STUDY QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 1
1. Why were North and South America settled later than other continents?
a. they were far away and across oceans b. their terrain was unattractive to humans
c. their climate was unattractive to humans d. their plants and animals were unattractive to humans
2. What closed America to more people coming and kept the continent isolated from Eurasia and Africa?
a. the weather got colder and ice blocked human migration b. an overweight mammoth broke the Bering bridge c. the weather got warmer and rising seas flooded the ‘bridges’ d. tribal warfare among the Inuit (Eskimo)
3. Which is NOT true of the long, long isolation of the Americas from Africa, Asia, and Europe?
a. limited the genetic diversity of native Americans b. protected the Americas from pandemics
c. increased the speed of American cultural development d. limited the number of domesticated animals in the Americas
4. Before Columbus, luxuries like spices and silk came to Europe
a. by sea from Greece and Africa. b. from India and China, to the Middle East, then to Italy
c. by river from central Europe. d. from India across the Himalayas, to Russia
5. Why did Europe import luxuries like cotton, silk, sugar, pepper, lacquerware, or porcelain?
a. bad weather and religious prohibitions made production impossible in Europe
b. bad weather and lack of skilled labor made production impossible in Europe
c. overpowering imperial control of merchants made free trade impossible in Europe
d. bad weather and lack of production secrets made production impossible in Europe
6. Why were Indian, Chinese and Middle-Eastern goods so expensive in Europe?
a. because very large numbers of consumers in Europe bid up their prices
b. because of many middlemen and of monopolies, cartels, and oligopolies
c. because exotic foreign culture was respected and highly popular in Europe
d. because the Ming dynasty manipulated its money to pump up its profits
7. Why had the balance of trade (the ratio of goods coming in, as compared to goods being exported) been mostly defavorable to Europe for more than a thousand years?
a. European Christians refused to sell to Muslims, Hindus, or Buddhists
b. Europeans considered Eastern products to be inferior in quality to their own
c. European goods were mostly undesirable or too bulky for long distance trade
d. Muslim middlemen refused to do business with infidels
8. With the Europeans buying much more than they sold, how was trade balanced?
a. The Turks and Egyptians opened large lines of credit to European merchants
b. The Italians and Jews sold interest-bearing bonds in exchange for gold to rich Muslim merchants
c. The Europeans launched the Crusades and took over Egypt and Palestine
d. The Europeans had no choice but to send gold and silver to the Middle East and Asia
9. Which of these was NOT a common feature of the dominant European ships of the 1500s?
a. Islamic astrolabe b. Chinese high freeboard c. large numbers of rowers
d. cannon firing Chinese black powder e. Chinese magnetic compass and Chinese sternpost rudder
10. The main reason Europeans like Columbus made their dangerous voyages was
a. to rob Spain of its trade monopoly b. to convert Indians c. to trade with Asia d. to discover America
11. What was a BIG mistake that Columbus made?
a. he UNDERestimated the size of the planet, believing he reached India, he really ran into an unknown continent
b. he UNDERestimated the size of the ocean and ran out of water, having to return to Spain and try again
c. he didn’t realize how unfriendly and ferocious the natives of the Carribean were
d. his fleet was ambushed and destroyed by the Portuguese on its way back
12. All of the following were part of the varied resources of the pre-Columbian Native Americans except
a. volcanic glass b. seashells used as money c. large domesticated animals d. bow and arrow
13. Which of the following is NOT true of the native American cultures of ancient Mexico and Peru?
a. they didn’t use iron b. they had no horses c. they had no pigs, sheep, or cows
d. they didn’t use the wheel (except in a few toys) e. their agriculture had a low yield (inefficient)
14. Which of these is NOT true of the Aztec/Mexica ‘empire’?
a. its main city was one of the biggest in the world b. it had clean, advanced water supply
c. it had big markets d. its farmers produced a lot of food e. it was mostly peaceful
15. Which of these is NOT a reason the Mexica/Aztec lost to the Spanish?
a. diseases to which the Mexica had no resistance b. excellent iron/steel Spanish weapons/armour
c. large numbers and strong discipline of Spanish d. Mexica tradition of individual/non-lethal combat
e. Mexica lacked animals or carts so men had to carry all supplies
16. Some native Americans organized large, sophisticated empires with millions of people, while many other native Americans continued to live simple lives in small groups or tribes…why?
a. small groups and tribes lived in areas with plentiful resources
b. organized natives were in areas that had access to trade with Europe or Asia
c. large native civilizations existed in areas that had access to metals like iron, tin, or copper
d. small groups and tribes possessed the horse and were therefore independent
17. The Inca and the Mexica, sophisticated, powerful empires of millions, fell to the Spanish in months, but it took years and years to defeat the Indians of North America…why?
a. North American natives were smarter b. North American natives were organized in many small tribes
c. North American natives resisted disease better d. weather in North America made conquest easier
18. As the American ‘Indians’ died off massively, the Spanish
a. brought Spanish laborers. b. brought indentured servants from Spain.
c. brought African slaves. d. brought indentured servants from Africa. e. abandonned many colonies
19. Europeans got a number of valuable items from the New World, including
a. iron technology, concept of zero. b. tobacco, corn and potatoes. c. horses. d. microorganisms.
STUDY QUESTIONS:
1. When the Muslim Ottomans and Christian Venetians realized that their arch-enemies, the Spanish and Portuguese, had ‘outflanked’ them by reaching Asia and the Americas directly–rather than via the Mediterranean, they…
a. accepted the inevitable and re-oriented their economy towards agriculture and industry
b. formed a naval alliance with Ming China to seal off the ocean to direct trade from Europe
c. cooperated to build a fleet, but were decisively defeated in a naval battle near the coast of India
d. cooperated to grossly lower their own prices to put the Atlantic powers out of business
2. Venetian and Ottoman warships were usually defeated by the ships of the Atlantic powers because
a. The Atlantic sailships had much more firepower and much longer cruising range
b. the Muslim Ottomans categorically refused to embrace the use of guns and cannons
c. The Muslims had inferior geographical knowledge and had poor maritime charts or navigation skills
d. the Atlantic sailships had higher speed and superior acceleration compared to Ottoman and Venetian galleys
3. Why didn’t the Ottoman Turks or Venetians simply copy the Atlantic-style sailship design?
a. the Koran strictly forbade that any foreign inventions be adopted by Muslims
b. they lacked the artisans and craftsmen to build such complicated vessels
c. they lacked the timber for such heavy ships, or the fuel to cast so many cannon
d. they squandered their resources on Tabouleh
4. Which of these is NOT a reason why the Ottomans, the Indians, or the Chinese did not strongly resist the Western take-over of the oceans?
a. all three have dangerous, exposed land borders and are therefore more oriented to terrestrial warfare
b. all three had relgious or philosophical systems that strongly discouraged trade
c. all three were very wealthy and mostly self-sufficient, so trade did not seem crucial
d. all three were massive, ponderous, bureaucratic empires which did not favor entrepreneurship
5. How is the story of Henry VIII’s marital problems relevant to history?
a. it demonstrates the negative impact of obesity on fertility and traditional sexual politics
b. it helps explain the rivalry between Spain and England, and the breakdown of medieval religion
c. it provides an example of the economic changes caused by the discovery of the Americas
d. because it was he who decided to send the first settlers to colonize Virginia
6. Which of these is NOT a macro-level consequence of the discovery of the Americas?
a. it pumped a HUGE volume of gold and silver into the world economy, ‘turbo-charging’ development
b. it ultimately made the Middle East irrelevant, Europeans now bought Asian goods directly
c. it made almost the entire globe one economic, biological WHOLE, for the first time (since Pangea–200 million yrs earlier)
d. it allowed Europe to balance and sustain trade with India and China
e. new wealth brought stability and equality to Europe
7. Which of these is NOT a reason why Europe had an advantage in building powerful navies?
a. good location, long coastlines: islands and peninsulas: Spain, Italy, Holland, Britain
b. large forests of big, strong, water-resistant hardwoods such as oak
c. abundant wood fuel for melting metals to make artillery
d. abundant rivers and watermills powering trip hammers and bellows for weapons-making
e. Justin Bieber’s ancestors’ singing terrorized Chinese and Islamic rivals
8. Which of these conditions in late medieval Europe DID NOT favor the rise of ‘proto-capitalism’?
a. political fragmentation, and therefore a lack of huge empire to enforce monopolies
b. the breakdown of religion and church and ideas inhibiting or criticizing business or money
c. political alliance between kings and merchants against the peasants and knights
d. absorption/development of Middle Eastern/Asian business and math concepts (agebra, Indian numerals, etc)
e. the traditional practices of communal village life and mutual obligations and duties of Lords and Vassals
9. Which of these is NOT a reason why Spain–which for a moment, thanks to its enormous conquests and capture of gold and silver–seemed on the brink of taking over the world, soon when into an irreversible decline?
a. Spain got involved in an expensive endless war with the Turks
b. Spain got involved in an 80-year ‘Vietnam War’ in Holland
c. Spain got involved in war against England
d. Spain borrowed too much and stopped producing things
e. Spain broke down with a religious war
f. Spain kicked out Muslims and Jews, losing their talents
10. Even though the Spanish did not take over North America (apart from small outposts in New Mexico and Florida), they still made a deep impact on the lives of natives of what is today the USA because…
a. huge numbers of refugee Aztecs fleeing Cortez invaded the Southwest
b. horses, pigs, and diseases brought by the Spanish escaped into America and changed the natural balance
c. fear of Spanish attack caused North American tribes to begin organizing alliances
d. the knowledge of iron eventually ‘diffused’ into Native American areas, distorting traditional culture
11. Although tons of gold and silver, and enormous diamonds, pearls, and gems are probably the most spectacular examples of how the Europeans got rich in the Americas, which of these also made them huge profits?
a. the exotic, warm weather cotton that the Europeans used to have to buy at high prices from the Middle East and India, which they could now grow directly themselves
b. tobacco, an addictive stimulant, whose smoke the natives of the Carribean were seen ‘drinking’ and which soon became a huge success in Europe
c. Sugar (from the Arabic ‘Zakar’–as in sacharrin) cane, another exotic Asian warm-weather plant to which the Europeans had first been introduced to during the Crusades, could now be grown directly by them
d. Furs, warm, luxurious, and becoming rarer and rarer in cold Europe
e. all of these were very profitable
