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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What nickname does the author give the USA?
(a) The great consumer.
(b) The vast unknowable.
(c) The end of iron.
(d) The world policeman.

2. What is expropriation?
(a) It is the government's practice of usurping the Indians and claiming their lands.
(b) It is the separation of the native peoples from the main population.
(c) It is the Indian's policies of attacking government outposts relentlessly.
(d) It is the tithe the Indians are expected to pay the government.

3. How did the USA attempt to curtail Brazil's petroleum trade?
(a) They gave Brazilian oil a grade "C."
(b) They asked Brazil nicely not to sell to anyone else.
(c) They provided oil to rival countries.
(d) They declared war and took all the oil fields.

4. What caused the Chilean nitrate business to collapse?
(a) The perfection of the Haber process.
(b) The war with Britain.
(c) The flood of 1923.
(d) The exhaustion of guano.

5. What resource is exploited in modern-day Potosi?
(a) Gold.
(b) Silver.
(c) Tin.
(d) Diamonds.

6. What was President Jose Manuel Balmaceda's goal for Chile?
(a) He wanted to compete with Brazil's rubber industry.
(b) He wanted to be elected to British parliament.
(c) He wanted to nationalize Chile's nitrate exports.
(d) He wanted to export more gold and silver.

7. What is the world's chief fuel?
(a) Copper.
(b) Petroleum.
(c) Iron.
(d) Water.

8. In which country did Emilian Zapata introduce radical agrarian reform?
(a) Western Peru.
(b) Central Honduras.
(c) Southen Mexico.
(d) Northern Brazil.

9. What resources caused the boom of the Minas Gerais region?
(a) Oil and water.
(b) Silver and crystal.
(c) Gold and diamonds.
(d) Tin and iron.

10. To what does the author compare Latin America's capacity for surprise?
(a) Pandora's box.
(b) Fool's gold.
(c) A jack-in-the-box.
(d) Guerilla warfare.

11. Who was the English monarch at the time of this incident?
(a) King George I, who declared war on Bolivia.
(b) Queen Victoria, after which claimed Bolivia no longer existed.
(c) King Henry VIII, after which congratulated Melgarejo on being creative.
(d) Queen Elizabeth II, who ignored the incident.

12. What did Mariano Melgarejo force a British ambassador to drink as punishment for sneering at the local chichas?
(a) A barrel of chocolate.
(b) Water from the Amazon.
(c) A bottle of bad wine.
(d) A tub of stale beer.

13. What is Lake Maracaibo?
(a) It is a huge deposit of oil in Venezuela.
(b) It is the favorite vacation spot of Brazil.
(c) It is the great lake of Nicaragua.
(d) It is the only source of freshwater in Argentina.

14. Why does the author feel that the USA was not plundered like Latin America?
(a) The USA initially did not have natural resources attractive to the international market.
(b) The USA was settled a long time after Latin America was settled.
(c) The USA struck a deal with its potential conquerors.
(d) The USA had the firepower and manpower to fight back.

15. Who was William Walker?
(a) He was a British explorer who ventured deep into the Amazon.
(b) He was a US historian who sought to tell the truth about the history of Latin America.
(c) He was a US assassin who made his way through Central America, eventually taking Panama for the Panama Canal.
(d) He was a Haitian revolutionary who led a rebellion against landowners.

Short Answer Questions

1. About how much of the price yielded by coffee going from Colombia to the US goes into the wages of the coffee workers?

2. Why was Juan Jose Arevalo's government overthrown by Rodolfo Armas, backed by the USA?

3. How much did foreign capitalists pay per acre for a huge tract of land in the Amazon?

4. Who was Aleijadinho?

5. What was Colombia paid for the erection of the Panama Canal?

(see the answer keys)

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