Deck 14: Cultures of Splendor and Power, 1500-1780

Question 1

Which of the following is often seen as the epitome of the blending of Persian, Islamic, and Indian traditions?

A) the palace at Isfahan
B) the empire's legal system
C) the Taj Mahal
D) the peacock throne

Answer 1

the Taj Mahal

Question 2

What was the role of the Ottoman tekkes schools?

A) They taught devotional strategies to prepare students to enter Sufi orders.
B) They provided an elite corps of martial artists for the Ottoman army.
C) They led persecution of religious minorities such as Jews and Christians.
D) They challenged Ottoman rule as insufficiently guided by religious principles.

Answer 2

They taught devotional strategies to prepare students to enter Sufi orders.

Question 3

What type of significant artwork was produced by the Oyo Empire and Benin?

A) detailed paintings of plant life
B) intricate silver jewelry
C) sophisticated bronzes
D) enormous marble palaces and temples

Answer 3

sophisticated bronzes

Question 4

Which group closed off the studies into European science, history, and geography begun by Ibrahim Muteferrika?

A) the devshirme
B) the janissaries
C) the Sufis
D) the ulama

Question 5

What did the Ottomans see as evidence that the Islamic world had a monopoly on truth, enlightenment, and culture?

A) Europeans had much less wealth than the Ottomans.
B) Nowhere else could the famous tulips of the Tulip Period be grown.
C) Ottoman military successes proved God's favor for their culture.
D) Ottoman science was more advanced than European science.

Question 6

How did Europe's cultural exchanges with the Americas and the Pacific compare with its exchanges with China and the Islamic world?

A) Unlike cultures in China and the Islamic world, indigenous cultures in the Americas and the Pacific were undermined by contact with Europeans.
B) Chinese and Islamic rulers, as well as indigenous leaders in the Americas and Pacific, brought artists from all over the world to glorify their regimes.
C) Chinese and Islamic rulers, as well as indigenous leaders in the Americas and Pacific, eagerly supported Christian missionaries.
D) Unlike cultures in China and the Islamic world, indigenous cultures in the Americas and the Pacific were eager for trade contact with Europeans.

Question 7

Why did Ming China escape the sectarian warfare that ravaged Europe?

A) All Chinese people shared one religion, so there was nothing to cause conflict.
B) Chinese government was so centralized that regional leaders lacked the ability to fight in defense of their religious beliefs.
C) European visitors told Chinese leaders about religious warfare in their homeland, and the Chinese vowed to avoid making the same mistake.
D) The Chinese believed it was the emperor, rather than any religious group, that held the mandate of heaven, so no sect was favored over the others.

Question 8

For what reason did the Chinese take little interest in the maps brought by Matteo Ricci?

A) Chinese maps exhibited a higher degree of geometric and mathematical precision.
B) The Chinese knew that the earth was round, and they ridiculed the flat earth shown in Ricci's maps.
C) The Chinese believed that Ricci's maps made China seem an unimportant country on the edge of the world.
D) Chinese maps reflected more knowledge of other parts of the world.

Question 9

In what way did the Islamic world in the period between 1500 and 1780 change from its earlier pattern of cultural development?

A) The Islamic world reunified under a single political authority, the caliphate.
B) The Islamic world began a program of overseas expansion.
C) The Islamic world lost its ability to make beautiful textiles and other products for trade.
D) The Islamic world developed three distinctive cultural traditions centered on the Mughal, Ottoman, and Safavid Empires.

Question 10

How did popular culture in Tokugawa Japan subvert its social order?

A) The most popular plays were those that made fun of the shogun.
B) It idolized groups such as actors, musicians, and courtesans, who were ordinarily at the bottom of the social hierarchy.
C) It argued that people should be able to rise in the social hierarchy through attention to propriety and virtuous behavior.
D) It offered women opportunities for independence and autonomy.

Question 11

Which of the following were the most popular books published in Ming China?

A) almanacs and books of astronomical observations
B) medical encyclopedias
C) travel guides
D) study guides for civil service examinations

Question 12

Which of the following is an important cultural achievement of the Safavids?

A) The art of the period reflected the majesty and aloofness of the Safavid shahs.
B) The Safavids created a blending of Sunni and Shia poetry.
C) The Safavid Empire provided a home for Shiite Islam, and blended it with traditional Persian culture.
D) The Safavid capital, Isfahan, was modeled after the Topkapi palace in Istanbul.

Question 13

Which of the following reflects a difference between China and the Islamic Empires?

A) China's internal market fueled its growth and culture, instead of the foreign trade that provided wealth to the Islamic Empires.
B) China alone relied on its own traditions for cultural inspiration.
C) China had long been a center of learning, but the Islamic Empires relied on outside sources of learning.
D) China, unlike the Mughals and Ottomans, ruled over a homogeneous population.

Question 14

Why did the Chinese devote a great deal of attention to astronomy and calendrical science?

A) They wanted to decipher the mysteries of the universe and gain greater control over nature.
B) They believed that the stability of the kingdom depended on the emperor's ability to calculate correct dates for festivals, court sessions, mourning periods, and agricultural work.
C) They needed a clear understanding of the constellations and other celestial features in order to navigate the world's oceans.
D) They believed that astronomy was the key to a universal and objective understanding of the natural world.

Question 15

How did the literary culture of late Ming and early Qing China affect elite women's lives?

A) Elite women's success as writers, readers, and editors encouraged them to assume a wider range of social roles.
B) Elite women read about the lives of poor women and developed a new sense of female solidarity that crossed class boundaries.
C) Elite women were generally able to participate as writers, readers, and editors, despite increasing constraints on their lives.
D) Elite women were not encouraged to participate in literary culture, but the most popular books had strong female characters.

Question 16

Which of the following is a similarity between the ways that the rulers of Muslim and Chinese empires used the new wealth circulating in global trade?

A) Chinese and Muslim rulers financed pure scientific research.
B) Chinese and Muslim rulers glorified their regimes through magnificent architecture and art.
C) Chinese and Muslim rulers lowered taxes on their peasant populations.
D) Chinese and Muslim rulers established new universities to teach western knowledge.

Question 17

What was a consequence of the "native learning" movement promoted by some Japanese intellectuals?

A) Buddhism was branded a foreign contaminant of Japanese culture.
B) Shinto beliefs were incorporated into "Dutch learning."
C) Zen monasteries spread across the country.
D) Shamanism was suppressed, especially among women.

Question 18

Which of the following supported the Mughal nobility's lavish lifestyle?

A) Tribute from the conquered peoples in central Asia provided the funds for extravagant buildings such as the Taj Mahal.
B) Foreign trade brought in silver and advanced the money economy, which helped the nobility prosper.
C) Confiscatory taxation on farmers funded the Mughal military-based nobility.
D) Mughal nobles were entitled to collect a tithe from all non-Muslims.

Question 19

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, what led the Japanese to consider how to control and integrate foreign learning especially from China and Europe)?

A) Foreign powers forced Japan to modernize by adopting "modern" science and culture.
B) Before the seventeenth century, Japan had not come into contact with foreign ideas or culture.
C) Earlier, foreign ideas rarely traveled beyond coastal regions, but by the eighteenth century, expanded networks of exchange facilitated their spread throughout the country.
D) Members of middle class idealized foreign culture, leading the shoguns to fear that learning about Enlightenment ideals might lead the merchants to overthrow the emperor.

Question 20

Which of the following shows the early Mughal Empire's attitude toward the culture of South Asia?

A) Islamic traditions dominated artistic and poetic expression.
B) Hindu traditions in jurisprudence formed the basis of Mughal law.
C) Hindus and Muslims joined to suppress the culture of other ethnic groups in South Asia.
D) Hindus and Muslims shared the flourishing of art, architecture, and music.

Question 21

How did Captain Cook's voyages to Australia reflect Enlightenment ideas?

A) They included scientists to describe and classify Australia's fauna, flora, people, and natural features.
B) They were ordered to create a free and open market economy in Australia.
C) They were instructed to respect the heritage and cultural autonomy of Australia's Aborigines.
D) They were organized by a group of intellectual women who wanted to promote scientific knowledge.

Question 22

Which of the following statements best characterizes the effect of attempts to convert both Amerindians and Africans to Christianity during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

A) Africans and Amerindians were integrated into the European clergy.
B) Africans and Amerindians became ultra-orthodox, criticizing the behavior of their European missionary teachers.
C) Africans and Amerindians completely gave up their previous gods and belief systems.
D) Africans and Amerindians used Christianity to supplement their existing beliefs, not replace them.

Question 23

What ideas did European Enlightenment thinkers hold in common?

A) They wanted to improve their societies and search for universal, objective knowledge.
B) They wanted to encourage European monarchs to rule as enlightened despots.
C) They wanted men and women to participate as equals in the pursuit of better government.
D) They wanted to encourage people to become more religious so that they could achieve enlightenment.

Question 24

What was the political rationale for monarchs such as Louis XIV and Charles II to support scientific academies?

A) The crown hoped to gain the support of the women who hosted the salons.
B) If the crown was seen to support scientific progress, the great minds of the academies would also be seen to support the crown.
C) If the crown supported the academies, the new ideas and technology that were discovered would belong to the crown.
D) The crown hoped to gain votes from the growing middle class, who were fascinated by new scientific discoveries.

Question 25

How did the European missionary presence differ in the Americas from that in East Asia before 1800?

A) Missionaries to the Americas were backed up by colonial officials and military power.
B) Missionaries to East Asia were more willing to accept the blending of multiple religious traditions.
C) Missionaries to the Americas were more successful at impressing their audiences with examples of European cartography.
D) Missionaries to East Asia failed to learn anything about the people they sought to convert.

Question 26

Which of the following was a way in which the arts were used by artists or their patrons to send a social message between 1500 and 1750?

A) Ottoman and Qing rulers used architecture to communicate their wish for a more open relationship with their subjects.
B) Intellectuals in Benin used poetry to express their longing for a bygone golden age.
C) European women such as Mary Wollstonecraft took up the pen to counter the belief that women could not act as rational beings.
D) Mughal painters used styles imported from Europe to communicate their wish for greater cultural blending.

Question 27

Which of the following was one of the goals of the authors of the Encyclopédie?

A) They sought to gather all the knowledge scattered over the face of the earth and to present it in useful form.
B) They sought to create a catalog of all of the works of western authors.
C) They wanted to portray all other cultures as being inferior to European culture.
D) They wanted to evaluate the world's regions according to their adherence to rational science.

Question 28

Which of the following is a reason that Creoles in Spanish and Portuguese colonies were drawn to Enlightenment ideas?

A) Enlightenment ideas were popular in Portugal and Spain.
B) Creoles wanted to imitate their English counterparts in North America.
C) Creoles believed in the equality of all humankind.
D) Enlightenment ideas helped to justify their dissatisfaction with colonial rule.

Question 29

What can historians use as evidence that the ideals of the Enlightenment were not universally accepted?

A) Many governments employed censors and punished radical thinkers.
B) Riots occurred in university towns against the imposition of secular knowledge in the schools.
C) Artisans guilds passed rules against applying Newtonian physics to their crafts.
D) Women wrote in their journals that they refused to conduct experiments because they feared a loss of femininity.

Question 30

What were some of the broader consequences of the Enlightenment?

A) increased respect for the wisdom of classical and medieval authorities
B) the expansion of educational opportunities for rural women
C) increased respect for traditional elites and clerics
D) the expansion of literacy and the spread of critical thinking

Question 31

How did Asante kings use the wealth they acquired from trade?

A) They sponsored feasts to allow themselves an opportunity to dine with their subjects.
B) They led religious ceremonies, characterized by lavish displays of ornate religious artifacts.
C) They showed their link to wealth and power by displaying gold-covered spears, maces, and elephant tails.
D) They commissioned the creation of epic poems about the divine origins of the Asantehene.

Question 32

Which of the following helps explain the degree of intermarriage between European men and native women in the Americas?

A) Amerindians sought to ally themselves with European Christians in order to hasten the conversion process.
B) Amerindian women were attempting to repopulate the Americans after the deaths brought by European disease.
C) Initially, European colonists were overwhelmingly male.
D) European wives died out rapidly in the harsh climates of North America.

Question 33

Francis Bacon's method of scientific inquiry asserted which of the following?

A) Conducting experiments was the only way that humans could begin to understand the workings of nature.
B) Scientific knowledge should be based on the work of traditional authorities, such as Aristotle.
C) Only members of the clergy could safely conduct scientific experiments without imperiling their souls.
D) The best way to learn was to inquire into the ways that other cultures did scientific research.

Question 34

In what way was the U.S. Declaration of Independence an Enlightenment document?

A) It argued for the rise of a meritocracy based on talent, not rank.
B) It proposed that democracy was the best form of government.
C) It announced that all men were endowed with equal rights.
D) It avowed that only a government based on Christian ideals could provide a just society.

Question 35

Which of the following is a similarity between indigenous peoples in the Pacific and the Americas?

A) Both groups were forced to work in silver mines for European owners.
B) Both groups had large numbers of people perish from European-introduced disease.
C) Both groups believed that the Europeans were gods.
D) Both groups were taken as slaves and sent to Europe and Asia.

Question 36

What types of characteristics did Carolus Linnaeus use to define racial categories?

A) artistic ability and linguistic sophistication
B) form of governance and linguistic sophistication
C) physical appearance and form of governance
D) linguistic sophistication and physical appearance

Question 37

Which of the following did Adam Smith see as a valid reason for creating an economy with less government regulation?

A) Wealth that resulted from early factories would result in population growth.
B) He believed that the laws of God did not permit the guilds' imposition of controls on labor.
C) He believed that free and fair competition provided the best opportunity to produce wealth.
D) Mercantilists advocated rational self-interest, which could not advance the common good.

Question 38

Which of the following statements is supported by John Locke's notion of the "social contract"?

A) All people have an innate drive to truck, barter, and exchange.
B) There are rules organizing innate cultural differences between different ethnic groups.
C) The only way to maintain the state's relationship with citizens is through harsh punishments.
D) People have a right to rebel against corrupted government.

Question 39

In what way might the transporting of British prisoners to Australia be considered an Enlightenment concept?

A) Once their terms of incarceration were completed, all residents in Australia were to have equal rights to life, liberty, and property.
B) The costs of incarceration in Britain would go down according to free market principles.
C) Civilized British society would not be undermined by uncivilized populations.
D) Transportation was a more enlightened form of punishment than hanging.

Question 40

Which group of humans was consigned to the bottom of Linnaeus's classification?

A) Pacific peoples
B) Amerindians
C) East Asians
D) Africans

Question 41

As Africa became increasingly caught up in global economic exchanges during this period, African culture was heavily influenced by European culture.

Question 42

In the sixteenth century, the world's most dynamic cultures were in Europe because of their control of the Atlantic trade.

Question 43

Japan, unlike Asian land-based empires, embraced outside influences that could be put to good use.

Question 44

In China, the economy's increasing commercialization helped weaken government controls on what could be printed.

Question 45

Which of the following did Captain Cook and Christopher Columbus have in common?

A) Both of them sailed to obtain scientific knowledge as well as empire.
B) Both of them were killed by people they met in their travels.
C) Both of them returned home with news of gold that could be exploited.
D) Both of them changed local ecologies by introducing European flora and fauna to unfamiliar environments.

Question 46

Compare the points of view expressed in Chinese, European, and Islamic ideas about cartography between 1500 and 1780. How did they reflect the broader perspectives of their respective societies?

Question 47

The Ottoman Empire was more ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse than any previous Muslim state.

Question 48

Compare the cultural traditions that developed in Tokugawa Japan with those of Enlightenment-era western Europe. What were the characteristics of each cultural world? What influences led each to develop as it did? Be sure to address popular culture as well as the culture of the elites.

Question 49

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, European thinkers developed new ideas about how the world's people could be classified. Discuss the origins of this system of thought and compare it with the systems of classification used in China.

Question 50

Analyze how the Enlightenment was defined both in terms of ideas and in terms of social practices, and explain the context from which those ideas and practices emerged.

Question 51

How was Captain Cook a symbol of his age? How did the worldview he represented contribute to the impact he, and other explorers, had on the societies they encountered? How did European thinkers use his discoveries to assert European superiority?