Deck 15: Empires and Alternatives in the Americas 1430-1530

Question 1

Societies in the Americas before the arrival of Europeans were

A) culturally and politically uniform
B) culturally diverse but politically uniform
C) culturally uniform but politically diverse
D) culturally and politically diverse

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Most pre-European North American societies relied on healer-visionaries for spiritual guidance, a practice known as

A) shamanism
B) a vision quest
C) myth keeping
D) animal spirituality

Answer 2

A

Question 3

_____________________ were venerated almost everywhere in the Americas.

A) The spirits of predatory animals
B) The spirits of plants and geological features
C) Abstract gods
D) The spirits of ancestors

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Most agricultural tasks and spaces in North America were the province of

A) men
B) women
C) children
D) the elderly

Question 5

The Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest are notable for

A) their early adoption of irrigation agriculture
B) their nomadic lifestyle
C) building a settled culture without a need for agriculture
D) their domestication of manioc

Question 6

Many Aztec oral narratives were preserved after the Spanish arrival

A) by young native scribes writing in Nahuatl using the Latin alphabet
B) by Aztec elders passing on the oral tradition of their ancestors
C) as inscriptions using the rudimentary Nahuatl symbolic writing system
D) in secret bark leaf paper codices written in Nahuatl

Question 7

By 1500 the Aztec capital, __________, was among the world's most populous cities at the time.

A) Texcoco
B) Teotihuacán
C) Tlatelolco
D) Tenochtitlán

Question 8

The Aztecs gained a new, elite cachet

A) through monumental building projects, including land reclamation in Lake Texcoco
B) though intermarriage with the Colhua
C) by initiating imperial expansion
D) by focused their religious activities on the war god Huitzilopochtli

Question 9

The Aztec reclaimed land in Lake Texcoco by building long, narrow terraces from dredged mud, reeds, and rocks, bordered by interwoven sticks and live trees, called

A) Coatepec
B) chinampa
C) Colhua
D) tlatoque

Question 10

The Aztec marketplace city was

A) Texcoco
B) Teotihuacán
C) Tlatelolco
D) Tenochtitlán

Question 11

Aztecs traced human origins to

A) sacrifices made by deities
B) wars between the gods
C) the gift of maize from the gods
D) the foundation of Tenochtitlán by the deities

Question 12

Aztecs believed _____________ kept the sun in motion.

A) autosacrifice
B) warfare
C) warrior sacrifice
D) personal bloodletting

Question 13

The Aztec civil justice system is notable for the fact that Aztec nobles

A) were rarely punished
B) by law received punishment twice as severe as commoners
C) sometimes received harsher punishments than commoners for similar misdeeds
D) were exempt

Question 14

Slavery under Aztec rule

A) was an inherited social status
B) was applied across the board to conquered peoples
C) did not exist
D) usually took the form of crisis-driven self-indenture

Question 15

Aztec society at all levels emphasized

A) personal connection with the divine
B) duty and good comportment
C) rights and individual freedom
D) equality and brotherhood with all of mankind

Question 16

Agricultural production under the Aztecs was challenging because of

A) the unpredictable pattern of monsoon rains
B) a lack of large domesticated animals and metal tools
C) the absence of protein sources
D) rising salinity in Lake Texcoco

Question 17

Evidence suggests the Aztec and Inca had

A) no significant contact
B) no contact and were unaware of each other
C) regular trading contact
D) a history of close ties, including intermarriage of nobles

Question 18

Unlike the Aztecs, the Incas

A) embarked on a campaign of regional conquest beginning in the 1430s
B) demanded tribute in goods and labor
C) insisted conquered peoples show allegiance to an imperial religion
D) ruled one of the world's most extensive, ecologically varied, and rugged land empires, stretching nearly three thousand miles

Question 19

Andean system of planting crops and grazing animals at different altitudes has been described as a

A) crop rotation system
B) virtual archipelago
C) kin group settlement
D) vertical archipelago

Question 20

The Incas called Cuzco the

A) "hub of the universe"
B) "divine city"
C) "navel of the world"
D) "The Four Quarters Together"

Question 21

The core strategy of Inca warfare was

A) one on one battle between matched pairs of warriors
B) a ferocious rage in imitation of the sun god, Huitzilopochtli
C) amassing and mobilizing such overwhelming numbers of troops that fighting was often unnecessary
D) humiliation of the Inca's enemies

Question 22

As the Inca advanced into new territory, they

A) slaughtered everyone they met
B) told local headmen to accept Inca sovereignty or face annihilation
C) instituted a policy of deportation to reduce chances of revolt
D) did not impose their own religion or customs

Question 23

Subjects of both the Aztec and Inca empires saw their rulers as

A) exploitative
B) protectors of the people's safety
C) promoters of economic security
D) asking a great deal in terms of tribute, but offering significant benefits in return

Question 24

When the Sapa Inca died, he was replaced by

A) his eldest son
B) a candidate selected by a council of elders
C) whichever of his heirs managed to seize power
D) whichever of his sons he selected as heir before his death

Question 25

The Inca empire's most visible achievements were in

A) textiles
B) metalwork
C) architecture and civil engineering
D) pottery

Question 26

The Incas' record-keeping system consisted of

A) knotted strings
B) bark paper codices
C) temple inscriptions
D) clay tiles

Question 27

The indigenous staple of the central Andes diet was

A) maize
B) taro
C) beans
D) the potato

Question 28

Like the Aztec, Eastern Woodlands peoples seem to have practiced

A) autosacrifice
B) maize farming and warrior sacrifice
C) mummification and seasonal warfare
D) political alliance with neighboring tribes

Question 29

Women and children captured in war by Eastern Woodlanders were

A) slaughtered and eaten
B) "adopted" as replacements for lost kin
C) enslaved
D) required to provide tribute to their conquerors

Question 30

Eastern Woodlands peoples relied on ______________ to maintain traditions and remind juniors of core beliefs.

A) elders and shamans
B) priesthoods
C) liturgies
D) temples