Project Summary: Please answer, in 3 to 5 pages (double-spaced), one (1) of the following questions: 1. How would you characterize the importance of slavery to the broad evolution of the modern Cuban nation? In answering this question, think about the relationships between slavery and such ideas and institutions as colonialism/anti-colonialism, race/racism, the plantation economy, culture, and transnationalism. Make a case as to why we cant understand the history of Cuba without fully comprehending the role that slavery played in such a history. 2. In his On Becoming Cuban: Identity, Nationality, and Culture, historian Louis A. Perez, Jr. writes that it is almost impossible to understand post-colonial Cuba without appreciating the multiple ways in which North American developments insinuated themselves into Cuban life. Can a similar statement be made when discussing colonial life in Cuba? In answering this question, I would like to see you highlight the importance of North American influence in Cuba before independence was achieved in 1898. Issues to think about: the North American histories of anti-colonialism, revolution, and rights; the rise of modern capitalism in North America; and the North American role in the global slave trade. 3. In their essay Transnationalism: A Category of Analysis, scholars Laura Briggs, Gladys McCormick, and J.T. Way suggest that the concept of transnationalism may provide the intellectual framework through which to best understand the complexities and nuances of Latin American and Caribbean history. Using what weve learned about Cuban history thus far, would you agree? If so, discuss why the concept of transnationalism helps one make sense of what has happened in Cuba. If you disagree with Briggs, McCormick, and Way, suggest an alternative way to think through such a history. Would it, for example, be better to solely focus on what happened within the borders of Cuba? PLEASE USE THIS BOOK AND ONLY THIS BOOK AND CITED PLEASE: Matt D. Childs, The 1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle Against Atlantic Slavery (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2006).