Critical Thinking Questions- Ap World Essay

1. Discuss the fate of the indigenous populations of the United States, Canada and Latin America. How did their fate relate to the sense of mission in each area? During the 19th and early 20th centuries, many of the indigenous people were treated unfairly and no respect was given for either them or their land. Many of these natives were forced off their land and left homeless because industries wanted to use the land for industrial purposes. In places like the United States, the government would often kick the natives of their land in order for the land to be used for new settlers and railroads. Because of such treatment, many natives were forced to migrate away from their homelands. Later on, the governments started to pass laws and reforms to try to force many of the Native Americans to convert to the white way of life and give up their lands more willingly. The Trail of Tears began when these Native Americans were forced to move away. The Trail of Tears represented the quick and abrupt movement of these people from their homelands who were forced to migrate in order to find a new home to live in. In many other areas, like Canada, many of the natives even took a stand and started to fight back. In Canada, a native named Louis Riel started to take charge of the indigenous people as well as the metis, and began to lead his people as they worked toward their rights. Eventually, Riel and his new government were dismantled and sent to live in exile. During this time, construction had begun on the railroads, which had threatened the settlement of the indigenous people. Although the indigenous people fought hard, the Canadians had dominated and continued to use their land in the west for industrial reason. Over in Latin America, the indigenous people were being pushed off of their homelands by the Creole elites as they attempted to raise a claim on American lands which would be used for agricultural purposes, as well as ranching. The creoles began to establish Euro-American hegemony which allowed them to have an easier time taking over the land. 2. Examine the picture of Emiliano Zapata on page 859. What role did he play in Mexican history? What role did peasants and social stresses play in Latin American history? Emiliano Zapata was definitely on the most influential people in the Mexican Revolution during the 20th centuries. He worked alongside Francisco Pancho Villa to lead the lower classes. Zapata was a very charismatic person and was able to organize massive armies to fight for land and liberty, or tierra y libertad. He challenged the Mexican government and political control along with Villa. He confiscated hacienda lands and distributed them to the peasants. Both he and Villa managed to avoid being captured by both the U.S. and Mexican forces. Zapata, no matter how popular and powerful he became, never managed to capture any of Mexico’s major cities. He was killed in 1919 after being captured by government forces. This successfully ended the Mexican Revolution. And yet, if all of the workers, peasants, and middle class people not joined the fight, there might not even had been a revolution or even a constitution. These people began to feel the social stresses between them and the upper classes over the estates. This caused them to join in the revolution in hopes of a better life. La Reforma played a major role in forming these social stresses because when the attempt to create a small independent farm society by redistributing land, it failed because the land was bought up by the upper-class and transformed into plantations and haciendas. To conclude, the forms of social stresses; such as class division, rebellion, and caudillo rule, and civil war lead to a period of instability and conflict in Mexican history.