Deck 2: Old Worlds, New Worlds 1400-1600

Question 1

Changes in European society that caused the expansion of European peoples into the New World after 1450 included

A) technological advances in seafaring and weaponry.
B) a deflationary spiral that dried up sources of capital.
C) political decentralization with a democratic philosophy.
D) the rise of women.

Answer 1

technological advances in seafaring and weaponry.

Question 2

The Mundus Novus was named after ________ by a German mapmaker.

A) Vespucci
B) Columbus
C) da Gama
D) de León

Answer 2

Vespucci

Question 3

Columbus succeeded in reaching the Americas because

A) he was one of the few Europeans who believed the world was round.
B) he grossly underestimated the distance from Europe to the Indies.
C) he convinced the Spanish monarchs to underwrite a fleet of the largest vessels of that day.
D) the Spanish reconquista had failed, and Spain needed a different enterprise.

Answer 3

he grossly underestimated the distance from Europe to the Indies.

Question 4

By approximately 1625 (a little more than a century after Columbus's discovery), all of the following were true EXCEPT that

A) the Spanish empire stretched from Mexico south to near the tip of South America.
B) the English had begun efforts to establish a permanent colony in North America.
C) the Portuguese were sailing directly to China around the south tip of Africa.
D) an international fishing community congregated annually off the Newfoundland coast.

Question 5

Columbus mistakenly labeled the Taino people "Indians,"believing that

A) the natives of the Americas originally came from India rather than Siberia.
B) he had reached the East Indies.
C) he had reached the West Indies.
D) he had reached India.

Question 6

To the continents of the Western Hemisphere, Europeans gave the name America, from a

A) Latinized form of one of Columbus's given names.
B) Spanish honorary title given Columbus.
C) Florentine geographer's Latinized first name.
D) version of the name of a Mesoamerican tribe.

Question 7

All of the following explain why Spain conquered the Americas so rapidly, EXCEPT

A) the weakening of native peoples by exposure to European infections.
B) the persistent Indian belief that the Spanish were "gods."
C) political disunity within American native empires.
D) Spanish technological superiority in the form of ships and guns.

Question 8

What accounted most lastingly for the early and rapid success of the conquistadors against Native Americans?

A) the military technology of the Spanish
B) the infectious diseases brought by the Spanish
C) the rigid political centralization of the Aztecs, which meant that to capture the emperor was to conquer the empire
D) the bloody religious system of the Aztecs, which meant that the Spanish stress on Christian virtue won converts among Indian peasants

Question 9

The economic and social system of the Spanish empire rested on

A) religion.
B) spices.
C) weaponry.
D) slavery.

Question 10

What momentous event that occurred throughout Europe distracted England from pursuing empire in the 1500s?

A) the Reformation
B) the Revolution
C) the Renaissance
D) the Reconnaissance

Question 11

Martin Luther preached

A) the infallibility of the Bible and the church.
B) the need to rebel against unjust or immoral authority.
C) for the rights of the individual and democratic rule.
D) salvation by faith alone.

Question 12

John Calvin established a "holy commonwealth"that became a center for European Protestantism and later a model for English Puritans. Where was this Calvinist stronghold?

A) Amsterdam
B) Wittenberg
C) Bristol
D) Geneva

Question 13

King Henry VIII of England broke with the pope in establishing the Church of England and appointing himself its head. The Church of England

A) quickly began promoting a reformist doctrine.
B) remained essentially Catholic.
C) allied itself with reformist Catholics Luther and Calvin.
D) was soon dissolved, after which England returned to its Catholic religious teachings and rituals.

Question 14

John Calvin preached the

A) free conscience and choice of the individual.
B) calling of the Christian believer to pray with and follow the pope in Rome.
C) calling of the Christian church to actively reshape the world.
D) divine choosing of God's saints for salvation by the clergy.

Question 15

The English model of conquest and slaughter did not begin in the Americas. The precedent was set in

A) the Cape region at the southern tip of Africa.
B) islands off the West African coast.
C) Ireland.
D) Iceland and Greenland.

Question 16

What was the precedent set by the English colonization of Ireland?

A) that a nearby domain was fair game for conquest
B) that Catholics had a perfect right in the name of the church to conquer Protestants
C) that an inferior race could justifiably be brutally repressed
D) that if the Spanish could attempt an attack on the English, the English could respond with an attack on the Irish

Question 17

Elizabeth I urged the colonization of Ireland because

A) as a monarch, she feared that foreign powers would use that contentious island as a base for invading England.
B) as a Protestant, she feared that radical Puritans might use that Catholic island as a base for religious rebellion.
C) as a Catholic, she wanted to reconvert the Protestant Irish.
D) as the daughter of Anne Boleyn, she needed respect and an enlarged realm.

Question 18

Richard Hakluyt argued that North America would be an ideal place to

A) extend the influence of Catholicism.
B) use as a base to search for a northwest passage.
C) reform the criminal and enrich the poor.
D) create light industry.

Question 19

The first English attempt to colonize the New World failed. The attempt was led by

A) Gilbert.
B) Fitzgerald.
C) Raleigh.
D) Hakluyt.

Question 20

In 1600, England's settlements in the Americas included

A) Roanoke.
B) Jamestown.
C) Newfoundland.
D) None of these answers is correct.

Question 21

While most accounts begin with Spanish penetration of the Caribbean and Central America, this chapter begins with the second pathway across the North Atlantic, followed by seafarers from England, France, and Portugal to fish off the island of ________

Question 22

The nation of ________ led the way in exploring beyond Europe's known waters using the caravel ship.

Question 23

Hernán Cortés was the conquistador who conquered the great empire of the ________.

Question 24

By 1520, the Spanish plantations in the West Indies were being worked by ________ imported from Africa.

Question 25

The transfer of flora and fauna of the Americas on the one hand and those of Eurasia and Africa on the other is known to historians as the ________ exchange.

Question 26

Cabot was never heard from again after setting sail in 1498 on a search for a(n) ________ to Asia.

Question 27

A precedent for subsequent English colonization in the New World occurred closer to home with a program to colonize ________ in order to control that threatening place.

Question 28

Discuss conditions that encouraged early modern Europeans to undertake voyages of exploration and discovery.

Question 29

How did Portuguese exploration prepare the way for the Spanish discovery of North America?

Question 30

Compare and contrast Aztec society in the fifteenth century with that of early modern Europe.

Question 31

How did Spain's colonial empire influence the development of western Europe during the sixteenth century?

Question 32

Characterize the conditions and changes in sixteenth-century Europe that contributed to the Protestant Reformation.

Question 33

What primary factors accounted for the rivalry between England and Spain in the late sixteenth century?

Question 34

What factor was most essential in encouraging early modern Europeans to undertake voyages of discovery in exploration?

Question 35

Could the direction of discovery and colonization in the fifteenth and sixteenth century have been reversed-that is, could the Aztecs have discovered and colonized western Europe? Why or why not?

Question 36

To what extent were the English adventurers and the Spanish conquistadors "brothers under the skin"? In what ways were the roles they played similar, from the point of view of the royal governments of England and Spain?

Question 37

Consider the motives of early English promoters of colonization like Gilbert and Raleigh. To what extent were such men motivated by idealistic goals? To what extent by economic interests?

Question 38

Consider this statement: "As the monarchs of stronger, more centralized nation-states took advantage of the recent advances in technology and trade, the temper of these vibrant, often chaotic times mixed a sense of crisis with a sense of possibility."Explain why this blend of desperation and idealism made the newly discovered Americas so attractive to Europeans.

Question 39

Compare and contrast the tenets of Luther and Calvin. Be specific in including the Catholic traditions and the need for reforms.

Question 40

Describe the social divisions among the races. What role did religion play in the divisions within society? What was the role of class? How did the Europeans move up within society?

Question 41

Describe the slave culture in America. How and why were Africans imported into the colonies?