CHAPTER 32 – Latin America:
Revolution & Reaction into the 21st Century
Reading Questions
1.
Identify specifically, by creating bulleted lists, both changes and continuities in
society, politics, and economics in Latin American in the 20th and early 21st centuries.
[p763-765]
CONTINUITIES
2.
By the late 1900s and early
Revolution of 1910-1920 and
been fully able to meet its
most of Mexico’s citizens?
[p766]
CHANGES
2000s, in what ways had it become clear that the Mexican
the PRI (Party of the Institutionalized Revolution) had not
goals of providing economic equality and social justice for
Give 2 references to specific historical developments.


3.
What were 3 possible political solutions to the ongoing economic and social troubles
Latin America faced in the 20th century? Give specific nations that serve as examples
for each. [p767-768]
a.
b.
c.
4.
GUATEMALA [p768-769]
I. In what ways did the national government of Guatemala attempt to solve the
economic and social problems of this poor, mostly Indian-populated Central
American nation in the 1940s and early 1950s?
II. Why did many of these reforms anger or worry the foreign interest of the USA?
III.
What is the global context for America’s intervention in Guatemala in the 1950s
and how did the United States get involved to “fix the problem”?
5.
CUBA [p769-771]
I. What factors motivated a successful communist revolution in Cuba in 1959?
II. If you were interviewing Fidel Castro in the 1960s, what are developments that
he would say are his greatest achievements as a result of his Cuban Communist
Revolution?
III. If you were interviewing an anti-communist American, what are 3 developments
that he/she would say are Castro’s greatest failures as a result of the Cuban
Communist Revolution?
IV. How did the early years of communist Cuba fit into the global context of the
Cold War?
6.
Give examples of ways in which the Catholic Church continued to be an influential power
in Latin America into the 20th and 21st centuries. [p771-772]
7.
How did militaries remain influential in the politics of Latin American nations as they
had in the 1800s? Provide examples. [p772-774]
8.
By the 1980s and 1990s, there were clear democratic trends in Latin America (ex.
Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador). What are 3 factors that began this change from
military rule and dictatorships to transferring decision-making to civilians? [p774 (1st
paragraph under “The New Democratic Trends”)]



9.
For each of the following sets of decades, identify the changing reasons the United
States had for repeatedly intervening in the affairs of Latin American nations during
the 1900s. Also, give at least one historical example of intervention for each
reason/set of decades. [p775-778]

1900-1940s:

1950s-1960s:

1970s-1990s:

2000s
10. What are the prospects for Latin America’s future?
and negativity. [p778-782]
REASONS FOR POSITIVE OUTLOOK?
List specific reasons for positivity
REASONS FOR NEGATIVE OUTLOOK?