Deck 21: Transforming New Worlds: The American Colonies Mature 1600 - 1750

Question 1

Spain's two great bases in the New World were the viceregal capitals of

A) Lima and Mexico City
B) Potosí and Lima
C) Mexico City and Vera Cruz
D) Lima and Vera Cruz

Answer 1

A

Question 2

As in Spain, ____________ were the basic unit of governance throughout Spanish America.

A) audiencia
B) colonial provinces
C) viceroys
D) town councils

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The system that divided the Spanish colonies into a "republic of Indians" and a "republic of Spaniards" was intended to

A) prevent racial mixing
B) keep the number of officially registered "Indians" high, since only they were subject to tribute payment and labor drafts
C) provide an accurate count of "Spaniards," since only they were subject to taxes
D) prevent the indigenous population from avoiding Spanish rule

Answer 3

B

Question 4

After the mid-sixteenth century, Spain's transoceanic mail service was

A) slow and unreliable
B) slow but surprisingly reliable
C) fast but unreliable
D) fast and reliable

Question 5

Spanish-American merchants had so much silver to export that they struggled to find enough imports to balance the trade, leading authorities to outlaw local _________ production.

A) steel
B) linen
C) porcelain
D) iron

Question 6

Spain's Habsburg monarchs and ministers envisioned the colonial economy as a

A) closed capitalism system
B) open capitalist system
C) closed mercantile system
D) open mercantile system

Question 7

Spanish priests argued successfully against Amerindian slavery on the grounds that

A) it was made unnecessary by African slavery
B) it would create an unhappy population base likely to rebel
C) according to the Bible all human beings were redeemable in the creator's eyes
D) it was immoral

Question 8

In Spanish America, marriage between ___________ was forbidden.

A) nobles and slaves
B) Spaniards and indigenous people
C) Africans and Amerindians
D) Spaniards and Africans

Question 9

Urban women of poor to middling status were usually

A) weavers or potters
B) servants or vendors
C) cooks or cobblers
D) tailors or blacksmiths

Question 10

Beginning in around 1695, the economy of Portuguese Brazil began to change, sparked by

A) the rise of sugar plantations
B) the discovery of gold and diamonds
C) refinements in dyewood harvesting
D) the arrival of African slaves

Question 11

The Brazilian "gold trail" eventually terminated in

A) Minas Gerais
B) São Paulo
C) Potosí
D) Rio de Janeiro

Question 12

In the Brazilian diamond mines, slaves were promised instant freedom if they

A) turned in another slave who was stealing stones
B) worked the mines for five years
C) identified smugglers
D) found diamonds above a very large size

Question 13

During the Dutch occupation of Pernambuco in northeast Brazil, ________ were permitted to practice their religion openly.

A) Jews
B) Muslims
C) Africans
D) Roma

Question 14

When the Dutch captured Pernambuco from the Portuguese, they were most interested in

A) the region's diamond mines
B) the region's gold mines
C) Portuguese sugar production
D) the new Portuguese coffee crop

Question 15

Northern European countries' first permanent Caribbean colonies all combined

A) sugar plantations with the slave trade
B) experimental plantations with contraband trade and piracy
C) silver or gold mining with piracy
D) cotton plantations with rum production

Question 16

The English failed to seize Santo Domingo from the Spanish in 1655, but successfully captured

A) Providence Island
B) Jamaica
C) Tortuga
D) Barbados

Question 17

English, Dutch, and French slave holders showed

A) virtually no interest in protecting slaves' families, dignity, or souls
B) no interest in protecting slaves' bodily autonomy, but were fastidious about slaves' conversion to Christianity
C) little concern for harsh work conditions, but slave codes did prevent the sale of children without their parents
D) little interest in keeping enslaved families together, but did protect their investment by avoiding harsh punishments

Question 18

French, Dutch, and English planters in the Caribbean used earnings from the labor of _____________ to fund their early purchases of African slaves.

A) Amerindian slaves
B) encomienda-bound native Americans
C) indentured Europeans
D) European slaves

Question 19

European men routinely kept African and mulatto mistresses in the Caribbean and children produced of these unions were

A) treated as a dirty secret and even a petty crime
B) usually recognized as heirs by their fathers
C) often educated in Europe
D) categorized according to a fluid sistema de castas

Question 20

The survival of the earliest eastern North American colonies in the tiny, fortified enclaves of "New France," "New Netherland," and "Virginia" depended on

A) trade between the enclaves
B) monthly visits from European supply ships
C) mild winters
D) alliances with indigenous inhabitants

Question 21

Its soldier-settlers' refusal to farm led to the failure of

A) New France
B) New Netherland
C) Quebec
D) Jamestown

Question 22

A settler rebellion led by Nathaniel Bacon in 1676 ran Virginia's governor out of Jamestown for allegedly

A) unfairly assigning the best land parcels to his family and associates
B) fraternizing with his slaves
C) dealing too kindly with native groups
D) stealing from their tax receipts

Question 23

Efforts by European colonists in New England and Virginia to convert the local population to Christianity were

A) robust
B) backed up by threats of violence
C) minimal
D) targeted only at unfriendly native Americans

Question 24

By the early eighteenth century, Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and England's other mid-Atlantic and southern colonies were home to huge, export-oriented plantation, focused first on

A) tobacco
B) rice
C) indigo
D) coffee

Question 25

In North America, racial codes and covenants were most rigidly enforced in regions

A) with few slaves or free black people
B) highly dependent on African slavery
C) that had recently seen a spike in miscegenation
D) bordering those highly dependent on African slavery

Question 26

Most slaves in New France were

A) indigenous war captives
B) Africans
C) subjects of debt peonage
D) indentured Europeans

Question 27

Violent slave rebellions along the Atlantic seaboard were rare in comparison with the Caribbean or even Brazil because

A) the colonies were surrounded by native Americans
B) in winter there was little food to be found in the wilderness
C) white settlers were not vastly outnumbered by slaves
D) freedom through self-purchase was more possible

Question 28

The term used to describe free or escaped slaves was

A) mulatto
B) mestizaje
C) maroon
D) mestizo

Question 29

The maroon communities of Suriname eventually

A) were re-enslaved by Dutch forces
B) drove the Dutch from their plantations on the coast
C) won their freedom from the Dutch government
D) died out from tropical diseases

Question 30

Suriname maroon culture is

A) directly traceable back to Africa
B) a clear fusion of African and Dutch cultures
C) a clear fusion of African and Amerindian cultures
D) not traceable back to a single clear African root