known as “The Indian Wars” last in the Americas?
9. What is the term for a laborer who was bound to an employer for a fixed amount of
time, after which they were freed?
10. What were the reasons given by the textbook’s authors as to why Native Americans
were not also permanently enslaved?
11. What were given as reasons Africans were viewed at the time as “the perfect slaves”?
12. What were the consequences for the African societies who participated in the slave
trade?
13. Which North American crop single-handedly reinvigorated slavery due to its high
demand and increased technological efficiency?
14. Which sociologist stated that white laborers in the service of plantation owners were
compensated for their low wages with a public and psychological wage?
15. Was the primary social division during the Middle Ages was between “sophisticated
Christians” and “barbarous heathens”?
16. Are nations “imagined communities” bound together inside artificially created
political borders?
17. Did the exploration narratives such as The Travels of Marco Polo often prefer
fantasy to fact and legend to observation when chronicling the indigenous
peoples encountered?
18. Did the rulers of Spain discourage intermarriage between conquistadores and
indigenous women?
19. Were the English primarily interested in converting the lost souls of the natives?
20. Between 1600 and 1900, did 50% of America’s indigenous peoples die as a direct result
of European colonization?
21. In America, did indentured servitude steadily evolve into slavery?
22. By 1865, was it estimated that there were about 1 million slaves in America?
23. Did the Monroe doctrine outlaw the conquest of Latin America by both the Europeans
and Americans?
24. Were assimilation and removal the primary strategies employed to deal with the
“Indian problem”?
25. Did Asians begin migrating to the United States in large numbers in the late 1790s?
26. What is associated with the outlawing of European conquest of Latin America while
promoting American conquest of that land?
27. What is associated with Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo?
28. Why did the United States not claim all of Mexico?