View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What is one factor that drives world markets?
(a) The unchallenged advantages of advanced countries.
(b) The inability of third-world markets to compete.
(c) The low cost of raw materials, and the high cost of manufactured products.
(d) The unequal distribution of raw materials.

2. According to Paz, what must be the first step toward reform?
(a) A struggle against rampant government corruption.
(b) A return to traditionalism.
(c) A complete overthrow of the socialist state.
(d) A struggle against the lie that makes colonialism official.

3. On what does Paz blame "the rather zigzag progress of the state"? Chapter Eight, page 181).
(a) The difficulty of dealing with a large work force.
(b) The necessity of making revolutionary ideals work for practical living.
(c) The struggle between capitalist ideals and socialism.
(d) The conflict between national capitalism and international capitalism.

4. Why is a study of colonialism important in understanding Mexican history?
(a) The nation's beginnings were heavily influenced by North Americans.
(b) The nation began through the colonization of several surrounding nations.
(c) The nation was founded by a Spanish conquest of Indians.
(d) The nation was founded through a peaceful Spanish immersion into Indian culture.

5. What important circumstance did early revolutionary governments not take into account?
(a) Natural resources.
(b) Expansion of cities.
(c) Population growth.
(d) Desertion of rural areas.

Short Answer Questions

1. When Paz sees that Mexicans return to their tradition, what do they remember?

2. What economic goal did the Revolution have?

3. Why did the Spaniards not exterminate the Indians after they were conquered?

4. What happened to the people annexed by greater world powers?

5. Who authored. the book, Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why was the Aztec nation able to unify so many diverse tribes? How were they quite skilled with that type of action?

2. What role did religion play in ancient South American cultures? Did Catholicism change that role?

3. What is the role of the Mexican intelligentsia within society? How does it differ from the function of the intelligentsia within the United States and Europe; and which one is a better role?

4. When did Independence begin in Mexico? How was it similar to or different from the Conquest?

5. Despite Mexico's advancements, where does she still stand on the world spectrum? How can she change her placement?

6. Why could Mexico not have progressed as far as she has today if she were working within capitalism?

7. Why did the new Constitution mandate that education be secular? How might that have made the Mexicans feel?

8. Throughout his career, what did Jorge Cuesta argue? What are the benefits and downfalls of his argument?

9. What does Paz say about the national differences among Central and South American nations? How does that tie into their relationship with Spain?

10. What happened when Spanish America separated itself from Spain? Given what Paz has stated throughout the book about that moment in history, draw your own conclusions about why that happened.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 2,020 words (approx. 7 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample