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DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION #2: After reading the following two historical sources, what hidden factor would a historian most likely cite as informing the situation that the sources describe in the early modern Spanish colonial Americas? (And, why do you think your choice is the correct one?). Document #1: The first source is a selection from the poetic writings of Sister Juana Inez de la Cruz (d. 1695), a Catholic nun who was active in the area around Mexico City in the latter half of the seventeenth century. A daughter of an unwed mother, she often addressed controversial subjects that made other religious leaders uncomfortable. Ah stupid men, unreasonable In blaming woman's nature, Oblivious that your acts incite The very faults you censure. If, of unparalleled desire, At her disdain you batter With provocation of the flesh, What should her virtue matter? Yet once you wear resistance down You reprimand her, showing That what you diligently devised Was all her wanton doing. With love you feign to be distraught How gallant is your lying! Like children, masked with coconuts, Their own selves terrifying. And idiotically would seek In the same woman's carriage A Thais for the sport of love, And a Lucrece for marriage. What sight more comic than the man, All decent counsel loathing, Who breathes upon a mirror's face Then mourns: "I can see nothing." Whether rejected or indulged, You all have the same patter: Complaining in the former case, But mocking in the latter. No woman your esteem can earn, Though cautious and mistrustful; You call her cruel, if denied, And if accepted, lustful. Inconsequent and variable Your reason must be reckoned: You charge the first girl with disdain; With lickerishness, the second. How can the lady of your choice Temper her disposition, When to be stubborn vexes you, But you detest submission? So, what with all the rage and pain Caused by your greedy nature, She would be wise who never loved And hastened her departure.... Which has the greater sin when burned By the same lawless fever: She who is amorously deceived, Or he, the sly deceiver? Or which deserves the sterner blame, Though each will be a sinner: She who becomes a whore for pay, Or he who pays to win her? Are you surrounded at your faults, Which could not well be direr? Then love what you have made her be, Or, make as you desire her.... Document #2: The second source is a selection from a lengthy account presented to the King of Spain by two of his representatives, Don Jorge Juan (d. 1773) and Don Antonio de Ulloa (d. 1793), who spent nearly a decade in the Americas between 1735 and 1745, and which was later published as a book. It is no easy task to exhibit a true picture of the customs and inclinations of the Indians....In their marriages they run counter to the sentiments of all nations, esteeming what others detest; for they never of their own choice marry a woman who has not been previously known by others; looking on it a sure sign that she had nothing pleasing in her. After a young man has asked the object of his affections of her father, and obtained his consent, they immediately begin to live together as man and wife, and assist the father-in-law in cultivating his chacara. At the end of three or four months, and often of a year, he leaves his bride, without any ceremony...But if nothing of this happens, after passing three or four months in this commerce, which they call Amanarse...then they marry; and this custom is still very common, having hitherto proved too strong for the...clergy to extirpate it....And it is to no purpose to go about to persuade them that they were married....It is not uncommon among them to change their wives, without any other preliminary or agreement than having been familiar with the wife of another....and it avails little to separate them, as they soon find means to return to the same manner of living.... Now, which of the following five possibilities do you think is the most correct response to the issues raised by these two sources? A historian would most likely point to the clash between Spanish colonial Catholic traditions and the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas as a cause of the tensions expressed, as the two were completely incompatible, and did not mix together during this period. A historian would most likely point to the administrative corruption that marked the Spanish colonial territories as a cause of the tensions expressed, because attempts to evade taxation led many colonial subjects to avoid registering official marriages with the Catholic authorities in their region. A historian would most likely point to a growing movement toward women's rights in Spanish colonial society by the early modern period as a cause of the tensions expressed, which had begun in Europe in the wake of the Renaissance and Reformation events. A historian would most likely point to the issue of castes in Spanish colonial society as a cause of the tensions expressed, as women here were more likely to be descended from the lower caste status of indigenous peoples in the Americas, or as descendants of lower castes. A historian would most likely point to the impact of the "Great Dying" on Spanish colonial societies by the seventeenth century as a cause of the tensions expressed, because the lack of population dictated that any kind of practice that resulted in demographic increases would be viewed positively. REMEMBER: In your response below: Explain which of the five choices you think is correct; show the evidence you used from your reading to explain that choice; and also explain briefly why you rejected the other four choices!