Chapter 08 Self-assessment

. Common patterns in response to the Great Depression around the world included all of the following EXCEPT.

Centralizing and expanding the power of the state.

State efforts to build cultural and political nationalism.

Government incentives for domestic industrial growth.

The removal of tariff barriers in order to encourage international trade.

. Which of the following was NOT discussed as a key factor determining the severity of the Depression in different Latin American countries?

The racial and ethnic makeup of the country.

The diversity of the country's export portfolio and the degree of its dependence on one or two products.

The extent to which its unemployed workers could return to subsistence farming in the countryside.

The willingness of the countries that imported its products not to close or restrict their markets.

. During the Depression, Argentina's middle class continued to grow, and to diverge from the poor and working classes.

True.

False.

. The history of Inca Kola in Peru showed that

Given the choice, Latin American consumers preferred foreign products to lower-quality domestically-produced ones.

Light industry required protection from high import tariffs to succeed.

Economic nationalism could be a question of marketing, as well as production.

Only the largest Latin American countries could succeed in light-industrial development.

. Which of the following statements about Mexican industrialization in the middle decades of the twentieth century is FALSE?

The outputs of certain Mexican industries were beneficial to Mexican agriculture, but the Mexican countryside was nevertheless often left behind by Mexico's mid-century economic development.

Central planning of the economy by the federal government proved necessary to guide Mexico's industrialization.

Foreigners were not allowed to own more than 49% of any business in Mexico.

Mexico's ISI policy proved successful, delivering robust growth rates and near-self-sufficiency in light consumer goods and many heavy-industrial products as well.

. Which of the following statements about Mexico's national oil company, Pemex, is FALSE?

As a large employer, it contributed to the growth of an industrial working class in the country.

Its products helped to fuel the rest of Mexico's industrial sector.

Its founding proved politically controversial in Mexico, where conservatives opposed it as unconstitutional meddling in the free market.

Like other state-owned companies in Latin America, its profitability was undermined by its politicization, as it was put to use for broader purposes of national economic development.

. Argentine labor politics from 1916 to 1930 illustrates all of the following EXCEPT

The willingness of the governing elite to use force to suppress labor militancy.

The political benefits leaders could derive by embracing moderate labor reforms without alienating capital or the middle class.

The disruptive impact of the Great Depression on Argentine politics.

The governing elite's continued focus on agricultural over industrial development.

. During the presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas

Mexico's government remained the key arbiter of disputes between industrial workers and capital.

Rural workers were incorporated into the new national labor confederation.

The gains in wages and benefits that Mexican workers had made under Cárdenas' predecessors were halted and often reversed.

Organized labor became the key constituency supporting Cárdenas' move toward socialism.

. Which of the following was NOT a key base of support in Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's coalition in Colombia?

White-collar workers.

Small-business owners.

The urban poor in cities like Bogotá.

Coffee planters.

. While initially supported by Brazil's Fascist sympathizers, Getúlio Vargas ultimately suppressed Fascism in Brazil and allied with the United States against the Fascist Axis in Europe.

True.

False.

. Getúlio Vargas' interventions in the economy included all of the following EXCEPT

Creating a state-owned electric company that became the dominant force in Brazilian electricity production and distribution.

Expropriating the rural ranchers and coffee growers who typified the old Brazilian elite.

Suppressing militant labor activism.

Securing US aid to build a massive steel plant.

. All of the following undermined the Peróns' hold on power in the 1950s EXCEPT

Economic mismanagement

Corruption scandals.

The emerging political rivalry between Juan Domingo and Evita Perón

The end of the postwar export boom

. Nicaragua's Anastasio Somoza, Cuba's Fulgencio Batista, and the Dominican Republic's Rafael Trujillo all came to political power after rising to be head of their country's army or national guard.

True.

False.

. Which of the following statements about El Salvador at the time of "La Matanza" is FALSE?

The indigenous population was perhaps one-quarter of the country as a whole.

Indigenous people and other small farmers had been losing their landholdings to the large coffee estates for decades.

High prices for coffee continued to enrich the so-called "Fourteen Families"

President Martínez Hernández's hardline anti-communism exceeded the actual threat posed by the country's small Communist movement.

. Which of the following statements about the Good Neighbor Policy is FALSE?

It brought decades of US military interventions in Central America and the Caribbean to an end.

It succeeded in contributing to a much-improved US reputation in Latin America.

It created a climate for the peaceful resolution of disputes such as the Mexican oil expropriation.

It helped promote democracy in the region.

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