History of Colonial Latin America

In A Perfect Red Amy Butler Greenfield tells the story of the trade in cochineal, which she describes as one of “Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.” One way of thinking about this book is that Greenfield has written a global history around this product of Latin American biology and culture.

For our third take home exam, I’d like you to answer the question “What role did colonial Latin America play in world history” using A Perfect Red and class lectures as your sources. Your essay should be about 1,500 words long, and it should address the following issues: How did Latin America affect the global economy? How did Latin America affect European science? How did Latin America affect world cultures?  How did Spain shape Latin America’s impact on the rest of the world? What aspects of Latin America (its indigenous culture, natural resources, imperial domination, location) affected the outside world?

Don’t forget to put in the grading grid from exam 2 so I can see your amazing improvements!