Third Paper theme:

Write an essay that discusses and answers the following questions with the careful use of the evidence and materials studied in class.

Discuss the origins and course of revolutionary movements in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua during the 1980s?  What forces contributed to the emergence and successes of popular and/or armed movements against the governments of these countries?  Where these movements inevitable?  How did these countries fare during these struggles for transformation?  Were internal forces more important than external ones in the origins and outcomes of these movements? Do these countries share certain political and socio-economic legacies that made them more "ripe" for revolution?  How did revolutionary movements or governments deal with the societies they sought to change?  Where they successful or unsuccessful?  What obstacles did they find in their path?

Use some of these questions to develop your own approach to the materials we have studied in class.  Add one or two additional sources, depending on what argument you choose to make and how you try to prove it.  You are free to emphasize one aspect of these questions as long as you work to analyze the materials we read and develop your own argument.

Feel free to discuss outlines or drafts with me during office hours Wednesday 4/26 1-3 and Thursday 4/27 3:30-4:30, or Monday 5/1 2-4:00.