Deck 17: Western Africa in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1450 - 1800

Question 1

Religious ideas and practices varied, but most Africans south of the Sahara placed great emphasis on

A) water
B) war
C) the sun
D) fertility

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Sacred sites or features in the West African landscape were called

A) wakas
B) genies
C) oba
D) manikongos

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Africa's internal trade was mostly in

A) basic commodities
B) domesticated animals
C) luxury goods
D) gold

Answer 3

A

Question 4

A shared desire to both expand household units and improve security led many Africans to

A) attempt to spread their own religious beliefs to surrounding communities
B) seek trading contacts with Europe
C) form confederations and conglomerates
D) attempt to conquer surrounding lands

Question 5

The phenomenon of small agricultural communities offering hospitality to travelers and craft specialists who offered goods and services in return has been characterized in terms of

A) "lords" and "visitors"
B) "homesteaders" and "guests"
C) "landlords" and "strangers"
D) "landowners" and "outsiders"

Question 6

West African gold mines were

A) unproductive before the development of mercury amalgamation
B) considered more trouble than they were worth, since they produced only gold dust
C) worked exclusively by slaves
D) worked by farmers during the fallow months of the year

Question 7

West African politics in this period was mostly confederated, with the exception of

A) Mali
B) Benin
C) Ife
D) Songhai

Question 8

The charismatic and aggressive rulers of West Africa typically extended their authority by

A) offering to protect agricultural groups from raiders
B) threatening to enslave any who challenged them
C) displaying their ruthlessness at every opportunity
D) conquest

Question 9

The wealth and power of Songhai derived from

A) its extensive gold mines
B) the merchant crossroads cities of the middle Niger
C) tribute paid by all subjects
D) Timbuktu's reputation as a center of Islamic teachings

Question 10

The Songhai empire was ultimately defeated by raiders from

A) Mali
B) Gao
C) Morocco
D) Benin

Question 11

Both Benin and the Yoruba city-states were known for

A) metalsmithing and sculpture
B) textiles
C) cola production
D) being centers of Islamic teachings

Question 12

Few people other than gatherer-hunters such as the Pygmies inhabited Africa's great equatorial forest because of

A) the absence of beast of burden in Africa
B) the tsetse fly
C) the lack of copper deposits
D) they lacked the tools to clear the forest for agriculture

Question 13

Known in West Central Africa as nguba, ________ were probably introduced by the Portuguese from Brazil soon after 1500.

A) cassava
B) beans
C) squash
D) peanuts

Question 14

Throughout West Central Africa political power became increasingly associated with

A) control of trade goods and trade routes
B) closeness with the gods
C) control of gold mines
D) alliance with European powers

Question 15

Unlike Islamic and African slaveholders, Europeans

A) did not avenues of reentry into free society
B) did not interfere with the religion of enslaved people
C) did not see their slaves as "slaves by nature"
D) refused to enslave captives of war

Question 16

In the 15^th century, Europeans prized _______ more than any other resource from Africa.

A) copper
B) slaves
C) gold
D) sculpture

Question 17

A key benefit to the establishment of a Portuguese port was

A) a source of silver
B) access to the Portuguese's secure and efficient shipping
C) protection from the other naval powers, especially the Dutch
D) a source of spices

Question 18

Training of African Catholic priests, both in Europe and in seminaries established in Africa, in the early 16^th century soon faced sharp opposition from

A) African leaders who felt Catholicism would undermine their authority
B) Portuguese clergy because of emerging colonial racial hierarchies
C) the African masses, who resented the interference of the Catholic church
D) African Christians who preferred the hybrid form of Catholicism that had resulted from exposure to traditional African spirituality

Question 19

King Afonso's successors in Kongo faced growing opposition as a result of

A) the royal family's conversion to Christianity
B) famine caused by insufficient population to farm enough food for the country
C) the kings' preoccupation with Europe and lack of concern with the problems of his subjects
D) Kongo's slaving-based alliance with the Portuguese

Question 20

Part of the Portuguese strategy in West Central Africa was maintaining a permanent military colony in

A) Kongo
B) Mali
C) Benin
D) Angola

Question 21

Evidence suggests that the early Angolan slave trade ballooned as a result of

A) a severe and prolonged drought affecting the interior in the 1590s
B) the tactics of Queen Nzinga
C) the decline of the Imbangala kingdom of Kasanje
D) stiff resistance to slaving in Kongo

Question 22

Before about 1650, tobacco plantations in North America and the Caribbean were largely staffed by

A) African slaves
B) European indentured servants
C) European slaves
D) native American workers

Question 23

Dutch West India Company was founded in 1621 to

A) pursue trading opportunities in the Indian Ocean
B) interfere with British Navy attempts to stop the transatlantic slave trade
C) provide slave labor for Dutch sugar and tobacco plantations
D) attack Iberian colonial outposts and take over their commercial interests in the Atlantic

Question 24

European slavers competed to sell to Spanish-Americans, who, unlike other colonists, paid for slaves with

A) dyewood
B) mercury
C) rum
D) gold and silver

Question 25

The commodity most desired in the 17^th century by African traders in exchange for slaves was

A) gold
B) horses
C) colorful cotton fabric
D) firearms

Question 26

The total number of enslaved Africans who were forced to cross the Atlantic and who survived was

A) 2 million
B) 4 - 6 million
C) 7 - 9 million
D) 10 - 12 million

Question 27

Because of the rugged terrain and superabundant rains in the Congo rainforest,

A) agriculture and herding are impossible
B) Pygmies were totally isolated from outside humans
C) the territory is uninhabitable
D) hunting elephant is key to survival

Question 28

After 1500, the initial change that brought Pygmies and Bantu peoples into closer contact was

A) the introduction of iron tools and banana cultivation
B) a prolonged drought
C) the arrival of Europeans
D) the introduction of the horse

Question 29

When members of their community dies, Pygmies prefer to

A) bury them in communal graves
B) use elaborate grave mounds
C) keep the bodies of the dead as close to them as possible
D) "let go" of their dead