Deck 17: Oceans Crossed, Worlds Connected, 1450-1550

Question 1

What was the primary motivation of European mariners in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries?

A) expanding knowledge
B) gaining economic wealth
C) spreading Christianity
D) demonstrating imperial power

Answer 1

gaining economic wealth

Question 2

What method of transport carried the greatest volume of goods in Inner Eurasia?

A) overland caravans
B) canal barges
C) animal-drawn wagon trains
D) maritime shipping

Answer 2

maritime shipping

Question 3

The Strait of Melaka connects the South China Sea with the

A) Bay of Bengal.
B) Indian Ocean.
C) Yellow Sea.
D) Gulf of Thailand.

Answer 3

Bay of Bengal.

Question 4

Which city, founded by the ruler of Singapore, has a protected harbor and emerged as a magnet of seaborne commerce in the fifteenth century?

A) Gujarat
B) Alexandria
C) Melaka
D) Molucca

Question 5

The Muslim state of Gujarat successfully broke away from ________, South Asia's largest land empire.

A) the Ming government
B) the sultanate of Delhi
C) Singapore
D) Bengal

Question 6

Which of the following is NOT connected to the Arabian Sea?

A) the Strait of Melaka
B) the Persian Gulf
C) the Red Sea
D) East Africa

Question 7

Which of the following generally had smaller populations and fewer cities in the early fifteenth century?

A) western Europe
B) India
C) China
D) the central Muslim lands

Question 8

Before 1350, European merchants were able to travel overland to the Middle East and Far East, but that ended. Why?

A) the expiration of travel agreements with the Mongol state that ruled Persia
B) a changing political situation that was hostile toward "Franks"
C) the rise of a Byzantine empire in Constantinople
D) wars for control of the eastern Mediterranean between Ottoman forces and the Portuguese

Question 9

Which of the following was NOT a major cluster of dense agrarian populations facing the Atlantic Ocean?

A) western Europe
B) Central Africa
C) South America
D) the Caribbean islands

Question 10

The relatively narrow waterway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea is known as the

A) Strait of Melaka.
B) Dardanelles.
C) Bosporus Strait.
D) Strait of Gibraltar.

Question 11

Who were the original settlers of the Canaries?

A) migrants from Morocco
B) Portuguese sailors
C) shipwrecked Genoese explorers
D) Spanish traders

Question 12

The savanna region just south of the Sahara, known historically as the ________, had a long tradition of monarchy.

A) Ghana
B) Mali
C) the Western Sudan
D) Timbuktu

Question 13

Kongolese weavers produced large quantities of textiles for regional markets. What were these textiles made from?

A) long staple cotton
B) palm fronds
C) animal wool
D) flax fiber

Question 14

What was the basic staple that sustained growing populations and complex settlements from Canada to the southern Andes in the fifteenth century?

A) maize
B) rice
C) potatoes
D) squash

Question 15

The Mesoamerican civilization known today as the Aztec empire was centered in

A) the Valley of Cuzco.
B) the highlands of Central America.
C) the Valley of Mexico.
D) the coastal Yucatan.

Question 16

How did the Inca record information about social and economic conditions?

A) knotted and colored strings
B) logographs on stone tablets
C) cuneiform-style script on clay tablets
D) pictographs on animal hides

Question 17

By 1520 the Inca empire was ________ Spain and Portugal combined.

A) approximately half the size of
B) about the same size as
C) twice as large as
D) more than three times as large as

Question 18

What ignited interest in a South Atlantic route to Indian Ocean ports?

A) the development of new types of ocean going ships
B) the rise of Ottoman power in the eastern Mediterranean
C) the discovery of gold in Madagascar
D) the pope's urging to spread the gospel to Muslim lands

Question 19

Prince Henry of Portugal dedicated much of his career to

A) finding a sea route to the Far East.
B) developing better charts and navigation tools.
C) conquering the Canary Islands.
D) financing discovery expeditions.

Question 20

What Iberian region emerged as a creative center for mapmaking, navigational charts, and nautical instruments?

A) Catalonia
B) Leon
C) Granada
D) Castile

Question 21

What shipbuilding innovation of the fifteenth century yielded vessels that could bear heavier cargos?

A) oarsmen in addition to square-rigged sails
B) plank-on-plank construction
C) high-sided, broad-beamed vessels
D) plank-on-frame construction

Question 22

The lateen or triangular sail allowed sailors to

A) sail almost directly upwind.
B) sail downwind faster.
C) use multiple masts.
D) transport heavier cargos.

Question 23

Drawing on the earlier work of Muslim scholars, Abraham Zacuto created sun declination tables that allowed mariners to easily determine their ship's

A) longitude.
B) latitude.
C) longitude and latitude.
D) speed.

Question 24

What late fifteenth-century vessel was designed to make long sea voyages and mount heavier cannons?

A) caravel
B) sloop
C) galleon
D) carrack

Question 25

In which direction did the winds of the North Atlantic blow?

A) clockwise
B) counter-clockwise
C) generally west
D) generally east

Question 26

Fifteenth-century scholars generally agreed

A) that the world was flat.
B) on the circumference of the world.
C) on the circumference and the roundness of the world.
D) on the roundness but not the circumference of the world.

Question 27

Which of the following is NOT among the reasons Subsaharan Africans were able to resist violent raiding by Portuguese traders?

A) the ability to mobilize large military forces
B) partial immunity to some European diseases
C) superior sailing vessels and naval weapons
D) immunity to tropical diseases

Question 28

Portuguese merchants obtained authorization from the ________ to buy pepper for export to Europe and cloth for shipment to other parts of the coast.

A) Kongolese mission to Lisbon
B) king of Benin
C) Vatican in Rome
D) throne of Afonso I

Question 29

In 1576 the Portuguese carved out a permanent territorial base at ________, the future colony of Angola.

A) Benguela
B) Lobito
C) Belas
D) Luanda

Question 30

In the Treaty of ________, Spain acquired sovereignty over the Canary Islands and Portugal over the Azores and Madeira.

A) Alcáçovas
B) Paris
C) Lisbon
D) Luanda

Question 31

Who financed Columbus's voyage to find a trade route to Asia that was not blocked by Muslim navies?

A) Prince Henry of Portugal
B) the viceroy of Spain
C) Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain
D) Henry the VII of England

Question 32

What became of Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria?

A) She ran aground and was left behind.
B) She returned triumphantly to Spain.
C) She was captured and burned by the Taino.
D) She was lost at sea during a violent storm.

Question 33

Which of the following was NOT a factor that contributed to the fall of native populations in the Americas?

A) tropical disease
B) Afroeurasian disease
C) iron weapons
D) horse cavalry

Question 34

Children that were the product of European colonists and Taino women were know as ________, or mixed race children.

A) jarawa
B) mestizo
C) encomendero
D) pintupi

Question 35

Which of the following most accurately describes the Columbian Exchange?

A) the transfer of living organisms across the Atlantic in both directions
B) the maritime system of tracking the Atlantic's winds and currents
C) the economic system between Spain and its American colonies
D) the trade route to Asia that was found by European maritime explorers

Question 36

Among the few disease organisms that traveled eastward across the Atlantic to afflict unsuspecting Afroeurasians was the bacteriological illness

A) chlamydia.
B) gonorrhea.
C) syphilis.
D) scabies.

Question 37

The Spanish system of labor regulation that rewarded conquerors by giving them control of groups of people and their labor is known as the

A) encomienda.
B) conquistadoro.
C) encomendero.
D) mestizo.

Question 38

Who became monarch of the Triple Alliance in 1502?

A) Itzcoatl
B) Ahuitzotl
C) Cuauhtemoc
D) Motecuzoma II

Question 39

Who were the first to clash with Hernán Cortés and his motley army on the Yucatán Peninsula?

A) Motecuzoma's forces
B) the Aztecs
C) the Tlaxcalans
D) Cuitláhuac's warriors

Question 40

Which conquistador came to lead the Inca political hierarchy?

A) Francisco Pizarro
B) Huayna Capac
C) Hernán Cortés
D) Bernal Diaz del Castillo

Question 41

How did the Spanish crown seek to exert legislative, financial, judicial, and executive authority in the new colonies?

A) via conquistadors like Pizarro and Cortés
B) through the Council of the Indies
C) using a proxy monarch called a viceroy
D) by establishing the Casa de Contratación

Question 42

The former Aztec capital of ________ was renamed Mexico City.

A) Texmelucan
B) Lima
C) Cuautitlán
D) Tenochtitlan

Question 43

While returning from the Indian Ocean, Pedro Álvares Cabral followed the southeast trade winds and unexpectedly bumped into the coast of

A) Islas Malvinas.
B) Florida.
C) Brazil.
D) the Azores.

Question 44

In the last quarter of the fifteenth century, what maritime power dominated trade in the southern seas?

A) Spain
B) Portugal
C) the Ottoman empire
D) No single maritime power dominated.

Question 45

What key port in East Africa did Afonso de Albuquerque seize in 1505?

A) Mombasa
B) Hormuz
C) Goa
D) Melaka

Question 46

The Portuguese did not try to control more than coastal enclaves around the Indian Ocean rim, with one exception:

A) the Azores.
B) the Zambezi River valley.
C) the Strait of Melaka.
D) Mombasa and Fort Jesus.

Question 47

In 1505, King Manuel I established the Estado da India in order to formalize Portugal's

A) right to demand tribute from Macau.
B) trading agreement with Ming imperial officials.
C) claims in the Indian Ocean and China seas.
D) sovereignty over all coastal regions of the Indian Ocean basin.

Question 48

What enticed the Netherlands, England, and France to send naval vessels around the Cape and build their own trading post empires?

A) the opportunity to diversify their economies
B) Portugal's spice trade profits
C) the opportunity to convert Muslims to Christianity
D) Portugal's enviable colonial empire

Question 49

The Portuguese strategy of disrupting the flow of goods from the Arabian Sea to both the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf disrupted the commercial economies of all of the following EXCEPT

A) Greek traders.
B) Italian merchants.
C) Muslim Egypt.
D) Southwest Asia.

Question 50

Ferdinand Magellan made it as far as ________ and claimed it for Spain before being killed in fighting that erupted with local warriors.

A) the eastern coast of South America
B) the Philippines
C) Indonesia
D) Diego Garcia

Question 51

List the luxury wares traded in the trade circuits connecting the South China Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea. List the everyday items that were also traded.

Question 52

Recount the events in Persia, Egypt, and Turkey that limited European traders' ability to conduct business after 1335.

Question 53

Explain why the Strait of Gibraltar has presented such an alluring challenge to monarchs, merchants, and navigators.

Question 54

Describe the unique attributes and features of the two generic models of sailing ships that were in use in the Atlantic in the later fifteenth century.

Question 55

Summarize the reasons that Europeans were unable to conquer Subsaharan Africa.

Question 56

Why did the Columbian Exchange have such a dramatic affect on both the Americas and Eurasia? Identify the upside of the Columbian Exchange, as well as the downside.

Question 57

Discuss Portugal's early Indian Ocean strategy with regard to the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.