The Perfect Lesson: Neo-colonialism in Latin America

Blooms Level I - 25+ Questions

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What countries make up Latin America?

What are the capitals of all of the Latin American countries?
Where is Latin America on a map?
Who were the perpetrators of neo-colonialism in Latin America?
How has Latin America struggled with foreign interference before?
When did the countries of Latin America first gain their independence from being colonies?
Why is the period of 1880-1900 often referred to as the neocolonial period in Latin America?
Which large Latin American countries had significant export booms?
What role did railroads play in these export booms?
Who benefitted from these export booms?
How did land values change as railroads continued to be built?
How much of Argentinas population was middle class?
Was it more typical for a large portion of Latin Americans to be middle class?
Did most Latin Americans reap benefits from this progress?
What happened to peasants who lived where railroads were to be built?
What happened to indigenous people living on communal land in Mexico that was owned by
individual landowners?
What forms of authoritarian government came to be in use?
How were elections managed?
Who was the epitome of Latin American dictatorship?
In what areas did feminism reach Latin America?
When did the US begin to displace Great Britains foothold in Latin America?
How did the US winning its war against Spain in 1898 and intervening in Cuba benefit it?
Were any native Panamanians involved when Theodore Roosevelt acquired land in Panama to
build the Panama canal?
What effect did ideas like those in Rudyard Kiplings The White Mans Burden have on how
Americans perceived Latin Americans?
What effect did the Stock Market Crash of 1929 in the US have on the dependent economies of
Latin American countries?
Whose image did the United Fruit Company use without permission for its Chiquita Banana
products?
Why did Diego Rivera paint his series Portrait of America, which features his piece Imperialism?

Level II - 15 Questions
1. How are colonialism and neo-colonialism different?
2. How would you compare and contrast neo-colonialism in Latin America to the neo-colonialism of
Africa and Asia?
3. What facts show how many Latin Americans were opposed to neo-colonialism?
4. How come the middle-class of most Latin American countries did not grow as large as
Argentinas?
5. Why did Latin American countries less prone to international influence not promote womens
rights as those with large immigrant populations did?
6. How would you summarize the neocolonial period in Latin America?
7. How come Latin American countries could not truly prosper as a whole if they exported so many
products?

8. Why, if many Americans held racial prejudices to Latin Americans, were Carmen Miranda and
Chiquita Banana received so well in the US?
9. How would you compare the representation of neo-colonialism in Diego Riveras Imperialism to
Chiquita Banana being used as a mascot to sell bananas from Nicaragua and the Caribbean?
10. How would we use the postcolonial history of Latin American countries to predict the futures of
area of Asia and Africa that are still subject to colonization?
Level III - 5 Questions
1. What would have resulted if Diego Riveras Man at the Crossroads had not been removed?
2. What would have resulted if feminism had reached more areas of Latin America than it did?
3. If wealthy landowners had not snatched land from indigenous peoples and peasants, could they
have moved up on the class system since they would not have been forced into low-paying jobs?
4. How would you solve the class struggles in Latin America at this time?
5. What would have become of Latin America if the Stock Market Crash of 1929 never happened in
the US?
Bloom Level IV - 5 Questions
1. What were the US and Great Britains motives to be so involved in the affairs of Latin American
countries?
2. Can you identify the different effects neo-colonialism had on Latin America?
3. How would you classify the large countries of Latin America based on their exports?
4. Can you make a distinction between the success of Carmen Miranda and the success of the
United Fruit Companys Chiquita Banana in the US?
5. How come Carmen Miranda was unable to separate herself from her image as a Brazilian
bombshell?
Bloom Level V - 5 Questions
1. What are the lasting effects of neo-colonialism on Latin America?
2. Why do you think Puerto Rico is still a territory of the US?
3. Why do you think some Caribbean and Central American countries still struggle to transition
from their tropical agriculture export-driven economies to less export-driven ones?
4. Why do you think so many Latin American countries still rely on the US for importing,
exporting, and funding?
5. Can you predict the outcome if the US ended its embargo against Cuba?