Deck 6: The Americas

Question 1

The famous Mesoamerican ball games

A) have been found to have had no religious significance.
B) resulted in sacrificing the losing team to the gods.
C) are no longer played today.
D) were played in octagonal stadiums.
E) were played mostly by women.

Answer 1

resulted in sacrificing the losing team to the gods.

Question 2

The Olmec peoples

A) did not do any stone carving, preferring to work in copper and ivory.
B) spoke the Quechuan language.
C) developed their capital at the mountain fortress of Cuzco.
D) developed a system of hieroglyphics.
E) replaced the Maya in Mesoamerica.

Answer 2

developed a system of hieroglyphics.

Question 3

In the aftermath of Columbus and voyages of encounter, Europeans believed the first humans in the Americas might have been

A) Chinese pirates.
B) the lost tribes of Axum.
C) Phoenician seafarers from Carthage.
D) Mongol tribesmen.
E) ancient Sumerians.

Answer 3

Phoenician seafarers from Carthage.

Question 4

Archeologists call the region in which the first New World civilizations began

A) Mexico.
B) Central America.
C) Mesoamerica.
D) South America.
E) the Amazon basin.

Question 5

Which civilization lived in terraces cut out of a mountainside located in the central Mexican highlands?

A) Chavin
B) Olmec
C) Zapotec
D) Inka
E) Maya

Question 6

Currently available evidence has shown the first humans in the Americas

A) arrived at least 15,000 years ago.
B) came at least 725,000 years ago.
C) arrived, according to genetic evidence, from Antarctica in 7219 B.C.E.
D) came from the island of Honshu during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom.
E) came from Polynesia approximately 1000 C.E.

Question 7

What did archeologists discover beneath the Pyramid of the Sun?

A) Seeds and traces of key agricultural crops
B) Gold and other precious metals
C) Bits of rubber
D) Urns used for Pulque, a liquor derived from the agave plant.
E) Human remains

Question 8

Mayan civilization

A) had such a sophisticated religious system that it was adopted by the Spanish invaders.
B) may have been composed of approximately thirty million people at its height.
C) was located in the northern part of the Valley of Mexico.
D) was never wealthy.
E) declined in the eighth or ninth centuries C.E.

Question 9

Scholars have revised their earlier beliefs about the Maya, now claiming that the Maya were

A) peaceful people.
B) an egalitarian society.
C) often engaged in violent warfare.
D) strong allies with the Aztecs.
E) artisans.

Question 10

Where did the Maya civilization develop?

A) The Valley of Mexico
B) The Pacific coastal region of northern Mexico
C) The mountainous areas of Nicaragua and Honduras
D) Guatemala and the Yucatan Peninsula
E) The Montenegran Plateau

Question 11

During its peak years, Olmec society

A) did not construct pyramids of any kind.
B) was constantly at war with the Aztecs.
C) extended from Mexico City to El Salvador and possibly to the Pacific Ocean.
D) was known for its development of wheat and rice.
E) relied on a limited trading network.

Question 12

The first civilization in Mesoamerica was the

A) Toltec.
B) Olmec.
C) Maya.
D) Aztec.
E) Moche.

Question 13

The two commodities that enabled the Maya to develop trade relations with other civilizations in its region were

A) cotton and silver.
B) yams and manioc.
C) obsidian and cacao trees.
D) gold and silver.
E) manioc and turpentine.

Question 14

In which areas were the Mayan and Aztec civilizations similar?

A) They both practiced human sacrifice.
B) Both had religious practices and beliefs brought from Asia in the eleventh century.
C) Both used sophisticated alphabets with thirty-nine letters.
D) They were both seafaring societies.
E) Volcanic eruptions destroyed both civilizations.

Question 15

What was the outcome of matches in the sacred ball court?

A) Losing players were sacrificed to the gods.
B) The games were played with the heads of sacrificed prisoners.
C) It fostered connections between the city-states of the Central Mexican Valley through sporting competitions.
D) Winners could become priests.
E) It disappeared after the fall of Olmec civilization.

Question 16

The first signs of civilization in Mesoamerica appeared at the end of which time period?

A) Third millennium BCE
B) Second millennium BCE
C) First millennium BCE
D) Fourth millennium BCE
E) Second millennium CE

Question 17

What was the language of the ancient Maya called?

A) Yaxchilian
B) Popul Vuh
C) Quiché
D) Khoisan
E) Moche

Question 18

Mayan pyramids

A) contained the bodies of rulers.
B) were the seats of political power.
C) housed a sequestered priest cast.
D) did not survive past their time.
E) served no significant purpose.

Question 19

What was true about Teotihuacán?

A) It did not engage in trade because of its infertile lands.
B) It produced great industrial structures.
C) It met its demise possibly due to drought or overuse of the land.
D) It was conquered by the Maya.
E) It left no historical records.

Question 20

The chinampas

A) were agricultural plots built on swampy islands.
B) were built to maintain industrial production.
C) provided farmers with a means of growing waterfowl for export to South America.
D) were to be found only in the semi-arid areas of northern Mesoamerica.
E) were part of Inka religious culture.

Question 21

South America

A) was the original home of the Maya.
B) contained societies practicing irrigated farming approximately eleven thousand years ago.
C) has had human inhabitants for more than twelve thousand years.
D) was populated only as recently as 500 C.E.
E) was colonized from Africa rather than Asia.

Question 22

What best describes social and gender roles in the Aztec culture?

A) The majority of the population were slaves.
B) Clear-cut differences between the responsibilities and duties of males and females existed.
C) Women had fewer rights and freedoms than their Chinese counterparts.
D) Opportunities for rising in social status were nonexistent.
E) All men were freemen but most women were only slaves.

Question 23

Which city was the capital of the Aztec empire?

A) Tenochtitlán
B) Huitzilopochtli
C) Texcoco
D) Mexica
E) Zapotec

Question 24

Which of the following was not a characteristic of the large kinship groups of the Aztecs?

A) They were the people's main link with the central government.
B) They often specialized in some particular area of responsibility.
C) They contained subdivisions of smaller family units.
D) Women were required to work in the fields five days each week.
E) In general, males were the dominant gender.

Question 25

Aztec writing

A) was phonetic.
B) may have been the result of contact with traders from the Aleutians.
C) resembled ancient Greek in its organization.
D) was copied from Egyptian hieroglyphics.
E) was based upon hieroglyphs that represented an object or concept.

Question 26

Aztec religion

A) preached the ideas of sexual equality and social apathy.
B) was monotheistic after the departure of Isoldia.
C) employed human ritual sacrifices, often involving large numbers of victims.
D) stressed the importance of free will.
E) influenced Spanish Christianity.

Question 27

The ancient Aztec capital

A) was built on the ruins of Teotihuacan.
B) occupied the same site as modern-day Mexico City.
C) was a coastal city and a significant port.
D) was situated on the Yucatan Peninsula.
E) was located in Chaco Canyon.

Question 28

The massive Aztec stone carving in the form of a disc portraying the struggle between the forces of good and evil in the universe is the

A) Disc of Forces.
B) Stone of the Fifth Sun.
C) Temple of Inscriptions.
D) Sun Disc.
E) Parthenonus.

Question 29

Aztec society was

A) an egalitarian democracy.
B) a hierarchical dictatorship, with a privileged upper class and a downtrodden majority.
C) primarily involved in the trading of slaves.
D) unique in giving women major political power.
E) a purely theocratic society.

Question 30

Which statement about Mayan religion is FALSE?

A) Its views about reincarnation resembled those of Buddhism.
B) It engaged in human sacrifice.
C) Its deities had human characteristics.
D) Its deities included some that were good and others that were evil.
E) It was polytheistic, much like Aztec religion.

Question 31

Aztec cosmology

A) reveals a totally unique approach to religious belief.
B) provides the basic format for all monotheistic practices.
C) assumed the existence of divine and material worlds.
D) was copied from that of the Anasazi.
E) held that the ultimate reality was the destruction of the individual soul.

Question 32

What was the purpose of the human sacrifices practiced by the Aztecs?

A) To obtain the atman of the victim
B) To appease Huitzilopochtli, and thus delay the ultimate destruction of their world
C) To insure an abundant harvest
D) To insure long life for the emperor
E) To provide victims for the ball court games

Question 33

In Aztec society, once a young man of noble status reached adulthood, he would

A) choose a wife.
B) be sent on a mission for the monarch.
C) make a sacrifice to the monarch.
D) automatically become a member of the military.
E) choose a career in the military, government, or priesthood.

Question 34

Which statement offers the most accurate depiction of the Aztec Empire?

A) It was a highly centralized, tightly administered monarchy developed through military conquest.
B) It was a collection of semi-autonomous territories, all connected by a patron god and with a monarch.
C) It was a highly centralized maritime society that had evolved from a foundation of intense religious piety.
D) It was followed by the Mayan civilization.
E) It initially permitted human sacrifice until the practice was abolished by Montezuma.

Question 35

Which god retained a higher level of cognizance in the Aztec psyche than most of their other gods, due primarily to its tenth-century departure from the Valley of Mexico and promised future victorious return?

A) Siva
B) Tlaloc
C) Quetzalcoatl
D) Huitzilopochtli
E) Ometeotl

Question 36

As the guiding deity of the entire population, the supreme Aztec god was

A) Huitzilopochtli.
B) Tlaloc.
C) Ometeotl.
D) Quetzalcoatl.
E) Machu Pirado.

Question 37

What was an important item sold in Aztec markets that would not have been found for sale in European or Asian markets?

A) Human skin
B) Human hair
C) Human bones
D) Human excrement
E) Human eyes

Question 38

Aztec society

A) focused its religious interest on "the holy one," Huitzilopochtli, the only god in the monotheistic Aztec system of religious belief.
B) did not possess a writing system, although it did develop hieroglyphs.
C) dedicated the sacred precinct in central Tenochtitlán to the rain god, Shiva, and to Huitzilopochtli.
D) did not sharply delineate gender roles.
E) was egalitarian in theory but hierarchical in practice.

Question 39

Providing a valuable resource for later historians, this Spaniard recorded his impressions of Aztec society during a visit in the early sixteenth century:

A) Bernal Díaz.
B) Alphonso Gomorra.
C) Bartholomew Díaz.
D) Jakob Alverez.
E) Juan Carlos Garcia.

Question 40

Most of the Aztec population belonged to large kinship groups called

A) texcocos.
B) chinampas.
C) calpulli.
D) quipu.
E) jatis.

Question 41

Lands formerly occupied by ancient pueblo peoples in Arizona and New Mexico are today home to

A) Apaches and Zunis.
B) Anasazis.
C) Arawaks and Zunis.
D) Zunis and Hopis.
E) Sioux and Hopis.

Question 42

The Arawak developed their society

A) in modern-day Nova Scotia.
B) in modern-day Venezuela.
C) on the islands of the Caribbean Sea.
D) in modern-day Mexico.
E) in modern-day Brazil.

Question 43

Which of the following is not a characteristic shared by the civilizations of the Western Hemisphere with those of the Old World?

A) Long-distance trade
B) Human sacrifice
C) Iron smelting
D) Irrigated agriculture
E) The practice of warfare

Question 44

The Moche culture

A) was ended by a devastating pandemic of the Black Death.
B) was located in a rain forest.
C) may have been ended by environmental changes.
D) was pacifistic, perhaps the major cause of its long existence.
E) was destroyed by the Aztecs.

Question 45

Cacao trees were the source of chocolate and drunk as a beverage by

A) the upper class
B) the middle class
C) the lower class
D) all of the classes

Question 46

During its heyday, how far did the Inka empire extend?

A) From modern-day St. Louis to the Pacific
B) From modern-day Mexico to San Salvador
C) From modern-day New Mexico to Chile
D) From modern-day Ecuador, central Chile and the Amazon basin
E) From the Isthmus of Panama to the Strait of Magellan

Question 47

The Inka king who began the conquests that led to the creation of their empire was

A) Pizarro.
B) Huayna Inka.
C) Pachakuti.
D) Topa Inka.
E) Montezuma.

Question 48

Anasazi society possibly declined for all of the following reasons except

A) severe drought.
B) increase in internecine warfare.
C) invaders.
D) extensive floods.
E) starvation.

Question 49

In South America, by 2000 BCE, people

A) had discovered the smelting of iron.
B) had domesticated wheat for making of bread,
C) were sailing the Pacific in wind-powered balsa wood rafts.
D) had developed a complex writing system.
E) were using the wheel in transportation.

Question 50

Which of the following is FALSE?

A) All males were liable for military service in the Inka army.
B) The quipu was a system of knotted strings used in the Inka Empire.
C) The Inka required subject peoples to speak Quechua.
D) The Olmecs adopted many aspects of Inka culture.
E) Women could improve their lifestyles by becoming "chosen virgins" in Inka temples.

Question 51

The civilization of the Inka

A) constructed an impressive system of roads and bridges throughout its extensive domain.
B) employed a force of highly-paid workers to construct the structures that it produced.
C) offered all women nothing but a life of domestic service restricted to the home.
D) developed an abundant lowland valley community at Machu Picchu.
E) routinely executed all war prisoners its army captured.

Question 52

Which of these peoples created the most extensive land empire yet seen in South America?

A) Moche
B) Wari
C) Chan Chan
D) Olmec
E) Toltec

Question 53

An extensive urban community was created at Chaco Canyon by the

A) Apache.
B) Arawak.
C) Anasazi.
D) Navajo.
E) Paiute.

Question 54

The archeological evidence of the presence of ball courts in Amerindian civilization centers is an indication that these societies

A) had had contact with the Northmen in the ninth century.
B) had a strong interest in recreational activities.
C) were deeply involved in agriculture.
D) probably had contacts with Mesoamerican civilizations.
E) were colonized by the Phoenicians.

Question 55

Which was the last empire to flourish in South America prior to the Spanish invasion?

A) Inka
B) Moche
C) Wari
D) Chan Chan
E) Toltec

Question 56

What was true of the great Inka empire?

A) It made marriage the only option for women.
B) It developed an early writing system.
C) It developed a reputation for early ocean exploration.
D) It was built on forced labor.
E) It had difficulty developing lasting agriculture because it lacked irrigation systems.

Question 57

There were farming villages in Central and South America by

A) 10,000 BCE
B) 5000 BCE
C) 1000 BCE
D) 100 CE
E) 500 CE

Question 58

The tuber cultivated by the Arawak, which is used today to manufacture tapioca, is

A) millet.
B) maize.
C) manioc.
D) cacao.
E) squash.

Question 59

What caused the disappearance of Chimor?

A) Wars with other peoples
B) Overuse of the land and lack of an adequate food supply
C) A severe drought
D) Floods and earthquakes
E) Starvation

Question 60

The crops most commonly cultivated by Eastern Woodlands peoples featured

A) maize, squash, and beans.
B) corn, wheat, and grasses.
C) rice, corn, and tobacco.
D) maize, tobacco, and rice.
E) squash, sage, and wheat.

Question 61

While the Arawak peoples left their original homeland and migrated into the Caribbean islands, the Carib peoples did not migrate.

Question 62

A Carib community survives today on the island of Dominica, in the Lesser Antilles.

Question 63

Aztec rulers claimed that they were descendants of the gods.

Question 64

It is generally agreed that human beings were living in the Americas at least 50,000 years ago.

Question 65

The Aztecs erected rest-shelters along their highways so that travelers could relieve themselves in private and their waste could be collected.

Question 66

The only option for Inkan women aside from marriage was to serve as a "chosen virgin."

Question 67

At Cahokia, near East Saint Louis, archeologists have discovered a burial mount more than 98 feet high with a base larger than Egypt's Great Pyramid.

Question 68

Classical Mayan civilization was centered on modern-day Mexico.

Question 69

The Arawak were a group of people living along the Orinoco River in modern Venezuela.

Question 70

The Inka had no writing system, but kept records using a system of knotted strings called quipu.

Question 71

In contrast with the Aztecs, the Inka created a highly centralized state.

Question 72

Cacao beans were used as currency by Maya people.

Question 73

The Pyramid of the Sun was built by the people of Teotihuacán in the fifth century C.E.

Question 74

It is now generally accepted that human beings were living in the Americas at least ___________ years ago.

A) 3,000
B) 8,000
C) 12,000
D) 15,000
E) 20,000

Question 75

Some early Andean peoples had traveled the Pacific Ocean by raft.

Question 76

The Aztec capital was Teotihuacán.

Question 77

The Maya is considered to be the "mother civilization" of Mesoamerica.

Question 78

Because all of Amazonia's soil lacked sufficient nutrients, agriculture never developed anywhere in that region.

Question 79

The Inka tradition of temple virgins is similar to Roman traditions of the Vestal Virgins.