Deck 17: Americans, Europeans, Africans, and New Societies in the Americas, 1450-1750

Question 1

The Iroquois Confederation often sided with the English colonists against the French, because the latter were allied with whom?

A) The Dutch
B) The Huron
C) The Algonquins

Answer 1

The Huron

Question 2

Which of the following European powers established settlements in the Caribbean?

A) Only Spain
B) Only Spain and the Netherlands
C) Spain, the Netherlands, and England

Answer 2

Spain, the Netherlands, and England

Question 3

Which of the following helped the Spanish conquer the Incas?

A) An alliance with Portugal
B) A smallpox epidemic
C) Massive Inca wealth

Answer 3

A smallpox epidemic

Question 4

Which of the following groups had the most complex political structure among North American Indians?

A) Huron
B) Cherokee
C) Iroquois

Question 5

Who established sugar plantations in northeastern Brazil in the seventeenth century?

A) Spain
B) The Dutch
C) Portugal

Question 6

The pre-Columbian population of the Americas was probably which of the following?

A) 100-150 million
B) 20-50 million
C) 60-75 million

Question 7

What role did Catholic priests play in Pizarro's rule over the Inca?

A) They asked Pizarro to enforce laws crushing Inca religion and culture.
B) They were critical of Pizarro's harsh policies and demanded more leniency for Incas.
C) They did little as their own livelihoods depended on the colonial government.

Question 8

How did Moctezuma II respond to Cortes' initial arrival in the Americas?

A) He viewed him as a threatening enemy.
B) He thought he might have been the god Quetzalcoatl.
C) He thought he could be a powerful ally in his war with the Inca.

Question 9

All were brought to Europe from the Americas EXCEPT which of the following?

A) Wheat
B) Tobacco
C) Rubber

Question 10

What was Bartolomé de Las Casas's argument to the Spanish government about indigenous peoples in the Americas?

A) They possessed natural rights that the Spanish colonial regime ought to observe.
B) They were natural slaves and as such Spain had the right to exploit them.
C) They had been loyal Spanish allies against the Aztec and so deserved compensation.

Question 11

Which of the following were the two most powerful and complex states in the pre-Columbian Americas?

A) Iroquois and Carib
B) Maya and Aztec
C) Aztec and Inca

Question 12

Who established the failed colony at Roanoke, Virginia, in 1587?

A) France
B) The Dutch
C) England

Question 13

What neighbors of the Aztecs played a crucial role in the Spanish conquest?

A) Mayans
B) Toltecs
C) Tlaxcalans

Question 14

The European population of the thirteen English colonies by 1730 numbered which of the following?

A) 10 million
B) 1 million
C) 500,000

Question 15

Within two centuries of contact with Europeans, the American Indian population was reduced by 90 percent, primarily because of which of the following?

A) Nutritional deficiencies
B) War and enslavement
C) The transmission of disease

Question 16

What happened to much of the wealth of the Americas transported back to Europe by the Spanish and Portuguese?

A) It went straight into royal treasuries and was rarely spent.
B) It was used to buy English, Dutch, and Chinese goods.
C) It was mostly re-invested in Spanish and Portuguese industry.

Question 17

Caribbean piracy is best described as which of the following?

A) Started by Native Americans to resist European expansion
B) Concerned with expanding the boundaries of European states
C) Pursued by many states and mostly directed at Spanish settlements and ships

Question 18

The two most valuable commodities obtained from seventeenth-century North America were which of the following?

A) Slaves and gold
B) Fish and fur
C) Tobacco and gold

Question 19

Which of the following were results of Spanish Catholic missionary work in the Americas?

A) The destruction of indigenous religious texts
B) The torture of Native Americans for paganism
C) The nominal conversion of large numbers of Native Americans

Question 20

All were brought to America by Europeans EXCEPT which of the following?

A) Horses
B) Firearms
C) Potatoes

Question 21

Spain was eclipsed by Holland and England in economic power for all of the following reasons EXCEPT which of the following?

A) Slave revolts
B) Inflation caused by gold and silver from the Americas
C) A labor shortage in Spain itself because so many Spaniards went to the Americas

Question 22

Voodoo, Santeria, and Candomblé are all which of the following?

A) African gods worshipped in the Americas
B) Dialects that developed into new language
C) Religious systems merging African and Christian beliefs

Question 23

The Black Legend refers to which of the following?

A) The Native American view of the Columbian Exchange
B) Brutal Spanish treatment of Native Americans
C) The revolt of Tupac Amaru II

Question 24

Why did colonies in North America eventually economically outcompete those in Latin America?

A) Latin America retained a system of monoculture.
B) Slavery was more important in North America.
C) North America was not subject to a mercantile system.

Question 25

How did the Portuguese squander their New World wealth?

A) By lending it to the Ottoman sultan, who subsequently defaulted
B) By building overly grand churches and monasteries
C) By creating a large military that cost too much to maintain

Question 26

The Inca Empire at its largest extent is best described how?

A) Larger than the Roman and Han Empires
B) Larger than Rome, but smaller than Han China
C) Smaller than Rome, but larger than Han China

Question 27

Who had the largest commercial fleet in the world in the 1600s?

A) The Ottomans
B) The Dutch
C) The Portuguese

Question 28

Describe the role of the Hausa states in the regional economy.

Question 29

Describe Inca society before European contact.

Question 30

Which disease coming from the Americas to Europe in the Columbian Exchange had the largest impact in Europe?

A) Polio
B) Syphilis
C) Measles

Question 31

Who was Tupac Amaru II?

A) The last king of the Incas
B) The leader of an Inca rebellion against the Spanish
C) The first Aztec convert to Catholicism

Question 32

Describe the role of the Hausa states in the regional economy.

Question 33

One of the major motivations for Europeans to conquer land in the Americas was to be able to grow which of the following cash crops?

A) Wheat
B) Maize
C) Sugar

Question 34

Describe Taino society before European contact.

Question 35

The plantation zone stretched from where to where?

A) The Rio Grande to the Amazon
B) Kentucky to Brazil
C) Georgia to Argentina

Question 36

What part of the Americas did Columbus reach first?

A) Cuba
B) The Bahamas
C) Mexico

Question 37

Describe Columbus's first impression of the Taino people.

Question 38

Slave revolts occurred in all of the following areas EXCEPT where?

A) South Carolina
B) Brazil
C) Kentucky

Question 39

Which of the following was the first known contact between Eurasia and the Americas?

A) When the Chinese reached South America
B) When Norsemen reached Newfoundland
C) When Columbus reached the Americas

Question 40

Describe Aztec society before European contact.

Question 41

How was Pizarro able to conquer the Inca empire?

Question 42

Describe Spanish colonial society.

Question 43

Territorial claims in Africa and the New World were settled between Spain and Portugal by which of the following?

A) The Seven Years' War
B) A Papal Bull
C) The Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 44

What goods came to Europe as part of the Columbian Exchange?

Question 45

Why did the English engage in piracy in the Americas?

Question 46

Describe the main sources of colonial revenues in French Caribbean and American colonies.

Question 47

Describe Dutch imperialism in the Americas.

Question 48

What was the English policy toward regulating settlements in colonial America?

Question 49

How was Cortes able to defeat the Aztec Empire?

Question 50

What benefits did Portugal receive from its exploitation of Brazil?

Question 51

Describe the political organization of North American indigenous groups.

Question 52

Why were European colonial economies based on cash crops or mineral extraction?

Question 53

How did Columbus's administration treat the Taino under their rule?

Question 54

What is the significance of the Black Legend?

Question 55

Describe the main sources of colonial revenues in French Caribbean and American colonies.

Question 56

What is the Columbian Exchange?

Question 57

How did the Treaty of Tordesillas shape Spanish imperial expansion?

Question 58

How did Spain govern its possessions in the Americas?

Question 59

What agricultural product did Columbus find on Cuba and bring back to introduce to Europe?

A) Tobacco
B) Tea
C) Sugar

Question 60

What was the aim of the Treaty of Tordesillas?

Question 61

Why were British settlers so often engaged in conflict with indigenous groups? What was the result of these conflicts?

Question 62

How could Europeans pay for so many African slaves?

Question 63

To what extent could the English government control the American colonies? What problems did this create?

Question 64

To what extent did the French typically maintain better relations with indigenous peoples? Why was that the case?

Question 65

The first expedition to circumnavigate the planet was commanded by whom?

A) Vasco Da Gama
B) Ferdinand Magellan
C) Amerigo Vespucci

Question 66

Why did the Dutch focus their efforts in the Americas on establishing sugar-producing plantation colonies? Is this similar or different to other European colonial projects? How so?

Question 67

Describe some modes of resistance practiced by enslaved people in the American colonies.

Question 68

Which of the following is true about Pacific Islander societies?

A) They traded over vast distances.
B) Warfare was rare between Pacific societies.
C) They were far more resistant to European diseases.

Question 69

To what extent is the Black Legend based in fact, and to what extent it is simply an attempt by jealous European rivals to discredit Spanish methods?

Question 70

Why did European colonial settlement lead to an increase in a demand for slaves?

Question 71

What were the long-term consequences of the Columbian Exchange for indigenous Americans?

Question 72

Would Spain's conquest of the Americas have been possible without indigenous allies? Why or why not?

Question 73

From where did most slaves who were bought in the Americas come?

Question 74

To what extent were large empires in the Americas firmly in control of their subjects, and to what extent were problems evident in each state?

Question 75

What effect did European conquest have on indigenous American societies?

Question 76

What are the similarities and differences between experiences of Portuguese colonial rule in Brazil and Spanish colonial rule in the Americas?

Question 77

What is the "Atlantic World"?

Question 78

What effect did European colonialism have on ordinary Europeans at home?

Question 79

What were the short-term consequences of the Columbian Exchange for indigenous Americans?

Question 80

To what extent could the Spanish government control faraway colonial administrations like Columbus's, and what problems did that create?