Deck 1: America in the world

Question 1

Before Europeans came to the Americas,Native American women living in agricultural communities

A) performed crucial tasks such as planting, harvesting, and processing food.
B) were in charge of domestic chores while men worked in the fields.
C) supplemented the food grown by the men by gathering berries.
D) assisted the men during harvesting, but spent most of their time doing domestic chores.

Answer 1

performed crucial tasks such as planting, harvesting, and processing food.

Question 2

How were relations between the sexes characterized in traditional Native American societies?

A) Gender roles were well defined, and society was as patriarchal as in Europe.
B) Men and women had distinct gender roles yet there was also social equality.
C) Gender relations were very fluid, and women had superior status to men.
D) Women had most of the political power and were seen as religious leaders.

Answer 2

Men and women had distinct gender roles yet there was also social equality.

Question 3

Why did many Spanish women see emigration to New Spain as a great opportunity during the middle of the sixteenth century?

A) The Catholic Church had less influence there and did not keep women tied to the home.
B) The Spanish government promised grants of land to women who emigrated.
C) They could better their position through advantageous marriages and easy inheritances.
D) Male Spanish colonists had adopted Native American customs and abandoned the patriarchal family.

Answer 3

They could better their position through advantageous marriages and easy inheritances.

Question 4

How did the Spanish conquest impact the Pueblos of New Mexico?

A) The Pueblos suffered from physical attacks and religious oppression.
B) Spanish conquest led to a shortage of food and animals.
C) The Pueblo population exploded because of the end of intertribal warfare.
D) Many tribes were displaced as Spanish families emigrated to the region.

Question 5

How did French involvement in the fur trade affect Native American family and gender relationships?

A) Women stopped working the field and joined men on the hunt for furs.
B) Men's involvement in fur hunting and trapping may have resulted in devalued status for women.
C) The French fur traders enslaved Native American women to skin and process the furs.
D) Warfare between the French and Native Americans led to the death of many males, disrupting families.

Question 6

Native American women appeared sexually immoral to Europeans because they

A) accompanied men on hunting trips.
B) sat on the tribal councils with men.
C) preferred to marry European men.
D) did not need to stay in unhappy marriages.

Question 7

Why were the Iroquois unique among the Native peoples of the Eastern Woodland region?

A) The chiefs of the Iroquois were always women.
B) They were the only tribe in the region to hunt buffalo.
C) The Iroquois created an elaborate confederation to establish peace.
D) There was no sexual division of labor among the Iroquois.

Question 8

How did Europeans' impact on Native Americans affect their relations with Africans in the sixteenth century?

A) The success of the effort to convert Native Americans in large numbers prompted them to attempt the same thing in Africa.
B) The near eradication of Native populations from European disease contributed to the decision to import African slaves to work on sugar plantations in the Americas.
C) After dealing with indigenous people's hostility, the Spanish and Portuguese believed Africans would be tractable and easier to manage.
D) Europeans learned that converting Indians was too difficult, so they imported West Africans who were already Catholic.

Question 9

What aspect of Native Americans' sexuality shocked many Europeans?

A) Some Native Americans crossed gender lines and lived lives as the opposite sex.
B) Women could choose their spouses without permission of their parents.
C) Some women refused to marry and stayed single all their lives.
D) Men left their mother's house and moved into their wife's house.

Question 10

Compared to the intra-African slave trade that preceded it,the transatlantic slave trade was more

A) humane because African captives were treated well since they were so valuable.
B) focused on buying and selling female slaves than male slaves.
C) closely regulated by European governments for compliance with fair trading practices.
D) brutal and more deadly, as African slaves shipped to the Americas were often worked to death.

Question 11

Which group created "frontiers of exclusion" by pushing Native Americans off their lands to establish colonial settlements?

A) The Spanish
B) The Dutch
C) The French
D) The English

Question 12

Early Spanish exploration by Christopher Columbus was partly shaped by

A) Ferdinand and Isabella's desire to challenge the English in North America.
B) Ferdinand and Isabella's hunger for gold from the New World.
C) Spanish eagerness to import Native Americans as laborers in Spain.
D) Isabella's passion to spread Catholicism throughout the world.

Question 13

Pueblo peoples were matrilocal,meaning that

A) men left their mothers' homes upon marriage to live with their wives' families.
B) women established family identity and rights to use the land in each clan.
C) women, but not men, could end their marriages and choose new partners without stigma.
D) women decided who would serve as clan chief and when those chiefs had to relinquish the position.

Question 14

Why did Sir Walter Ralegh give the name "Virginia" to the land he was granted for a colony in North America?

A) His wife's name was Virginia, and he set out for the new land on her birthday.
B) He hoped to win Queen Isabella's favor by dedicating the land to the Virgin Mary.
C) He was a court favorite of Elizabeth I of England and wanted to honor his Virgin Queen.
D) He viewed it as pristine, virgin territory that had not been modified by human hands.

Question 15

After the first attempt to colonize Jamestown nearly failed,what did the colony's leaders decide they had to do to ensure commitment for a permanent settlement?

A) Offer more free land for those willing to move to and settle in the new colony
B) Include significant numbers of unmarried English women to become settlers' wives
C) Allow the settlers to use Native Americans as workers on their plantations
D) Convert the Native women to Christianity so they could become wives for male settlers

Question 16

At the time of European contact,West African women were

A) powerful, particularly in agricultural and trading roles.
B) mainly subservient to African men.
C) confined to childbearing and childrearing.
D) mainly active in spiritual rituals and practices.

Question 17

Many of the Native women who had intimate relationships with the Spanish in the sixteenth century also served as

A) cooks and laundresses.
B) travel guides.
C) military advisors.
D) diplomatic aids.

Question 18

During the fifteenth century,how did Portuguese and Spanish slavers employ African slaves?

A) They sent the Africans to their colonies to grow tobacco.
B) Black captives were brought to the Iberian Peninsula to work as servants.
C) African women became the wives of European masters.
D) African slaves were used primarily on the Caribbean sugar plantations.

Question 19

How did Europeans view and treat African women differently than Native American women?

A) They accepted African women serving as political leaders of their tribes.
B) They approved of African women hunting with their husbands.
C) They were not interested in civilizing African women through marriage.
D) They considered the attire of African women appropriate and modest.

Question 20

How did the Protestant Reformation affect European women's lives in the sixteenth century?

A) Women gained new economic opportunities as old Catholic ideas restricting them to domestic duties were overturned.
B) In Protestant areas of Europe, most female religious orders closed, confining women to wifehood and motherhood and denying them access to education and status.
C) The Protestant Puritan religion swept over many Western European societies and placed greater restrictions on sexual intimacy in marriage.
D) Most Protestant churches accorded women a greater religious and political equality, ending the patriarchal family in Protestant areas.

Question 21

European observers misunderstood Native American culture and tended to view most Native American women as

A) hostile and dangerous.
B) immoral and sexually promiscuous.
C) suitable and willing wives.
D) sexually unattractive.

Question 22

The sexual division of labor in Iroquois tribes

A) made women politically inferior to the men of the tribe.
B) was similar to that in European society.
C) meant that women were dominant in the village.
D) left women to hunt and conduct trade while the men worked in the fields.

Question 23

What type of political power did Native American women hold in most tribes?

A) Because male chiefs had all of the power, women had little say in tribal matters.
B) Women held economic power but had no say in political matters, such as trade and warfare.
C) Women, particularly older women, were allowed to voice their opinions and participate in decision making.
D) Most Native women had no power, with the exception of the Pueblos, whose sachems were often female.

Question 24

Why did some Native Americans become berdache?

A) Berdache were skilled hunters and earned great wealth through the fur trade.
B) Berdache were war leaders and were often sought by Native women as husbands.
C) Berdache were medicine women who had a stronger voice in the tribal council.
D) Berdache were spiritual individuals whose vision quest dictated they cross gender lines.

Question 25

How did African slavery change in North America during the eighteenth century?

A) Slavery became more controversial as Puritan colonists began to question the morality of owning another human being.
B) More men arrived in North America to work in the sugar, tobacco, and rice fields, creating severe gender imbalances.
C) English colonists became increasingly dependent on the continual importation of slaves because so many slaves died within the first three years of captivity.
D) The slave population became self-reproducing, with more people being born into slavery in North America than were imported from Africa.

Question 26

How did the Spanish monarchs fund Columbus's voyage of exploration?

A) Using wealth confiscated from the expelled Spanish Jews
B) By the sale of Queen Isabella's jewels
C) Through a loan from Spanish Moors
D) With gold raised through the sale of African slaves

Question 27

In contrast to Catholic settlers,the Protestant English had few structures for converting Natives to Christianity and were

A) less likely to marry Native women, choosing instead to import white women early on.
B) therefore more willing to allow their Native wives to keep their religion and culture.
C) able to make alliances with the Native Americans more easily since they did not threaten their culture.
D) often more focused on fighting the French and Spanish than interacting with the Native Americans.

Question 28

In Pueblo ideology,which factors contributed to relatively egalitarian relationships between the sexes?

A) Women's sexual power and their role in food production
B) Women's influence in political and diplomatic matters
C) Women's dominance over trade and warfare
D) Women's performance of hard physical labor and control of land

Question 29

Why is Malinche a controversial figure in Mexican history?

A) Malinche betrayed the Spanish, leading to their defeat at the hands of the Aztecs.
B) By marrying Cortés, she became the first Native woman to reject her own people and marry a Spaniard.
C) She dedicated herself to religious life and sought to convert her people to Catholicism.
D) Malinche is seen as both the mother of the Mexican race and someone who betrayed native peoples.

Question 30

The growth of the transatlantic slave trade in the seventeenth century was facilitated by Europeans' racial ideas that

A) converting Africans to Christianity would make them more civilized.
B) African women were hardy and would make excellent mates for the colonists.
C) African childrearing and clothing practices were inferior to theirs and Africans were like animals.
D) only men were useful as slaves and so only men should be brought over to the Americas.

Question 31

Marina de San Miguel was investigated by the Spanish Inquisition because she

A) was a former Jew who converted to Christianity in Mexico.
B) refused to relinquish her position as abbess of the first American convent.
C) spoke out against the enslavement of Native American women.
D) served as a teacher and spiritual advisor to Native American girls.

Question 32

Prior to the arrival of Europeans,Native American societies

A) lived in static, peaceful societies that rarely changed.
B) regularly engaged in trade with each other.
C) enjoyed a uniform culture that spread across the continent.
D) made few distinctions between the roles of women and men.

Question 33

According to legend,what crop was introduced to North America by enslaved African women who brought the seeds over hidden in their hair?

A) Cotton
B) Tobacco
C) Rice
D) Sugarcane

Question 34

How did European slave traders first obtain slaves in Africa in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?

A) They attacked African peoples and forced prisoners of war to become slaves.
B) They cooperated with African slave traders, who traded some of their captives to them.
C) They brought Native American women to trade for African women.
D) They traded tobacco from North America to African merchants in exchange for slaves.

Question 35

The English at Jamestown felt that Native women's labor in the fields made them

A) especially valuable as wives because they could help the colony survive.
B) an excellent example for English women, who were soon made to grow food.
C) drudges and showed that their Native husbands were lazy and uncivilized.
D) useful slaves who would help the English make a profit growing tobacco.

Question 36

Historians think that the English settlers on the island of Roanoke included women in their colony to

A) replace Native women as wives for the men already living on the island.
B) teach Native women how to process tobacco leaves for sale in the English market.
C) serve as a signal to the Native Americans that this was a peaceful settlement.
D) ensure that the settlement would have cooks and laundresses.

Question 37

Why were the Brazilian and Caribbean plantations such deadly places for African slaves in the colonial period?

A) Europeans generally worked African slaves to death because it cost less to replace them than to sustain them.
B) Africans were particularly susceptible to European diseases and as a result died in large numbers.
C) Like Europeans, African slaves were frequently victims of Native American raids on European settlements.
D) African slaves staged frequent revolts, which the Europeans regularly suppressed with massive executions.

Question 38

What role did women traditionally play in West African society before extensive contact with Europeans?

A) They were often responsible for cultivating major foodstuffs and textiles, and often participated in trade.
B) They led secluded lives and were subject to male spouses' regulation through polygamous practices.
C) They were confined to household and domestic duties and were seldom seen outside the home.
D) They mainly participated outside the home in spiritual rituals and practices.

Question 39

How were colonial French marriages to Native Americans different from Spanish interactions with Native American women?

A) The Spanish only married white women and preferred to maintain Native American women as their concubines.
B) French men integrated themselves into Native American culture, whereas Spanish men forced their Native wives to integrate into European culture.
C) The French demanded that their Native American wives convert to Catholicism, whereas the Spanish allowed them to retain Native religions.
D) Spanish men used their relations with Native women to achieve alliances, whereas the French marriages angered tribal leaders and led to warfare.

Question 40

Why did England's Queen Elizabeth show interest in colonizing North America in the late sixteenth century?

A) She wanted to challenge Spain's Queen Isabella.
B) She wished to spread the Protestant faith to new lands.
C) She hoped to use the land to attract a royal marriage.
D) She hoped farming in North America would give England needed food.