EXPERIENCE HISTORY INTERPRETING AMERICAS PAST 8Th Ed By JAMES - Test Bank

Chapter 02

Old Worlds, New Worlds 1400-1600

Multiple Choice Questions
 

1. (p. 28) Changes in European society that caused the expansion of European peoples into the New World after 1450 included 
A. technological advances in seafaring and weaponry.
B. a deflationary spiral that dried up sources of capital.
C. political decentralization with a democratic philosophy.
D. the rise of women.

2. (p. 33) The Mundus Novus was named after ________ by a German mapmaker. 
A. Vespucci
B. Columbus
C. da Gama
D. de Len

3. (p. 33) Columbus succeeded in reaching the Americas because 
A. he was one of the few Europeans who believed the world was round.
B. he grossly underestimated the distance from Europe to the Indies.
C. he convinced the Spanish monarchs to underwrite a fleet of the largest vessels of that day.
D. the Spanish reconquista had failed, and Spain needed a different enterprise.

4. (p. 28, 32, 40) By approximately 1625 (a little more than a century after Columbus's discovery), all of the following were true EXCEPT that 
A. the Spanish empire stretched from Mexico south to near the tip of South America.
B. the English had begun efforts to establish a permanent colony in North America.
C. the Portuguese were sailing directly to China around the south tip of Africa.
D. an international fishing community congregated annually off the Newfoundland coast.

5. (p. 33) Columbus mistakenly labeled the Taino people "Indians," believing that 
A. the natives of the Americas originally came from India rather than Siberia.
B. he had reached the East Indies.
C. he had reached the West Indies.
D. he had reached India.

6. (p. 33) To the continents of the Western Hemisphere, Europeans gave the name America, from a 
A. Latinized form of one of Columbus's given names.
B. Spanish honorary title given Columbus.
C. Florentine geographer's Latinized first name.
D. version of the name of a Mesoamerican tribe.

7. (p. 37) All of the following explain why Spain conquered the Americas so rapidly, EXCEPT 
A. the weakening of native peoples by exposure to European infections.
B. the persistent Indian belief that the Spanish were "gods."
C. political disunity within American native empires.
D. Spanish technological superiority in the form of ships and guns.

8. (p. 33-37) What accounted most lastingly for the early and rapid success of the conquistadors against Native Americans? 
A. the military technology of the Spanish
B. the infectious diseases brought by the Spanish
C. the rigid political centralization of the Aztecs, which meant that to capture the emperor was to conquer the empire
D. the bloody religious system of the Aztecs, which meant that the Spanish stress on Christian virtue won converts among Indian peasants

9. (p. 37) The economic and social system of the Spanish empire rested on 
A. religion.
B. spices.
C. weaponry.
D. slavery.