Deck 9: Networks of Communication and Exchange

Question 1

What Arabic word literally means "the coast"?

A)Sahel
B)Sahara
C)Mecca
D)Lanteen
E)None of these are correct.

Answer 1

Sahel

Question 2

The most convincing evidence indicates that camels were introduced to the Sahara from

A)Arabia.
B)North Africa and the Mediterranean coast.
C)India, via the Indian Ocean trade.
D)West Africa.
E)They used camels indigenous to the area.

Answer 2

Arabia.

Question 3

The Indian Ocean Maritime System took place in which of the following regions?

A)the South China Sea
B)from the east coast of India to the islands of Southeast Asia
C)from the west coast of India to the Persian Gulf and the east coast of Africa
D)All of these are correct.
E)None of these are correct.

Answer 3

All of these are correct.

Question 4

The mariners involved in the Indian Ocean trade were

A)almost exclusively of Indian background.
B)a multilingual and multiethnic group.
C)from many lands, but all were Muslim.
D)primarily Arabic and Persian.
E)all Africans from the sub-Saharan region.

Question 5

Why was maritime trade better in Southeast Asia than in Western Asia?

A)Ports had better access to fresh water and could sustain a permanent settlement.
B)There were more monsoons in the western part of Asia.
C)There were more mountains in western Asia and fewer ports.
D)Religious differences did not allow trade between cultures.
E)There were no women in port cities, so sailors didn't want to stop there.

Question 6

Family life in the Indian Ocean coastal areas was considered more cosmopolitan because

A)it was wealthier.
B)blended families were bicultural and bilingual.
C)they were monotheistic.
D)they were not economically tied to agriculture.
E)women were allowed to hold political offices.

Question 7

The traders of the Indian Ocean, where distances were greater and contacts less frequent,

A)did not tend to be multilingual.
B)rarely strayed far from the shorelines.
C)kept strong ties to their homelands.
D)seldom retained political ties with their homelands.
E)None of these are correct.

Question 8

The source of the Saharan horse breeders were

A)related to the Greeks.
B)escaped slaves from Egypt.
C)nomads from the Central Asian steppes.
D)intrepid caravans from Mali.
E)and still are, a mystery.

Question 9

The trans-Saharan trade routes would not have been possible were it not for the domestication of

A)camels.
B)donkeys.
C)horses.
D)cows.
E)llamas.

Question 10

Traders from the equatorial forest zone brought forest products such as palm oil and to trading centers near the Sahara's southern fringe.

A)caffeine
B)kola nuts
C)cotton
D)salt
E)figs

Question 11

One difference between Indian Ocean and Mediterranean seafaring was that

A)Indian Ocean ships were not as solidly built.
B)Indian Ocean traders usually established colonies.
C)Mediterranean seamen rarely sailed far from shore.
D)Mediterranean ships relied on lateen sails.
E)Mediterranean seamen were interested only in economic gains.

Question 12

Critical to the functioning of the Silk Road were

A)imperial guards from various kingdoms along the way for protection of merchants.
B)pastoralists who provided animals, handlers, and protection along the road.
C)water merchants in the central Asian desert.
D)Steppe agriculturalists who sold food products to travelers.
E)Ferengi merchants who initiated standardized currency rates.

Question 13

Scythians were fearsome horse archers, and they were noted to live in what form of dwelling?

A)log cabins
B)mud-brick fortresses
C)portable felt huts
D)tree houses
E)subterranean caverns

Question 14

Evidence of what revolutionary technology first comes from the Kushan people of northern Afghanistan?

A)Chariot
B)Chain mail
C)Stirrup
D)Hardtack
E)Gunpowder

Question 15

About 2,000 years ago, people from Southeast Asia migrated what island off the coast of Africa?

A)Sri Lanka
B)Madagascar
C)Ceylon
D)Indonesia
E)Australia

Question 16

Ships in the Indian Ocean Maritime System were better prepared for long-distance travel than the Greeks because

A)they could take advantage of monsoon winds to drive their ships using triangular lateen sails.
B)the Greeks were not interested in long-distance trade.
C)the Greeks had to cover a larger amount of territory for colonies to support their homeland.
D)the Asian ships weren't nailed together and sank less often.
E)Greek ships used square sails, which weighed more.

Question 17

The best primary evidence of early Saharan history consists of

A)accounts by European travelers.
B)the diary of a wandering Islamic scholar.
C)a vast number of rock paintings and engravings.
D)the oral histories of Saharan nomads.
E)histories written on papyrus.

Question 18

General Zhang Jian is credited with travelling across the deserts and mountains of Central Asia on behalf of Emperor Wu of which empire?

A)Babylonian
B)Mauryan
C)Chin
D)Han
E)Persian

Question 19

The peoples of Central Asia have engaged in long-distance movement and exchange from at least

A)3000 BCE.
B)2000 BCE.
C)1000 BCE.
D)0 CE.
E)1000 CE.

Question 20

The current dryness of the Sahara Desert dates from

A)25000 BCE.
B)2500 BCE.
C)250 BCE.
D)25 BCE.
E)250 CE.

Question 21

The Silk Road and Indian Ocean trade were most influential in fostering the spread of which religion?

A)Judaism
B)Jainism
C)Sikhism
D)Shinto
E)Buddhism

Question 22

One of the greatest promoters of Buddhism was

A)in the Tang dynasty of China.
B)King Ashoka of India.
C)Alexander the Great.
D)Emperor Darius of Persia.
E)Zuanzang of China.

Question 23

Which of the following does not constitute a shared cultural heritage, or what anthropologists classify as "great traditions"?

A)Political unity
B)A written language
C)Ethical codes
D)Intellectual traditions
E)Common legal and belief systems

Question 24

What role do the "great traditions" and "small traditions" play in creating cultural unity, and how were these present in sub-Saharan Africa?

Question 25

Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam all spread

A)only within their own countries until the nineteenth century.
B)only to their neighboring countries.
C)without dependency on a single ethnic or kinship group.
D)predominantly by warfare.
E)most often by the use of missionaries, generally sponsored by the government.

Question 26

What were some of the technological advances that the Silk Road was responsible for?

Question 27

Which of the following is not an example of a broad common element underlying African life and culture?

A)Cultivation by hoe and digging stick
B)Distinctive musical characteristics
C)Concepts of kingship
D)Fixed social categories
E)A common language

Question 28

Most sub-Saharan languages come from one giant linguistic family, called

A)Sudanese-Zulu.
B)Swahili.
C)Semitic.
D)Niger-Kongo.
E)Bantu.

Question 29

What is a savanna?

A)tropical rain forest
B)eroding desert
C)tropical or subtropical grassland
D)semiarid plain
E)lush oasis

Question 30

Which of the following covered a larger and more diverse area than any other cultural region in the first Millennium CE and had a lower overall population density?

A)the West Asian steppes
B)the Indian subcontinent
C)Europe
D)sub-Saharan Africa
E)North Africa

Question 31

Africa is the home to approximately how many languages?

A)250
B)500
C)1,000
D)2,000
E)2,500

Question 32

An example used in the text that demonstrated the transfer of practices between civilizations was the use of dye-cast coins, while another example seems to many historians to be

A)the connection of swine to religious practices.
B)religious dietary prohibitions.
C)domestication of agriculture.
D)iron smelting.
E)None of the above.

Question 33

The development of in Africa involved the smelting of iron in the early first millennium CE.

A)alchemy
B)divination
C)metallurgy
D)Bantuism
E)mining

Question 34

The most important African network of cultural exchange from 300 BCE to 1100 CE can be described as

A)mainly internal migrations within sub-Saharan Africa.
B)the Indian Ocean network.
C)the trade across the Sahara.
D)the link with Islamic Arabia.
E)taking place only in North Africa.

Question 35

The importance of trans-Saharan trade, though slow to begin and supplemented by Indian Ocean trade, was that it

A)connected North and South Africa.
B)spread Islam as a unifying force.
C)was conducted by people speaking derivatives of Berber.
D)allowed expansion of the Mediterranean trade market for African gold.
E)linked the Silk Road to the Sand Routes.

Question 36

The spread of Christianity into Nubia proceeded from

A)Syria.
B)Egypt.
C)Arabia.
D)Italy.
E)Ethiopia.

Question 37

In a parallel development to the southern migration to sub-Saharan Africa from the Sahara, this region also experienced a slow migration away from the expanding desert.

A)the Nile River Valley
B)Madagascar
C)the Kalahari Desert
D)the Congo
E)All of these are correct.

Question 38

Compare the Indian Ocean trade with the Mediterranean Sea trade. Were they different worlds?

Question 39

What facilitated the spread of Christianity to Armenia?

A)the invention of an Armenian alphabet in the early fifth century
B)the creation of new Christian myths that included Armenian folklore
C)the excellent management of the Christian church
D)the prejudices against Buddhist monks in the cities
E)the high taxation of non-Christians in Armenia

Question 40

Instructions: Answer the following question(s).
Why can the Silk Road be described as a social system rather than simply as a transportation route?

Question 41

Describe the evidence of early Saharan history provided by rock paintings.

Question 42

The chapter uses the spread of Christianity to Armenia and Ethiopia as an illustration of "the connections between religion, trade, and imperial politics." Describe how the spread of Christianity to Armenia and Ethiopia represented the struggle for control of the region where the Silk Road traders met the Mediterranean traders.

Question 43

Explain how historians gather evidence about the spread of ideas.

Question 44

The Silk Road was a trade route connecting China and .

Question 45

Describe the environmental and social conditions in the Sahara before it became a desert. Be as specific as you can concerning dates and what sort of evidence is available to historians.

Question 46

The rise of the Parthian empire helped foster the Silk Road to meet the European demand for silk and the Chinese demand for .

Question 47

The spread of Buddhism, like Christianity and Islam, occurred without dependency of a single ethnic of kinsmen group. In the example of the Chinese pilgrim Faxian, trace the spread of Buddhism in Asia, and the importance of missionaries.

Question 48

What major piece of technology did the Kushan people of northern Afghanistan invent?