Inquiry 
Navigating the site:
Paz, Octavio
Caribbean History, sets of important questions:
Thoughts to start, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Always be contrasting as the first step to good thinking.
A. Always annotate, make notes of ideas, authors and pages.
B. Be looking for lists of concepts
C. Constantly contrast those lists to see how one may best clarify an idea, concept or argument by restating the details and then contrasting that with counter-examples.
The most important question in the following series to which each of the following from numbers one through five may be linked organizationally, is:
To what degree is there sufficient evidence for the Columbian Exchange as a revolution in American, Eurasian, African and thus in world history as this even has enduring impacts?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
1 Where is and what is meant by the doorway to the America’s?
1.1 Pretest & Walcott's fragments: The Antilles)
1.1.1: origin of the word:
1.1.2: What is a theme that pervades Walcott's speech? ( Such as memory?, the sigh of history?)
1.2. What four things or more does Alfred Crosby say distinguishes ecology from history that so reveals Columbus importance?
1.2.1: history is older, fuzzier, Bardic, text & document based, but heroically mistaken.
1.2.2: ecology is newer (1900s), scientific, precision descriptions, interrelated.
1.3: What examples do you see from Crosby Chapter 10 [Germs, Seeds, and Animals.] about the influences of a certain crop on the values, behavior and beliefs of the people who settled in the United States.
Make a list of the effects and what happened as a result of these examples:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
2 What is the Columbian Exchange?
2.1 What examples does Crosby use to show reasons for Amerindian declines ?
2.2. How did this revolution start, find momentum, and alter world history?
Trinidad, Cuba, Caribbean port, Spanish speaking man rides a Eurasian donkey.
2.3 What examples does Crosby give for the success of European colonies?
2.4 Do the questions from 1.2 to 2.2 support or refute the argument that the Columbian Exchange was a biological, demographic and social revolution around the world?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
3 What is slavery and what caused it to thrive?
Was the Caribbean a crucible of Eurasian - American history?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Organize - create some logical argument to support the significance of Columbus and other European's achievements in the Americas from 1492 until 1690.
4
Essays are due defining an ecological invasion and therefore defining the importance of the Columbian exchange,
What happened and when, by whom according to Crosby?
How revolutionary was the Columbian Exchange to America, Eurasia, and world events?
5 What economic value did sugar have and why?
Slaves in a sugar cane field, Sidney Mintz argued this crop changed European diets.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Reflect - Find the arguments in the texts to support answers to these questions.
6 Where did imperialism arise and how was it manifest in the Indies?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
7 What distinguishes Mexican culture from Caribbean and Latin cultures?
8 Mid Term discussion of the questions and answers.
9 What is the meaning of solitude in terms of Paz’s essay?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
10 How is the Mexican Revolution simultaneously modern and unfinished?
11 What does it mean to be bicultural, multicultural, a-cultural?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
12 What accounts for the persistence of poverty and wealth in the Caribbean?
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Important places and a birds-eye-view of the Caribbean biological and maritime region.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12.
Crosby on the Caribbean and Mexico as the crucible of a world revolution.
Mintz on Sugar, production, consumption, taste, and character.
DuBois on Africans, the West Indies and the slave trade.
Paz on Mexico and its character, customs, and culture.
The world transformed.
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