Deck 14: Collapse and Revival in Afro-Eurasia 1300-1450

Question 1

The colder temperatures of the Little Ice Age in the 14^th century caused

A) the Black Death
B) an expansion of agriculture
C) an increase in trade with Asia
D) shorter growing seasons

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Giovanni Boccaccio and other eyewitnesses claimed that the Black Death had originated in

A) Central Asia
B) China
C) the Middle East
D) Genoa

Answer 2

A

Question 3

After the pandemic, wages for artisans and other wage workers

A) increased many times over
B) stayed flat
C) dropped precipitously
D) disappeared, since few remained to buy their goods

Answer 3

A

Question 4

During the Black Death, rural inhabitants flocked to the towns in search of

A) medical care
B) human companionship
C) food and work
D) supplies

Question 5

Christians interpreted the plague as

A) a blessing for the faithful
B) divine punishment for humanity's sins
C) a calling from God to eliminate beggars, lepers, and especially Jews from society
D) a form of martyrdom

Question 6

Which of the following was NOT a result of the Black Death in Europe?

A) a labor shortage
B) an increase in the practice of serfdom
C) the reversion of cropland to forests in central Europe
D) a major decline in income for the church and nobility

Question 7

The European peasant revolts that followed the Black Death led to a new social order based on

A) based on private property and entrepreneurship
B) nobility and serfdom
C) balanced wealth and poverty
D) connections to the church

Question 8

As Europe recovered from the Black Death, __________ power grew at the expense of other historical sources of authority.

A) church
B) noble
C) royal
D) democratic

Question 9

Ferdinand and Isabella completed the Reconquista by

A) marrying
B) demanding all Jews convert to Christianity
C) ending the Inquisition
D) capturing Granada

Question 10

In the face of peasant insurrections and civil wars in the 1350s, the Mongol leaders

A) wrung as much tribute as they could from the Chinese population and neglected the country's infrastructure needs
B) mounted a full-throated military response
C) abandoned China and retreated to their steppe homeland
D) invested in the country's roads, canals, and irrigation and flood-control dikes to shore up the Chinese economy

Question 11

Ming founder Hongwu used the civil service examinations and state-run school system as tools of political indoctrination, establishing the ideology of

A) Buddhism
B) Neo-Confucianism
C) traditional Confucianism
D) Islam

Question 12

The spread of _________, introduced to China from India in the thirteenth century, gave peasant women new economic opportunities.

A) cotton
B) gunpowder
C) wheat
D) the spinning wheel

Question 13

The Ming dynasty's focus on conquest and expansion

A) continued until the dynasty's end
B) was considered un-Confucian
C) ended with the conquest of Japan
D) ended with the death of Yongle in 1424

Question 14

In the 14^th and 15^th centuries, the advance of Islam in Africa and Asia came about through

A) conquest
B) slow diffusion via merchants and missionaries
C) forced conversion
D) increased literacy

Question 15

In contrast to the Sufis, the scholars and teachers known as ulama

A) made little effort to convert nonbelievers
B) were inspired by missionary zeal
C) welcomed non-Muslims to their lodges and sermons
D) readily assimilated local cultures to its beliefs and practices

Question 16

The Safavid movement in Iran was formed from a combination of ideas from

A) Sunni and Shi'a Islam
B) Sufi and Safavid Islam
C) Sunni and Sufi Islam
D) Sufi and Shi'a Islam

Question 17

The Ottomans took advantage of ___________________ when they attacked the Byzantine state.

A) the spread of Islam within the Byzantine territory
B) Constantinople's isolation from the rest of the Byzantine territory
C) weakness caused by the Black Death
D) earlier attacks by Timur on Constantinople

Question 18

The Ottomans considered the Greek Orthodox Church

A) a nuisance
B) heretical
C) indispensable to maintaining social order
D) the one true faith

Question 19

In the Ottoman empire, women's wealth was

A) in the form of land and houses
B) in the form of money, furnishings, clothes, and jewelry
C) controlled by her husband
D) nonexistent

Question 20

Conversion to Islam throughout the West African savanna was encouraged by

A) the conquest of Byzantium by the Ottomans
B) the collapse of Mali's political dominion in the mid-fourteenth century
C) the rising influence of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East
D) the Mali Empire's adoption of Islam as its official religion

Question 21

By 1450 _________ was the center of finance, industry, and trade in Latin Christendom.

A) Italy
B) Paris
C) Spain
D) London

Question 22

Above all, it was ___________________ in the fourteenth century that led to a revolution in cotton textile manufacture.

A) improvements in spinning wheels
B) improvements in looms
C) the invention of block printing of fabrics
D) arrival of cotton

Question 23

In the fourteenth century, China retained its preeminent place in world trade by exporting

A) porcelain
B) silk
C) block-printed fabric
D) gunpowder

Question 24

After paying a ransom to the Mongols to secure the release of the captured emperor, the Ming state

A) devoted its energies and revenues to rebuilding the Great Wall
B) launched a navy under the command of Zheng He
C) set out to conquer Vietnam
D) led a military campaign against the Mongols

Question 25

The new intellectual movement of __________ combined classical learning with Christian piety and dedication to civic responsibilities.

A) the Renaissance
B) the liberal arts
C) Magnificence
D) humanism

Question 26

During the Italian Renaissance, displaying personal wealth and possessions

A) was regarded as vulgar
B) was reserved for the papacy
C) affirmed social status and power
D) was frowned upon as contrary to the Christian ethics of frugality and disdain for worldly gain

Question 27

During the 14^th and 15^th centuries, Japan became

A) less isolated from the wider world
B) more isolated from the wider world
C) a colonial power
D) a Mongol colony

Question 28

During the Kamakura period in Japan, the power of the shogun was _________________ that of the imperial court.

A) superior to
B) roughly in balance with
C) inferior to
D) in constant competition with

Question 29

Japan's agrarian economy improved substantially with the expansion of

A) samurai land ownership
B) village associations
C) tax farming
D) irrigated rice farming

Question 30

In Japan, the warriors' dominance over Ashikaga society and culture led to

A) a decisive shift toward patriarchal authority
B) new inheritance rules splitting estates among all a man's sons
C) a profuse output of novels, memoirs, and diaries written by women
D) renewed freedoms for women