Quiz: Chapter 1

1. The first European explorers reached the region that would become Americas

• a. more than 300 years ago.
• b. about 400 years ago.
• c. more than 500 years ago.
• d. at least 600 years ago.
• e. more than 600 years ago.

2. What proof has led researchers to conclude that the earth once contained a single continent?

• a. There are identical species of fish in freshwater lakes across the globe.
• b. There are similar types of mountain ranges around the world.
• c. All the areas that are now separate regions were similarly impacted by the glaciers 10 million years ago.
• d. Ethnic groups in one part of the world can trace their ancestry to people in completely different countries.
• e. There are similar forms of vegetation in many nations.

3. What is the dominant theory about how the first people arrived in what we now call North America?

• a. Native peoples long existed here.
• b. They traveled in rafts and simple boats.
• c. They walked as far as they could, then sailed or swam the rest of the way.
• d. They walked across a land bridge from Eurasia to North America.
• e. The first North Americans were Vikings who stayed.

4. The Incans (Peru), Mayans (Central America), and Aztecs (Mexico) owe the development of these sophisticated early civilizations to

• a. the blessing of their many gods.
• b. agriculture, particularly the cultivation of corn and maize.
• c. early mathematics and mathematicians.
• d. advanced early architecture.
• e. political systems based on nation-states.

5. What was three-sister farming?

• a. Small women-run farms that were common in some Native American cultures.
• b. An agricultural method in which corn, beans, and squash were grown together.
• c. An effort originating in the southwest in 200 CE to develop crops that would yield a more nutritious diet.
• d. The Iroquois inheritance system in which property and possessions passed from one generation to the next through the matrilineal (or mother's) line.
• e. The Iroquois inheritance system in which property and possessions passed from one generation to the next through the matrilineal (or mother's) line.

6. Native Americans did not make a major imprint on the land they used for all of the following reasons EXCEPT they

• a. feared changing it would impact their survival.
• b. lacked the means to dramatically manipulate the land.
• c. were spread in small groups across the continent.
• d. revered nature and endowed it with spiritual properties.
• e. had no desire to alter the landscape.

7. Which of the following did NOT drive the Europeans' exploration that led to the "discovery" of the New World?

• a. the desire to expand their empires and power.
• b. the quest for a cheaper route to the East.
• c. the desire to spread Christianity.
• d. finding an alternate trade source for spices, sugar, and other expensive Eastern goods.
• e. population surges and land shortages.

8. The plantation system was first developed by

• a. Portuguese explorers in West Africa.
• b. Spanish conquistadors in the American southern colonies.
• c. various tribal societies in Africa.
• d. Spanish conquistadors in the Chesapeake colonies.
• e. Native Americans.

9. All of the following events in the fifteenth century set the stage for the dramatic and unexpected discovery of the New World EXCEPT

• a. increasingly successful long-distance voyages by explorers.
• b. Spain's rising prominence, wealth, and power.
• c. competition between European nations to colonize new land.
• d. wars between rival European countries.
• e. greater use of the compass.

10. What was the Columbian Exchange?

• a. Columbus's agreement with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
• b. The diseases the Europeans brought to the Americas.
• c. A trade network Columbus established with Native Americans.
• d. The development of sugar plantations in the Caribbean for the European market.
• e. The transfer of plants, animals, culture, and diseases that occurred after Columbus's voyage.

11. In the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain did what?

• a. declared all New World territories as its own.
• b. banned conquered Muslims from returning to its territories.
• c. divided up the so-called New World with Portugal.
• d. agreed not to enter the slave trade.
• e. granted Portugal control of West African silver mines.

12. Some scholars see the origins of modern capitalism in New World discoveries of precious metals for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that

• a. they decreased the cost of consumer goods dramatically.
• b. they stimulated surplus money supplies.
• c. they laid the foundation for the development of the banking system.
• d. they stimulated the spread of commerce and manufacturing.
• e. they financed much of the international trade with Asia.

13. Spanish conquistadores, traveling to the New World, hoped to gain all of the following EXCEPT

• a. noble or royal titles.
• b. God's favor.
• c. Gold.
• d. a fresh start.
• e. the chance to organize an army.

14. Which of the following men was NOT an explorer for Spain?

• a. Francisco Pizzaro.
• b. Hernan Cortes.
• c. Giovanni Caboto.
• d. Juan Ponce de Leon.
• e. Francisco Coronado.

15. How did the end of the Ice Age affect the peopling of the Americas?

• a. It allowed settlers to explore new waterways.
• b. It created new opportunities for African migration.
• c. It allowed settlers to roam east and south, reaching all points of the continent.
• d. It prevented future mass migration to the Western Hemisphere.
• e. It opened the land bridge from Eurasia to the Americas.

16. The Spanish empire in America imported Old World culture and ideas by doing all of the following EXCEPT

• a. building universities.
• b. using the printing press to publish written work.
• c. erecting cathedrals and Christianizing Native Americans.
• d. fusing Spanish and native cultures through marriage.
• e. shunning and isolating the Native Americans.