Deck 12: Contact, Commerce, and Colonization, 1450-1600

Question 1

What led Portuguese traders to explore the coast of Africa in the mid-sixteenth century?

A) Gold's value rose dramatically during and after the Black Death, and the Portuguese believed that Africa was a source of precious metals.
B) The Spanish had taken control of the gold coming from the Americas, so the Portuguese had to look elsewhere.
C) The Portuguese were denied access to the Mediterranean trade in gold by their rivals, the Dutch.
D) The Holy Roman Empire refused to allow the Portuguese merchants a share of trade in gold mined in the Carpathian Mountains.

Answer 1

Gold's value rose dramatically during and after the Black Death, and the Portuguese believed that Africa was a source of precious metals.

Question 2

What was the benefit to the Spanish crown of an encomienda?

A) The crown could use the encomienda to directly oversee missionary work among the Indians.
B) The crown could use the encomienda to export Iberian prisoners to work mines in the Americas.
C) The crown received special taxes on the extraction of precious metals from the encomenderos.
D) The crown could use the encomenderos as forced labor on sugar plantations.

Answer 2

The crown received special taxes on the extraction of precious metals from the encomenderos.

Question 3

The establishment of colonies in the Americas in the sixteenth century provided Europeans with which of the following advantages in global trade?

A) Elaborate cotton and wool textiles manufactured in the Americas were highly prized in Asia.
B) Europeans could take advantage of the Aztecs' superior shipbuilding techniques.
C) American manufactures were eagerly received in Africa and Asia.
D) European products that were not esteemed in Afro-Eurasia could be sold in the Americas.

Answer 3

European products that were not esteemed in Afro-Eurasia could be sold in the Americas.

Question 4

Why was China's demand for silver so high during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

A) Silver was believed to be the most beautiful metal.
B) Silver was used to pay taxes and as money in internal markets.
C) Silver was used in decorating porcelains for export.
D) Silver was thought to have medical value.

Question 5

After 1570, why was Japan supplanted as the primary source of silver for China?

A) The Spanish discovered new sources of silver in the Philippines, which was closer to China than Japan was.
B) The Japanese closed their doors to all external trade, in order to avoid European domination.
C) The Spanish took control of the Philippines and used it as a conduit for silver from their colonies in the Americas.
D) Japanese silver was mined out, leaving them with little to trade internationally.

Question 6

Which of the following was the determinative factor in the Spaniards' conquest of the Aztecs?

A) The Aztecs thought that Cortez was a god and were afraid to fight him.
B) The Spanish overwhelmed the Aztecs by force of numbers.
C) Smallpox spread rapidly among the Aztec warriors and elites.
D) The Aztecs were hated by their neighbors, who joined forces with the Spanish.

Question 7

Which of the following factors led to China's economic expansion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?

A) improved agricultural techniques
B) the expansion of trade with Europeans
C) thriving and elaborate internal trade networks
D) the conquest of neighboring states

Question 8

Which of the following was essential to the Aztec state's legitimacy?

A) a bureaucratic government
B) a federation of allied nations
C) kinship and clan networks
D) guild and professional groups

Question 9

Which of the following are reasons why the Taino peoples were initially repulsed by the Europeans?

A) Europeans' light skin and eye color
B) Europeans' hairiness and bad manners
C) Europeans' unwillingness to trade
D) Europeans' lack of female companions

Question 10

In the early sixteenth century, which of the following contributed to the Aztecs' constant warfare?

A) The Aztecs' neighbors were unwilling to trade with them, requiring warfare to secure highly desired luxury items such as rare quetzal feathers.
B) The Aztecs believed that the gods required human hearts and blood, leading to the sacrifice of thousands of war captives.
C) The Aztecs and their neighbors were engaged in a bitter struggle to obtain control of the Yucatan Peninsula.
D) The Aztecs' neighbors attempted to choke off their access to the sea, denying the Aztecs sources of fish protein and coastal trade.

Question 11

Which of the following best explains why the Portuguese dominated the Indian Ocean sea lanes in the early sixteenth century?

A) The Portuguese developed the joint stock company, which allowed them to invest more freely.
B) The Portuguese used their superior navigational abilities to travel outside the sight of land.
C) The Portuguese mounted small cannons on their vessels to bombard ports and rival ships.
D) The Portuguese negotiated an exclusive trade relationship with the Ming for porcelain.

Question 12

The Columbian Exchange led to which of the following?

A) Afro-Eurasian farmers became less competitive compared to American farmers.
B) Syphilis spread throughout the Western Hemisphere.
C) Corn maize) replaced some traditional crops in China and Africa.
D) The Afro-Eurasian landscape came to look more like the Americas.

Question 13

Why were the Portuguese and other Europeans motivated to find new routes to Asia?

A) They were responding to the conquest of Constantinople and the rise of Ottoman power in the Mediterranean.
B) They were responding to the Black Death, which had made their old trade routes too dangerous to use.
C) They needed a new source of gold and silver and believed it could be found in Asia.
D) They wanted to establish a closer relationship with the Chinese and learn more about their agricultural techniques.

Question 14

Which of the following allowed the Spanish to defeat both the Aztec and Inca Empires?

A) Both empires' armies were smaller and less experienced than the Spanish forces.
B) Both empires suffered from internal weakness and divisions that were exploited by the Spanish.
C) Both empires lacked knowledge that the Spaniards had landed, giving the Spanish the element of surprise.
D) Both empires' religions prevented them from mustering forces to oppose the Spanish.

Question 15

Which of the following attributes made the caravel useful in exploring African coasts?

A) The caravel had four masts with square sails, allowing it to sail into the winds that roared up the African coast.
B) The caravel was a method of finding longitude, which allowed Portuguese mariners to locate themselves out of sight of land.
C) The caravel was a Muslim invention that allowed sailors to determine latitude by measuring the height of the sun above the horizon.
D) The caravel was sturdy enough to sail rough Atlantic seas, while its ability to tack using its triangular sails made it maneuverable in coastal estuaries.

Question 16

What actions did Ottoman officials take to assist the caravan trade transporting goods from China to the Ottoman heartland?

A) Officials oversaw the raising of camel herds to rent to merchants.
B) Officials sent soldiers to accompany caravans to protect them from bandits.
C) Officials forced nomadic desert peoples to adopt settled, agricultural lifestyles.
D) Officials established caravanseries for travelers' refreshment and protection.

Question 17

From where did the Europeans get the model of sugar cane production used in their American colonies?

A) South Asia
B) West Africa
C) East Asia
D) South Africa

Question 18

What was Portugal's primary goal in the Indian Ocean trade?

A) to take over the trade or tax local merchants
B) to conquer as much territory as possible
C) to develop cooperative relationships with local rulers
D) to sell African products in Asian markets

Question 19

Which of the following accurately describes Columbus's first impression of the Taino people?

A) He believed that they were childlike primitives.
B) He believed that they would not be able to understand Christian doctrine.
C) He believed that they could become trade partners with the Spanish.
D) He believed that they were ferocious warriors.

Question 20

The Ottoman Sultans used all of the following approaches to manage their expanding empire EXCEPT

A) training janissaries as the military elite.
B) seizing young recruits to serve as future bureaucrats.
C) supplanting local leaders with hand-chosen loyalists.
D) suppressing non-Islamic religions.

Question 21

Why was it necessary to continue to import large numbers of African slaves to replenish labor on sugar plantations?

A) Slaves worked in large groups comprising more than 200 individuals per plantation.
B) Most of the slaves were women, and lost time from their labors raising children.
C) Most slaves came in family groups, and could not be separated to work on newly created plantations.
D) Most of the slaves were men, who suffered high mortality rates due to overwork and poor conditions.

Question 22

What circumstance permitted the English and Dutch to expand their trade in Asia and the Americas?

A) They explored new areas of the Americas and started their own silver mines.
B) They found a passage through the Americas to Asia and got rich through trade with China.
C) They took advantage of Spain's bankruptcy caused by religious and dynastic wars.
D) They received opportunities to trade in the Americas and Asia from the Catholic Church as part of an attempt to achieve rapprochement.

Question 23

During the sixteenth century, what impact did the European presence in the Indian Ocean and South China Sea have on Asian dynasties?

A) The European presence undermined Asian rulers' control of territory and people.
B) The European presence encouraged the militarization of empires and more warfare.
C) The European presence was so minimal that it made no impact.
D) The European presence enhanced Asian rulers' wealth and might.

Question 24

Which of the following was a way in which the spread of Protestant beliefs contributed to protracted warfare in Europe between the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries?

A) Some Protestants requested support from the Ottoman Turks, asking them to attack the eastern sections of the Holy Roman Empire.
B) Common people took up arms to defend their religious beliefs and practices instead of leaving warfare to professional soldiers.
C) The growth of Calvinism led the Lutheran Church to call for a new crusade against unbelievers.
D) Some Spanish princes used Protestant beliefs as a way to challenge the authority of the Habsburg emperors.

Question 25

Which of the following beliefs was shared by Luther and Calvin?

A) the belief that ordinary people needed priests to act as intermediaries between themselves and God
B) the belief that humans could gain admittance to heaven through their pious actions
C) the belief that the source of religious knowledge lay in the Scriptures
D) the belief that clergymen need to be celibate

Question 26

Which areas of the Americas produced the bulk of the silver that fueled global commerce in the sixteenth century?

A) Brazil and the Andes
B) Mesoamerica and the Andes
C) Mesoamerica and Brazil
D) the Andes and the Caribbean

Question 27

In what way did the Spanish capture of Manila in 1571 inaugurate the first worldwide trade circuit?

A) The Spanish now controlled all of the world's major entrepôt cities.
B) Manila gave the Spanish a base to trade silver from the Americas to China, and then Chinese goods to Europe.
C) The Spanish had become the first people to sail all the way around the world.
D) Control of Manila enhanced Spanish power at the expense of the Mughals and Chinese, increasing Spanish control of trade networks.

Question 28

What advantage was provided by the English East India Company's royal charter?

A) It gave the English more legitimacy than other European traders at the Mughal court.
B) It provided a subsidy from the English crown.
C) It gave exclusive rights to import East Indian goods into England.
D) It gave the right to leave coastal enclaves and trade in the Chinese interior.

Question 29

Which of the following characterized the Spanish tributary empires?

A) The Spanish refrained for religious reasons from intermingling with indigenous women who were part of their conscripted labor force.
B) The Spanish relied solely on European economic structures in order to gain access to goods and labor from native peoples.
C) The Spanish controlled territory but worked to extract wealth without extensive settlement of Iberian immigrants.
D) The Spanish retained indigenous rulers as puppets through whom they could govern.

Question 30

What was a similarity between the Ming and the Mughal dynasties?

A) Both were able to limit European traders to port cities.
B) Both prided themselves on restoring indigenous rule after a period of foreign conquest.
C) Both faced declining populations due to the arrival of diseases from the Americas.
D) Both ruled over homogeneous populations.

Question 31

In what way was the rule of the Mughals under Akbar different from that of contemporary European monarchs?

A) European monarchs did not arrange political marriages with their rivals, while the Mughals did intermarry with Hindus.
B) The Mughals ruled over a Muslim state with few non-Muslim citizens, while European rulers ruled over states with many religious groups.
C) Akbar encouraged discussion between members of different religions instead of attempting to force religious conformity.
D) The Mughals relied on trade to generate wealth, while Europeans relied on agriculture.

Question 32

What was the primary reason for the rapid increase in the importation of Africans in sixteenth-century Brazil and the Caribbean?

A) Africans were used as labor in the silver mines.
B) Africans were used as labor for sugar plantations.
C) Africans were used as domestic servants.
D) Africans were used as skilled craftsmen in urban areas.

Question 33

Which of the following characterized the Portuguese presence in sixteenth-century Macao?

A) The Portuguese were the largest group of traders at Macao.
B) The Portuguese took over much of the silver trade between China and Korea.
C) The Portuguese used Macao as an entry into the lucrative import-export trade with China.
D) The Portuguese established a permanent colony in China.

Question 34

In Ming China, where did women find the greatest opportunities to obtain wealth and influence?

A) as performers in the new entertainment districts
B) healers, consorts, and power brokers
C) as merchants in trading centers such as Macao
D) as authors of Confucian guides for proper behavior

Question 35

In the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church responded to the challenges posed by the Protestant Reformation in which of the following ways?

A) The church modified certain doctrines such as the intercessory power of saints.
B) The church increased missionary efforts abroad.
C) The church relaxed its penalization of heresy.
D) The church translated the Bible into local languages to appeal to more followers.

Question 36

Which of the following sparked Martin Luther's challenge to the Catholic Church?

A) Luther believed that true knowledge of God came through meditation.
B) Luther wanted German cathedrals to rival those of Rome in their grandeur.
C) Luther was disgusted with corrupt church practices such as the selling of indulgences.
D) Luther was shocked by what he experienced as an itinerant monk.

Question 37

During the sixteenth century, to what use did Mughals put their increased global and local commerce?

A) They tried to force the Dutch and English out of the Indian Ocean trade.
B) They formed closer tributary ties with Ming China.
C) They sponsored their own voyages of exploration.
D) They used the resources to glorify their court's architecture and art.

Question 38

What was Europe's main contribution to the Atlantic system?

A) labor
B) land
C) raw materials
D) military technology

Question 39

What percent of the Amerindian population was killed by Afro-Eurasian diseases during the sixteenth century?

A) 90 percent
B) 70 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 30 percent

Question 40

The Protestant Reformation encouraged the growth of nationalism in Europe by encouraging people to

A) identify their religion with their local state and language.
B) be more tolerant of one another.
C) end the requirement that priests be celibate.
D) revive ancient pagan traditions in Christian observances.

Question 41

How did the encomienda system work in the Caribbean?

A) Spanish settlers were granted a quota of African slaves to perform plantation labor.
B) Each Spanish settler was granted an equal portion of land to farm.
C) Select Spanish settlers were granted the right to extract a quantity of Indian labor.
D) Spanish missionaries were granted a certain number of Indians that they were required to convert.

Question 42

By the end of the seventeenth century, what best characterized the role of Europeans in Asia?

A) European colonists had seized several substantial Asian territories.
B) The Dutch had displaced the Portuguese and English as the sole European presence in Asia.
C) Europeans in Asia were primarily missionaries, who lacked commercial interests.
D) Europeans held a few coastal enclaves and had not significantly transformed Asian trade.

Question 43

Religious conflict provided Spain with the opportunity to demonstrate its hegemonic position in Europe.

Question 44

What did the Battle at Lepanto in 1571 demonstrate?

A) The Ottomans' seapower was backward when compared to that of Europeans.
B) Ottoman control in Southeast Europe had ended.
C) Only a united European effort could combat the Ottomans' advance.
D) The Protestant Reformation had not greatly undermined European unity.

Question 45

The number of Africans sold into captivity in the Atlantic slave trade far exceeded that in the Muslim slave trade.

Question 46

Where did Luther's and Calvin's critiques of the Catholic Church have the most appeal?

A) in regions ruled by Catholic "outsiders"
B) in the least commercially advanced parts of Europe
C) in regions under the most threat from Ottoman invasion
D) in regions suffering from agricultural downturns

Question 47

The experience of conquering the Aztec Empire taught the Spanish that effective conquest had to be accomplished quickly, completely destroying indigenous symbols of legitimate authority.

Question 48

The Aztecs and Incas used conscripted labor to build public wealth, while the Spanish used forced labor to enrich private individuals.

Question 49

What was Egypt's main significance within the Ottoman Empire?

A) It served as the largest source of recruits for the Ottoman military.
B) It provided a geopolitical boundary to prevent the Iberian powers from further expansion.
C) It served as the Ottoman's breadbasket.
D) It was the Empire's principal center for literary and cultural innovation.

Question 50

Cortés's conquest of Mexico would have been unfeasible without the help of Doña Marina and other Mexican allies.

Question 51

Following the Council of Trent, the Cistercians sent missionaries to the Americas, India, Japan, and China.

Question 52

Portuguese colonists and Amerindians were more likely to marry than were Spanish and Amerindians.

Question 53

The first Atlantic sugar plantations worked by enslaved Africans were in Africa.

Question 54

The Americas proved a better market than Eurasia for European manufactured goods over the course of the sixteenth century.

Question 55

Which of the following characterized Ottoman expansion into North Africa and the Middle East in the sixteenth century?

A) gradual incorporation of Egypt and Syria, based on shared religious beliefs
B) rapid incorporation of Egypt and Syria, based on shared geopolitical threats
C) fierce opposition in Egypt and Syria, resulting from insurmountable logistical challenges
D) failed conquest of Egypt and Syria, resulting from insurmountable logistical challenges

Question 56

In the sixteenth-century Indian Ocean, the Portuguese were not much more than troublesome pirates.

Question 57

Which of the following were the primary methods and goals of early Portuguese expansion into the Indian Ocean?

A) mass migration and the production of commodities for export
B) strategic checkpoints and extraction of bribes for passage from merchants headed east
C) direct rule and proselytism of native populations around the Indian Ocean
D) violent seizure of land and resettlement of domestic convict populations

Question 58

What differentiated Chinese merchants from Islamic traders?

A) Chinese merchants were almost nonexistent because of Ming prohibitions on trade.
B) Chinese merchants were not profit-driven and contributed their earnings to the emperor.
C) Islamic traders had more autonomy as they were not subject to any central authority.
D) Islamic traders were unwilling to engage with non-Muslim merchants.

Question 59

What impact did the arrival of corn have in West Africa beginning in the sixteenth century?

A) Corn contributed the caloric energy needed to transform rain forest into arable land.
B) Though corn was easier to cultivate than previous crops, it diminished Africans' health outcomes.
C) Corn supported numerous small-scale producers at the expense of larger states.
D) Corn was an unappealing crop in West Africa and never replaced local staples.

Question 60

Precious metals mined in the Spanish American colonies ended up almost entirely in royal coffers in Spain.

Question 61

Assess the impact of silver from the Americas on trade, governance, and international relationships in at least two European powers as well as the Mughal Empire and Ming dynasty China.

Question 62

Compare the influence of Europeans on the Ming Empire during the sixteenth century with their influence on the Aztec Empire and explain the reasons for the differing impact.

Question 63

What were the differences between the tributary model of empire developed by the Spanish in the Americas and the plantation complex developed by the Portuguese? Define each of these terms, explain how each system worked, and consider what circumstances influenced each to develop as it did.

Question 64

Following the Protestant Reformation, how did European rulers seek to resolve the problems posed by religious pluralism? What were the consequences of their responses?

Question 65

Compare global trading networks in 1450 with those in 1600. What was consistent, and what changed? What factor or factors contributed to the changes you identified?