Deck 14: Empires and Encounters, 1450-1750

Question 1

What features of the Atlantic slave trade distinguished it from slavery in the premodern world?

Answer 1

Answer would ideally include:
•The immense size of the traffic in slaves in the Americas
•The distinctive racial dimension of Atlantic slavery, which came to be identified wholly with Africa and with blackness
•The centrality of slavery to the economies of colonial America
•The prominence of slave labor in plantation agriculture
•The treatment of slaves as a form of dehumanized property
•The practice of slave status being inherited across generations, with little hope of eventual freedom for the vast majority of slaves
•The fact that slavery was so widespread in a society that affirmed values of human freedom and equality

Question 2

Which of the following describes an effect of the European presence in the Indian Ocean on existing Asian commercial networks?

A) Europeans created a network that became just one among a number of thriving Asian commercial networks.
B) Europeans destroyed all Asian commercial networks, forcing Asian merchants to turn to piracy and smuggling.
C) Europeans required all non-European merchant vessels to purchase a pass and pay duties of 6 to 10 percent on their cargoes.
D) Europeans succeeded in controlling nearly all Asian trade networks, making them masters of the Asian economy.

Answer 2

Europeans created a network that became just one among a number of thriving Asian commercial networks.

Question 3

In what way was the Spanish colonization of the Philippines different from the Portuguese strongholds in the Indian Ocean basin?

A) The Spanish converted Filipinos to Christianity, while the Portuguese often blended into the local populations.
B) The Spanish only established coastal outposts, while the Portuguese conquered inland areas.
C) The Portuguese killed large numbers of natives, but the Spanish did not use violence to enforce their rule.
D) The Portuguese made little use of their naval superiority in establishing their strongholds, but the Spanish did.

Answer 3

The Spanish converted Filipinos to Christianity, while the Portuguese often blended into the local populations.

Question 4

How did the Tokugawa shoguns treat Europeans in Japan in the seventeenth century?

A) They welcomed Europeans for their technological expertise and scientific knowledge.
B) They protected Christian missionaries and sponsored Christian churches.
C) They expelled all Europeans except the Dutch, who were allowed to trade at a single site.
D) They established regular diplomatic relations with European states.

Question 5

What factors contributed to the predominance of African slaves in the Atlantic slave trade?

Question 6

What factors drove the European demand for furs from North America and Siberia during the early modern era?

Question 7

Source 14.2 illustrates the European consumption of chocolate, which originated in the Americas. What other ingredients from the Americas and Asia did Europeans add to chocolate?

A) Rum and vodka
B) Coffee and tea
C) Sugar and spices
D) Eggs and flour

Question 8

Which of the following status symbols depicted in the sources was associated with the destruction of the culture of its origin?

A) Tea
B) Chocolate
C) Coffee
D) Porcelain

Question 9

The first direct and sustained link between the Americas and Asia was the trade in

A) fur.
B) spices.
C) silk.
D) silver.

Question 10

In what ways did Spain's involvement in Asia differ from that of Portugal?

Question 11

In Source 14.1, what does the image of a European-style house on the teacup at the bottom left indicate?

A) European artisans had mastered the craft of producing teacups.
B) Chinese artisans produced teacups for the European market.
C) The Chinese were fascinated with European architectural styles.
D) Chinese houses were similar to European houses.

Question 12

In what ways did Asian countries and merchants have the upper hand in Asian commerce during the period from 1450 to 1750?

Question 13

Some people within the Ottoman Empire regarded the coffeehouse as a "refuge of Satan." What activities depicted in Source 14.3 strengthen this view of coffeehouses as disreputable places?

A) Playing board games
B) Discussing the Bible
C) Reading newspapers
D) Conversing with women

Question 14

Which of the following describes the Japanese government's treatment of Japanese merchants operating in Southeast Asia in the seventeenth century?

A) The government guaranteed the safety of the Japanese merchants.
B) The government regulated the Japanese merchants in order to tax them.
C) The government disavowed any responsibility for the Japanese merchants.
D) The government encouraged the Japanese merchants to establish colonies.

Question 15

Which of the following describes a difference between how the British East India Company operated in Mughal India and how the Dutch East India Company operated in Indonesia in the seventeenth century?

A) The British ruled directly over all of India, while the Dutch operated under the authority of local powerful elites.
B) The British negotiated treaties with local Indian rulers, while the Dutch established control through conquest and colonization.
C) The British had to send half their profits back to the government in London, while the Dutch kept all their profits.
D) The British assimilated into Indian society, while the Dutch encouraged the local population to become more Dutch.

Question 16

What features did the British and Dutch East India companies share?

Question 17

What impact did the global silver trade have on world history?

Question 18

What role did women play in the global commerce of the early modern era?

Question 19

In Source 14.4, the portrayal of the man in European clothing was intended to

A) discourage interracial marriages.
B) criticize cross-cultural exchanges.
C) enhance his social status.
D) emphasize his European ancestry.

Question 20

How did the Atlantic slave trade affect African states and society?

Question 21

Which of the following was a result of the fur trade in North America in the early modern period?

A) The enslavement of Native Americans to support the fur trade
B) The dependence of Native Americans on European trade goods
C) The removal of Native Americans in the interior to reservations
D) The monopoly of the fur trade by Russian hunters and trappers

Question 22

Which of the following describes an effect of the silver trade on Spain?

A) It enabled Spanish rulers to pursue military and political ambitions in Europe and the Americas.
B) It created a market-based economy with state-supported agricultural and industrial enterprises.
C) It made the Spanish economy more regionally specialized and highly commercialized.
D) It prompted Spanish authorities to launch a conservation program to preserve the environment.

Question 23

Which describes the role that Europeans played in the economy of the early modern era?

A) They controlled the markets of the East to work to their advantage.
B) They were essentially middlemen funneling American silver to Asia.
C) They established and enforced a new international system of trade.
D) They dominated the global trade in textiles, tea, and porcelain.

Question 24

How did the decision by the Chinese state to require payment of taxes in silver in the 1570s affect the global economy?

A) European states required payment of taxes in silver.
B) It set off a decade-long worldwide recession.
C) It limited the purchasing power of European states.
D) The value of silver around the world skyrocketed.

Question 25

Which of the following characterizes how European countries sought to control trade in Asia from 1450 to 1750?

A) Through economic competition
B) By ending China's tribute system
C) By force of arms and conquest
D) By establishing diplomatic relations

Question 26

Which of the following is true of slavery in the premodern Islamic world?

A) Slaves were exclusively male because women were not enslaved.
B) Some slaves acquired prominent military or political status.
C) All slaves worked in large-scale agricultural enterprises.
D) Slaves were treated as a form of dehumanized property.

Question 27

What commodity was called soft gold in early modern commerce?

A) Furs
B) Spices
C) Silver
D) Textiles

Question 28

Which of the following describes a feature of the North American, but not the Russian, fur trade in the early modern period?

A) The local population suffered from exposure to European epidemic diseases against which they had no immunity.
B) The local population became dependent on European trade goods.
C) Competition between European traders meant that furs were obtained largely through commercial negotiations with the local population.
D) Some animal species were hunted to near extinction.

Question 29

Map 14.4 in the textbook shows that the most common destination(s) in the Americas for West African slaves was(were)

A) British North America and the United States.
B) the Caribbean and Brazil.
C) Mexico.
D) Peru.

Question 30

Which of the following was a consequence of the Atlantic slave trade?

A) The Great Dying
B) The increase in the value of silver
C) The revival of the Silk Roads
D) The African diaspora

Question 31

Which of the following distinguished the Atlantic slave trade in the Americas from past instances of slavery in world history?

A) Children of slaves were considered free.
B) Most slaves were women and children.
C) Most slaves were Slavic-speaking peoples.
D) Slave status was associated with race.

Question 32

Which of the following was established as a Spanish colony in the sixteenth century?

A) Goa
B) Macao
C) Mombasa
D) The Philippines

Question 33

Which of the following was an incentive for the Portuguese to find a direct sea route to Asia?

A) To circumvent the Muslim and Venetian monopolies on the trade in Eastern goods
B) To establish colonies for their growing population and create markets for their goods
C) To continue the Crusades in Asia and Pacific Oceania
D) To establish a base on the eastern end of the Silk Road

Question 34

Which of the following statements is true of the West African slave trade?

A) European merchants secured all their slaves by seizing them in raids deep within the interior of Africa.
B) European merchants waited on board their ships or in fortified port cities to purchase slaves from African merchants and elites.
C) Europeans possessed immunities to the diseases of the region, giving them an advantage in controlling the trade.
D) African rulers universally opposed the slave trade on humanitarian grounds and worked together to suppress it.

Question 35

The emergence of Japan as a major source of silver production in the sixteenth century contributed to

A) wars with Spain for control of the silver trade.
B) a population explosion and ecological crisis.
C) the end of civil war and the unification of Japan.
D) Japan's rise as an empire by the seventeenth century.

Question 36

The number of slaves shipped from Africa to the Americas peaked in the

A) 1500s.
B) 1600s.
C) 1700s.
D) 1800s.

Question 37

Which of the following describes a feature of commerce in the Indian Ocean basin when Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498?

A) Merchants ships were heavily armed.
B) Japan regulated all trade in Asia.
C) The Chinese navy patrolled the sea lanes.
D) Small-scale merchants traded openly.

Question 38

Which of the following developments in the early modern period provided incentives for Europeans to go into the fur trade?

A) The market in textiles
B) The spread of Islam
C) The Middle Passage
D) The Little Ice Age

Question 39

Which of the following describes how the fur trade affected indigenous peoples in North America?

A) It fostered the creation of independent, self-sufficient communities.
B) It facilitated the assimilation of indigenous peoples into British America.
C) It generated warfare among different groups of Native Americans.
D) It enhanced women's social status because they hunted and trapped animals.

Question 40

The origins of the Atlantic slave trade were associated with the

A) expansion of Russia.
B) production of sugar.
C) Little Ice Age.
D) trade in silver.

Question 41

Personal Reflection: "The history of European empire building and trade in the early modern period is essentially the history of exploitation in pursuit of wealth and luxury goods." Is this statement a fair assessment of the period?

Question 42

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
Military rulers of Japan who successfully unified Japan politically by the early seventeenth century and established a closed-door policy toward European encroachments.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 43

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
They were given monopolies on Indian Ocean trade, including the right to make war and to rule conquered peoples.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 44

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
Name given to the spread of African peoples across the Atlantic via the slave trade.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 45

Which of the following describes the experiences of some women in Africa in the early modern era?

A) A few women had access to political power.
B) Most women married multiple husbands.
C) Women controlled the trade in rice and syrup.
D) Some women gained prestige as ritual specialists.

Question 46

How did the slave trade affect African states?

A) Small-scale kinship-based societies merged to form powerful, centralized states.
B) States involved in the slave trade invested their profits in manufacturing industries.
C) The Kingdom of Kongo emerged as the most powerful state in West Africa.
D) Some African states depended on revenues from the slave trade.

Question 47

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
Form of imperial dominance based on control of trade rather than on control of subject peoples.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 48

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
Sold into slavery in West Africa and transported to work on a plantation in Maryland in 1730, this well-educated Muslim (ca. 1700-1773) became a celebrity in England because of his life story. He returned to his home in West Africa in 1734 after philanthropists bought his freedom.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 49

Map 14.1 in the textbook suggests that the European presence in Asia was connected to

A) empire.
B) trade.
C) religion.
D) slavery.

Question 50

Historical Analysis: Which societies benefited the most from the emergence of European trading networks, and in what ways did they benefit? Which regions suffered the most, and in what ways?

Question 51

Which of the following is an example of the effect of the Atlantic slave trade on African societies?

A) Frequent slave revolts created an environment of fear and insecurity.
B) Some European slave catchers assimilated into African society.
C) Judicial proceedings were manipulated to generate victims for the slave trade.
D) The use of male slaves in urban elite households became commonplace.

Question 52

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
West African kingdom that became strong through its rulers' exploitation of the slave trade.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 53

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
An archipelago colonized by Spain in a relatively bloodless process that extended for the century or so after 1565, a process accompanied by a major effort at evangelization.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 54

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
City that developed high in the Andes (in present-day Bolivia) at the site of the world's largest silver mine and that became the largest city in the Americas, with a population of some 160,000 in the 1570s.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 55

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
West African kingdom (in what is now Nigeria) whose strong kings sharply limited engagement with the slave trade.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 56

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
Term often used to describe the siphoning of money from Europe to pay for the luxury products of the East, a process exacerbated by the fact that Europe had few trade goods that were desirable in Eastern markets.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 57

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
Nickname used in the early modern period for animal furs, highly valued for their warmth and as symbols of elite status; in several regions, the fur trade generated massive wealth for those engaged in it.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Question 58

Historical Comparison: What made slavery in the Atlantic world different from that practiced by the First Civilizations?

Question 59

Use the following to answer questions:
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Terms
The massive, interconnected web of commerce in premodern times that included East Africa, India, and Southeast Asia; the network was badly disrupted by Portuguese intrusion beginning around 1500.

A)Indian Ocean commercial network
B)trading post empire
C)Philippines (Spanish)
D)British/Dutch East Indian companies
E)Tokugawa shogunate
F)"silver drain"
G)Potosí
H)soft gold
I)African diaspora
J)Benin
K)Dahomey
L)Ayuba Suleiman Diallo