Final Exam

final exam

spring 2012

 Your exam is due to me electronically, no later than 8:30am on Thursday, May 10.  The name of your document should include your last name.  I will acknowledge the receipt of your email.

You should only used the assigned materials for the course in answering these questions.  Evidence of additional research will be penalized.

Part One: Please answer three of the following five questions.  Each answer is worth 25 possible points.

1.  Though the Spanish church of early modern period is typically portrayed as repressive, this was not always the case.  Provide and explain two specific examples of religious toleration and spiritual renewal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

2.  Describe the practice of painting in golden-age Spain.  How were painters perceived?  How did El Greco and Vicente Carducho try to change these perceptions?

3.  Analyze the significance of foreign policy for the reign of Philip IV.

4. True or false: there was uniformity of opinion among Spaniards about how to treat the native populations in the Americas.  Defend your answer using at least two specific pieces of evidence.

5.  How did the role of the favorite shape the reigns of Philip III and Philip IV?

Part Two: Please answer one of the following two questions based on Lucrecia’s Dreams. Your answer is worth 25 possible points.

1.  Which had the greater impact on Lucrecia de León, her gender or her social status?

2.  Discuss the limitations or constraints of the documents that provide us with access to Lucrecia’s life.

Citations and bibliography

citations: As a discipline, history uses the Chicago Manual style for citations (notes and bibliography).  A link that provides guidance for formatting your citations is available at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/RES5e_ch10_s1-0001.html

Reading for Thursday, April 19

* We will all discuss the excerpt from Don Quijote.  Please note that the scanned version on ECR is missing a page of the introductory material.  I apologize for the error.

* For the short story by Zayas, the distribution of questions will be based on the first initial of your last name:

1.  (A-G) How does Zayas depict the rituals of courtship as experienced by noblewomen like the narrator of the story?

2.  (H-P) What evidence of a defense of women does Zayas offer in the story?

3.  (Q-Z) What evidence does she offer of women’s weaknesses?

* Bearing your response to all of these questions in mind, what conclusions would you draw, based on this story, about Zayas’ opinion of women?

Reading questions for April 5

Nalle, “Literacy and Culture”

1.  What are some of the ways of measuring literacy in early-modern Europe and/or Spain?  What are the limitations of some of these measures?

2.  What accounts for the spread of literacy in early-modern Castile?

3.  What were early-modern Spaniards reading?  Why is this significant?

Vives, “On Assistance to the Poor”

* What advice does Vives offer for offering assistance to the poor?

* Based on the outline of his plan, how would you characterize Vives’ attitude towards the poor?

Lucrecia’s Dreams

Here are some reading questions for Lucrecia’s Dreams.

Please be prepared to discuss the following questions based on your preparation of Lucrecia’s Dreams for Tuesday, March 20.  You do not have to hand in or post your answers.  These are just offered as a guide and will form the basis of our in-class discussion.

1.  What would you identify as some of the formative influences in Lucrecia’s upbringing and environment?

2.  What was the attitude of early-modern Europeans towards dreams?

3.  Why do you think Lucrecia was able to attract the support of Alonso de Mendoza?

4.  How would you characterize Lucrecia’s dreams?

5.  How do we know what we know about Lucrecia?

6.  How would you compare Lucrecia’s experience to the other evidence you’ve seen of women and others who appeared before the Inquisition?

Primary Source Project

Primary Source Project

HIS 350

Your primary source project is due on Thursday, March 22 in class.  Late projects will be penalized at the instructor’s discretion.  It should be typewritten and double-spaced.

Please choose one of the primary sources assigned for your paper and read it critically.  Then provide answers to the following questions.

What type of document is this?

What can your document tell you about your paper topic?  What can it tell you about how the Inquisition operated?

What questions or issues related to your paper topic does it leave unanswered?

What are some of the constraints or limitations of your document?

Reading Schedule: March 6-March 29

March 6:

Homza, Documents 9-11

March 8:

ECR, Cowans, Early Modern Spain, 79-82 and 93-99.

March 20:

(1) Lucrecia’s Dreams, entire

(2) Homza, Document 12

March 22:

(1) ECR, Cowans, Early Modern Spain, 37-45

(2) ECR, Medieval Iberia, 371-377

(3) Homza, Documents 14, 15

March 27:

(1) ECR, Early Modern Spain, 58-68, 74-78

(2) ECR, Elliott, “The Mental World of Hernán Cortés”

(3) Homza, Documents 16, 18

March 29:

(1) Homza, Documents, 22, 24, 25

Reading for Tuesday, Feb. 28

Please also read Document #1 and Documents 3-6 in Homza for class on Tuesday (you will NOT be quizzed on this material, only the pages detailed in the post below).

Quiz on Tuesday, Feb. 28

There will be a quiz on the readings in Homza, Spanish Inquisition, pp.  ix-xxxvii in class on Tuesday, Feb. 28.

Updates

Materials about group assignments and the revised deadlines for the various parts of the paper project have been posted.  Click on “Group work and paper project” above.