Deck 21: New Worlds: the Americas and Oceania

Question 1

The power of the viceroys was checked by reviews conducted by the

A)mestizo.
B)zambos.
C)encomiendas.
D)conquistadores.
E)audiencias.

Answer 1

audiencias.

Question 2

The first people of the Americas to come into contact with the Spanish were the

A)Maya.
B)Aztecs.
C)Incas.
D)Taino.
E)Chimu.

Answer 2

Taino.

Question 3

The last emperor of the Inca empire was

A)Motecuzoma II.
B)Atahualpa.
C)Topa Inca.
D)Viracocha.
E)Pachacuti.

Answer 3

Atahualpa.

Question 4

Doña Marina was

A)the first viceroy of the Spanish colonies in the Americas.
B)the leading Spanish banker who funded exploration.
C)the Portuguese explorer who first sighted Australia.
D)a Mexican woman who aided Cortés in his conquest of the Aztecs.
E)the nautical term for the dominant westerly wind that made voyages to the Americas faster.

Question 5

Hernán Cortés was responsible for the conquest of the

A)Taino.
B)Chimu.
C)Incas.
D)Aztecs.
E)Moche.

Question 6

Christopher Columbus's first plan was to

A)build trading posts where merchants could trade with the local population.
B)plunder the legendary wealth of the Aztecs.
C)form an alliance with the Aztecs against the Incas.
D)form an alliance with the French before attacking the Taino.
E)subjugate the native population as a slave race for the Spanish.

Question 7

The population of the Caribbean went from about 4 million in 1492 to ________ in the 1540s.

A)8 million
B)5 million
C)4 million
D)2 million
E)a few thousand

Question 8

The term mestizo refers to

A)the coins that were used in the Aztec empire.
B)an individual of indigenous and European parentage.
C)the Spanish plantations on which millions of Central and South Americans were enslaved.
D)the mysterious disease that devastated the Aztec population.
E)the percentage of silver that went to the Spanish government.

Question 9

The last emperor of the Aztec empire was

A)Atahualpa.
B)Motecuzoma II.
C)Itzcóatl.
D)Topa.
E)Motecuzoma I.

Question 10

The conquistadores

A)established empires in Central and South America that lasted until the eighteenth century.
B)lost control because of a bloody battle between the forces of Cortés and Pizarro.
C)eventually lost control and were replaced with formal rule by the Spanish crown.
D)eventually died of the very same smallpox they had unwittingly introduced to the Americas.
E)in turn were defeated by French forces.

Question 11

The chief Spanish royal administrators in the Americas were the

A)viceroys.
B)peninsulares.
C)conquistadores.
D)encomiendas.
E)haciendas.

Question 12

Which of the following sites in North America was originally a Dutch colony?

A)Plymouth
B)Jamestown
C)Port Royal
D)New York
E)Quebec

Question 13

The two centers of Spanish royal authority in the Americas were

A)Lima and Chanchan.
B)Mexico City and Cuzco.
C)Lima and Mexico City.
D)Tenochtitlan and Mexico City.
E)Cuzco and Tenochtitlan.

Question 14

Before the arrival of Columbus,the Taino lived under the authority of

A)Aztec diplomats.
B)local chiefs.
C)a priestly class.
D)a single monarch.
E)groups of democratic councils of elders.

Question 15

The conquistador who conquered the Incas was

A)Balboa.
B)Cortés.
C)Cabral.
D)Magellan.
E)Pizarro.

Question 16

The English colony of Jamestown

A)was nearly destroyed due to mass starvation.
B)was wildly successful and quickly recouped the original financial investment.
C)mysteriously disappeared during a period in which the English were too busy to send aid.
D)served as a remarkably satisfactory location for the Puritans.
E)was burned to the ground during a French invasion.

Question 17

The English and French colonies

A)were like the Spanish in that they viewed the Americas as a land to exploit rather than a place to settle.
B)did not play a role in the Americas until the mid-eighteenth century.
C)never showed any serious interest in the Americas.
D)discovered gold and silver mines that rivaled Spanish claims.
E)were supported to a greater degree by private investors than were the Spanish.

Question 18

The Treaty of Tordesillas

A)granted England control over Australia.
B)split Central and South America between Spain and Portugal.
C)ended the Seven Years' War.
D)limited Spanish northern expansion to modern-day Florida.
E)ended the English practice of raiding Spanish treasure galleons.

Question 19

The Portuguese began to show much more interest in Brazil after

A)the establishment of profitable sugar plantations.
B)the English victory over the Spanish Armada.
C)brazilwood became a major cash crop.
D)a Spanish military loss to France removed Spain as a serious rival for control of Brazil.
E)the discovery of rich gold and silver mines.

Question 20

The encomenderos were

A)Aztec priests who viewed the Spanish as visiting gods.
B)Spanish settlers.
C)the first society of the Americas to come into contact with the Spanish.
D)the Spanish administrative officials who ruled over the colonies and reported back to Spain.
E)individuals of indigenous and European parentage.

Question 21

In the 1670s and 1680s,the Spanish were interested in consolidating control in which area because it lay directly on the route from Acapulco to Manila?

A)Guam
B)New Zealand
C)the Marquesas Islands
D)Tahiti
E)Hawai`i

Question 22

Which of the following countries established the first permanent settlement in Australia?

A)England
B)the Netherlands
C)Portugal
D)Spain
E)France

Question 23

The British initially made use of Australia

A)because of its rich silver mines.
B)because of its extraordinary agricultural abundance.
C)as a busy port on the route from Acapulco to Manila.
D)as a penal colony.
E)as a tourist retreat.

Question 24

In North America,Europeans initially found a profitable commodity in

A)furs.
B)maize.
C)tobacco.
D)indigo.
E)molasses.

Question 25

For the Spanish,the greatest attraction of the Americas was

A)precious metals.
B)tobacco.
C)the new class of trading partners to buy Spanish manufactured goods.
D)sugar.
E)slaves.

Question 26

Which of the following statements is NOT accurate about the differences between the Spanish approach to colonization and that of the English and French?

A)Private investors played a much greater role in the English and French approach.
B)The English and French viewed the indigenous populations as their equals more than did the Spanish.
C)The English and French did not encounter large,centralized states like the Spanish.
D)The English colonies had their own assemblies that influenced the choice of royal governor,which Spanish colonies lacked.
E)Spanish explorers relied to a greater degree on royal backing.

Question 27

Plantations created a high demand for

A)cheap labor.
B)cash crops.
C)tobacco.
D)money.
E)education.

Question 28

Spanish migrants who were born in Europe were known as

A)zambos.
B)encomiendas.
C)mestizos.
D)peninsulares.
E)mulattoes.

Question 29

To provide labor for their sugar plantations,the Portuguese by the 1580s

A)offered higher wages than did their Spanish counterparts.
B)copied the Spanish encomiendas.
C)made extensive use of indentured servants.
D)copied the Spanish repartimiento system.
E)relied on imported African slaves as laborers.

Question 30

The native population in what is now the United States stood at five million to ten million in 1492,and at ________ in 1800.

A)fifteen million
B)ten million
C)eight million
D)six million
E)six hundred thousand

Question 31

On the mainland,as in the Caribbean,epidemic disease aided Spanish efforts in the conquest of native American peoples and their lands.

Question 32

The métis were

A)French Jesuit missionaries.
B)migrants who had been born in Europe.
C)the Spanish administrative officials who reported back directly to the king.
D)the French equivalents of the peninsulares.
E)individuals of French and indigenous parentage.

Question 33

By the seventeenth century,the most prominent site of agriculture in Spanish America was the

A)métis.
B)hacienda.
C)repartimiento.
D)quinto.
E)zambo.

Question 34

Between 1519 and 1521,Hernán Cortés and a small band of men brought down the Aztec empire in Mexico.

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT true of the native Americans that the English and French came into contact with?

A)The native societies of North America did not have large,centralized states like the Aztecs and Incas.
B)The native Americans did not live in densely populated areas.
C)The native Americans practiced agriculture,but moved frequently in pursuit of game.
D)The native Americans lived in dozens of distinct societies.
E)The native Americans guarded their claims to private ownership of land even more jealously than the Europeans.

Question 36

The first site of interaction between European and American peoples was the Caribbean,and when the Spanish arrived there,the Taino were the most prominent people.

Question 37

The first recorded European sighting of Australia was made by the

A)Portuguese.
B)Dutch.
C)English.
D)French.
E)Spanish.

Question 38

The Virgin of Guadalupe essentially became a national symbol for

A)Peru.
B)Mexico.
C)Argentina.
D)Brazil.
E)Chile.

Question 39

Christopher Columbus and his immediate followers made the island of Cuba the base of Spanish operations in the Caribbean.

Question 40

The first plentiful labor force for North America was

A)indentured servants.
B)peninsulares from South America.
C)African slaves.
D)métis purchased from Canada.
E)native Americans who worked as part of a complicated barter system.

Question 41

Examine the social transformation of Mesoamerica and South America.How complete was this transformation? How much of native traditions remained?

Question 42

The Spanish government reserved a fifth of gold production,known as the quinto,for the colonial settlers,and took the rest as revenue for the crown.

Question 43

Bernardino de Sahagún reported that the Aztecs were amazed by the Spanish guns.The Spanish gun "resounded as if it thundered when it went off.It indeed bereft one of strength." What role did a difference in technology play in the fall of the Aztecs and Incas? Think of earlier instances in the class when a difference in technology had a profound effect.

Question 44

In both Spanish and Portuguese colonies,migrants from Europe known as peninsulares stood at the top of the social hierarchy,followed by criollos,individuals born in the Americas of Iberian parents.

Question 45

Examine the world of trade in the Americas.What were its economic and social implications? How did trade in the Americas fit into the larger trading world of the Europeans?

Question 46

While the Spanish American empire concentrated on the extraction of silver,the Portuguese empire in Brazil depended on the production and export of sugar.

Question 47

What role did disease play in the Spanish conquest of the Americas? What can this express about the isolation of these societies?

Question 48

What factors help to explain the rapid Spanish conquest of Central and South America? What advantages did the Spanish enjoy? What events were important?

Question 49

How is the story of Doña Marina representative of the collapse of Mesoamerican and South American societies?

Question 50

The Spanish colonial history has always had a very dark reputation.Do the Spanish actually deserve this tradition? Were their colonial policies any different from those of the Dutch,French,and English?

Question 51

Examine the exploration and colonization of Australia and Oceania.Compare and contrast it to the European settlement of the Americas.

Question 52

Private investors rather than royal financial backing played a larger role in French and English colonial efforts in the Americas.

Question 53

Why did slavery eventually become more common than indentured servitude in the colonies?

Question 54

Examine the role played by the Portuguese in the exploration and colonization of South America.How did this role relate to Portuguese exploration and colonization elsewhere? How were the Portuguese different from the Spanish or the English,French,and Dutch?

Question 55

Planters in North America initially met the demand for cheap labor by recruiting indentured servants from Europe.

Question 56

Examine the social structure of colonial life in North America.How was it different from the social structure of life in Central and South America? What explains the differences? In what ways did the different societies intermingle?

Question 57

Examine the picture of the mining operations at Potosí on page 403.What does this picture tell us about the Spanish interest in the Americas? Was it different from that of the other Europeans? What was life like for the native miners? What result would a high death rate have on the search for a labor force?

Question 58

Examine the exploration of the Americas by the French,Dutch,and English.How and why was their approach different from that of the Spanish and Portuguese?

Question 59

In 1788 a Dutch fleet arrived near what is now Sydney carrying about one thousand passengers,eight hundred of them convicts,and established the first European settlement in Australia as a penal colony.

Question 60

Captain James Cook,when talking about the Hawaiians,proposed that "No people could trade with more honesty than these people." Why would honesty be important to Cook? Were Cook's relations with the Hawaiians always this positive? Discuss the nature of the relationship between Europeans and indigenous peoples in the Americas and Oceania.

Question 61

When and how did slavery come to North America? How did the arrival of slavery impact the societies that emerged there?

Question 62

What became the basis of the economy and settlement in the North American colonies of France and England?

Question 63

How did Pizarro conquer the Inca empire with 180 men?

Question 64

Consider the impact of the encomienda system of land distribution on the future of Spanish America.

Question 65

What was distinctive about the European exploration and settlement of Australia?

Question 66

What determined the social hierarchy in the Iberian colonies? Who tended to have wealth and power?

Question 67

Explain how sugar production came to dictate so much of colonial Brazilian life.

Question 68

What was the basis of the economy of the Spanish empire? Who profited most from this?

Question 69

What became of the Taino people of the Caribbean?

Question 70

What kinds of communities were established in the New World colonies of Portugal and Spain? How were they organized? How were they governed?

Question 71

Describe the typical relations between French and English settlers and the native Americans.