Deck 7: The Global Struggle for Wealth and Empire

Question 1

Which of the following statements is true of the idea of progress that formed as a result of the growing wealth and knowledge in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

A) It distributed the wealth and knowledge evenly among the various social classes.
B) It reduced the dependence of Europe on wealth from the labor of enslaved workers.
C) It fostered remarkable skepticism in most spheres of social and intellectual life.
D) It challenged the traditional deference to ancient authorities and fostered critical inquiry.

Answer 1

It challenged the traditional deference to ancient authorities and fostered critical inquiry.

Question 2

All of the following are true about elite and popular culture except:

A) persons taking part in elite culture could easily participate in popular culture.
B) those of lower status could not easily join in the cultural activities of elites.
C) popular culture was largely written or printed.
D) elite culture was usually expressed in a standardized national language.

Answer 2

popular culture was largely written or printed.

Question 3

Popular culture is difficult for historians to reconstruct because:

A) it was expressed in cheaply printed almanacs, woodcuts, and broadsides, sources that have little value.
B) it was predominantly oral and is therefore difficult to research.
C) the illiterate changed their ideas frequently.
D) the dialects in which popular culture was expressed are now difficult to decipher.

Answer 3

it was predominantly oral and is therefore difficult to research.

Question 4

In the eighteenth century, people of all classes and cultures shared the same:

A) religion and diseases.
B) rules of behavior.
C) belief in witchcraft and magic.
D) superstitions.

Question 5

All of the following are true of carnivals, an important feature of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century popular culture, except:

A) they went on for several weeks preceding Christmas.
B) they allowed opportunities to defy custom.
C) they allowed opportunities to ridicule authority.
D) they were times of general merrymaking and foolery.

Question 6

In the eighteenth century, class distinctions:

A) became more blurred.
B) became sharper.
C) remained equivalent to the class distinctions of the seventeenth century.
D) had no relevance for the average person.

Question 7

In the eighteenth century, the outstanding economic development affecting Europe was the expansion of the:

A) global economy and the fact that Europe achieved the same level of wealth as China.
B) economies within Europe, which brought eastern Europe into rough economic equality with western Europe.
C) economies within Europe, which finally brought southern Europe into rough economic equality with western Europe.
D) global economy and the fact that Europe became wealthier than any other region of the globe.

Question 8

The increase of Europe's wealth in the 1700s was primarily brought about by the:

A) methods of commercial capitalism and handicraft industry.
B) steam engine and power-driven machinery.
C) growth of large factories and great manufacturing cities.
D) steam engine and power-driven machinery and growth of large factories and great manufacturing cities.

Question 9

In the context of commerce and industry, which of the following is true of Europe in the eighteenth century?

A) Urbanization was the greatest sign of economic advancement.
B) Agriculture was the greatest single industry and source of wealth.
C) Most industry was carried on in large cities rather than in the country.
D) Russia was the chief industrial center of Europe.

Question 10

In the eighteenth century, foreign trade was important to Great Britain and France because:

A) the largest enterprises were active in it.
B) the greatest commercial fortunes were made in it.
C) the most capital was accumulated from it.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 11

Asia was almost useless as a market for Europe's manufactures because:

A) the Asian consumer was generally wealthier than the European and therefore preferred higher-quality goods.
B) Asians had no desire for European manufactured products.
C) Europeans were interested in few Asian products and therefore Asians had little to exchange for western goods.
D) transportation to Asia was too expensive.

Question 12

Which of the following bulked larger than Asia in the eighteenth-century trade of western Europe?

A) Australia and the Pacific
B) Eastern Europe
C) The Americas and the West Indies
D) The African continent

Question 13

The richest of all the world's sugar-supplying colonies was _____.

A) Jamaica
B) Cuba
C) Saint-Domingue
D) St. Kitts

Question 14

The transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century was conducted mainly by:

A) English-speaking interests and the French.
B) Dutch-speaking colonials in America and the Portuguese.
C) Spain.
D) Italy.

Question 15

All of the following are true of African slavery except:

A) slaves had been obtained from Africa by Europeans for many centuries.
B) slaves arrived in the Americas before the English Pilgrims.
C) before 1800, more Africans than Europeans made the voyage to the Americas.
D) slavery was a fundamental economic institution in the Americas by 1650.

Question 16

As the transatlantic trade expanded, western Europe's trade with eastern Europe:

A) languished as the eastern Europeans had no desire for Western manufactures.
B) reduced the incentives for eastern European landlords to improve the efficiency of their estates.
C) contributed, along with political causes, to reducing the bulk of the eastern European population to serfdom.
D) languished as the eastern Europeans had no desire for Western manufactures and reduced the incentives for eastern European landlords to improve the efficiency of their estates.

Question 17

The wealth accumulated in western Europe during the eighteenth century:

A) brought a general rise in the standard of living.
B) was accompanied by a decline in the standard of living for most people.
C) closed the doors of opportunity to most people.
D) was accumulated primarily by the nobility.

Question 18

Over the course of the eighteenth century, bourgeois commerce and aristocratic land merged through all of the following means except:

A) marriage.
B) the purchase of landed estates or noble titles by the bourgeoisie.
C) investment in commercial interests by aristocrats.
D) riot and revolution.

Question 19

After 1700, when a branch of the Bourbon family succeeded the Habsburgs to the throne of Spain, Spain:

A) suffered increasingly from economic decline.
B) was increasingly isolated from the rest of Europe.
C) experienced more efficient administration.
D) became more decentralized as the estates of Aragon and Valencia acquired more autonomy from Madrid.

Question 20

Following the War of the Spanish Succession and the death of Louis XIV , the development of Britain and France shared some surprising parallels. In both nations, _____.

A) the king was an ineffectual ruler
B) various propertied interests gained many advantages
C) commercial expansion occurred
D) All of these are correct.

Question 21

The Duke of Orleans, who as regent for the young king came to power in France after the death of Louis XIV in 1715, _____.

A) reasserted the power and authority of the monarch over the aristocracy
B) finally brought the church under the control of the state
C) conceded greater influence to the nobility
D) terminated the absolutism of Louis XIV and modeled France's government after England's

Question 22

The eighteenth-century French parlements and the English parliament:

A) had basically the same function.
B) were very different, with the French institution acting as a court of law and the English passing the laws.
C) were very different, with the English institution acting as a court of law and the French passing the laws.
D) had the same political competency.

Question 23

All of the following are true of the eighteenth-century British parliament except:

A) only the wealthy or those whom they supported could sit in it.
B) some seats in parliament were bought and sold.
C) parliament was an honest and efficient form of government.
D) parliament was not elected according to democratic principles.

Question 24

In eighteenth-century England, the Whig and Tory parties:

A) ceased to have much meaning after 1714.
B) became more important for the system of modern political parties.
C) took opposing positions toward the crown.
D) had little influence in the early decades but later became ideological rivals.

Question 25

The Whigs resisted the return of the Stuarts because James III would:

A) undo the principles of the Glorious Revolution.
B) repudiate the governmental debts contracted by his enemies.
C) restore the principle of divine right.
D) All of these are correct.

Question 26

The South Sea and Mississippi bubbles:

A) discredited national banking in Great Britain and France for more than a century.
B) encouraged the practice of joint-stock financing in Great Britain and France.
C) brought about the dissolution of the Bank of England and the Bank of France.
D) encouraged business enterprise based upon individual ownership and partnerships.

Question 27

In the aftermath of the bubbles, _____.

A) France instituted the sinking fund, while England repudiated much of its debt
B) England instituted the sinking fund, while France repudiated much of its debt
C) England and France lost the ability to fund their national debts
D) England was handicapped in its foreign policy and its wars

Question 28

Robert Walpole became, in effect, the architect of cabinet government in England. Cabinet government means that:

A) the executive leaders, or ministers, of that government are members of the legislature.
B) the executive branch of the government may govern independently of the legislature.
C) the prime minister may govern so long as he has the approval of the cabinet.
D) the legislature is inferior to the cabinet.

Question 29

All of the following are true of the eighteenth-century warfare except:

A) it rarely involved fighting for national causes.
B) the cumbersome system of supply frequently immobilized armies.
C) peace treaties were negotiated, not imposed.
D) generals strove to encircle and annihilate their opponents.

Question 30

The War of the Austrian Succession began in 1740 when:

A) Maria Theresa broke the Pragmatic Sanction.
B) Frederick II of Prussia invaded Silesia.
C) France seized the Austrian Netherlands.
D) the Habsburg emperor died without heirs.

Question 31

The Diplomatic Revolution of 1756 saw new realignments of these traditional relationships:

A) England/Austria vs. Russia/Prussia.
B) England/Austria vs. France/Prussia.
C) England/Prussia vs. France/Austria.
D) England/Russia vs. France/Austria.

Question 32

Which of the following is true of the Seven Years' War?

A) It was a war of territorial partition in Europe.
B) Its stakes were territorial conquest in India.
C) It resulted in the French gaining all the British territories on the North American mainland east of the Mississippi.
D) Its result was the weakening of British sea power and France gaining command of the sea.

Question 33

The British colonials in America in 1754:

A) adopted the "Albany plan of union" as a means of self-defense against France.
B) were more capable of concerted action than the population in the mother country.
C) were willing, in a politically immature way, to rely on Britain for military action against France.
D) played no part in the war between Britain and France.

Question 34

All of the following are true about the French and British empires on the eve of the Seven Years' War except:

A) in India, both Britain and France possessed only disconnected coastal commercial establishments.
B) both traded with China along the Pearl River Delta in South China.
C) in North America, the British were more successful than the French in gaining Indian support.
D) the British American colonies were much divided.

Question 35

Which of the following assured the triumph of British over French ambitions in South Asia?

A) British territorial conquest of India
B) British sea power
C) The detachment of the British from the transoceanic trade
D) The British takeover of French commercial installations at Pondicherry and other cities

Question 36

The fundamental reason for the triumph of the British over the French in South Asia was:

A) Robert Clive's tactics.
B) the series of alliances with native rulers.
C) British sea power.
D) the greater economic advantages which the British East India Company offered to the average Indian.

Question 37

Discuss the most significant differences between elite culture and popular culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Was the gap between them narrowing or widening by the eighteenth century? Why?

Question 38

To what extent was European prosperity dependent on extra-European contributions (either voluntary or forced)? Specify the Asian, African, and American roles in the world economy of the eighteenth century.

Question 39

Analyze the imperial conflict between Great Britain and France during the period 1714-1763 (the end of the War of the Spanish Succession to the end of the Seven Years' War).

Question 40

Compare and contrast the causes and consequences of the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. In what sense did they form a single conflict, the "Great War of the Mid-Eighteenth Century"?

Question 41

Compare and contrast the personalities and policies of Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa. Who achieved more for his/her people?

Question 42

How did the lower or non-property-owning classes make their influence felt in western European politics during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries?

Question 43

Which areas of the globe did the British dominate by 1763? Where were France's main losses?

Question 44

How did the Peace of Paris in 1763 facilitate the building of a British empire?

Question 45

Describe the similarities and differences in the daily lives of the average rich European and the average poor European with respect to food, housing, and health.

Question 46

What factors gave Britain and France the upper hand in the commercial rivalry of the eighteenth century?

Question 47

What was the relationship between slavery and the rise of British capitalism?

Question 48

How did overseas expansion contribute to the financial bubbles of the eighteenth century?

Question 49

What were the advantages and disadvantages of cabinet government?

Question 50

What were the parallels between the War of the Austrian Succession and past conflicts in the same region?

Question 51

Why was much of the Seven Years' War fought outside of Europe? Describe the main regions of conflict.