Deck 18: The Atlantic System and Africa, 1550-1800

Question 1

Most slaves died of disease, the most common of which was

A) malaria
B) dysentery
C) plague
D) yellow
E) influenza

Answer 1

dysentery

Question 2

Although tobacco was a New World plant long used by Amerindians,

A) Europeans attempted to outlaw its use in America.
B) it was Europeans who began growing the crop on large plantations.
C) European diseases made the plant extinct.
D) it never became popular in Europe because of its unhealthy effects.
E) it was originally from Turkey.

Answer 2

it was Europeans who began growing the crop on large plantations.

Question 3

Men outnumbered women on Caribbean plantations because

A) twice as many men were imported.
B) men lived much longer than women.
C) women were not as strong as men.
D) women were more susceptible to disease than men.
E) women refused to consent to plantation work.

Answer 3

twice as many men were imported.

Question 4

How did France and England expand their Caribbean holdings?

A) making alliances with the indigenous tribes of the West Indies.
B) By using the Atlantic Coast of North America as a base and launching coordinated stealth attacks.
C) By attacking older Spanish colonies.
D) By defeating the Portuguese.
E) Bankrupting the Dutch West Indies Company and taking over their properties.

Question 5

"Drivers" were typically

A) white indentured servants.
B) white overseers.
C) free black overseers.
D) privileged male slaves.
E) ship captains.

Question 6

Plantation slaves were motivated to work hard to avoid which of the following:

A) floggings
B) confinement in irons
C) mutilation
D) whippings
E) all of the above

Question 7

Sugar plantations in the Caribbean caused environmental damage through soil exhaustion and deforestation as well as

A) the disposal of used canes.
B) introduction of non-native plants and animals.
C) supplying power for the mills.
D) overfertilizing the fields.
E) silting up of bays and estuaries.

Question 8

Which of the following does not describe the Dutch West India Company?

A) It was a private trading company.
B) It seized sugar-producing areas in Brazil.
C) It shipped slaves to Brazil.
D) It paid stockholders huge dividends.
E) All of the above.

Question 9

The expansion of sugar plantations in the West Indies required

A) a sharp increase in the African slave trade.
B) an increase in arable land.
C) new fertilizers and seeds.
D) the creation of new markets among the Amerindians.
E) government consultants to oversee farming.

Question 10

The French plantation economies were considered "more diverse" because they also produced

A) coffee and cacao
B) bananas and plantains
C) molasses and rum.
D) wine and cheese.
E) jute and twine.

Question 11

Which area best illustrates the dramatic transformation that sugar brought to the 17th century Caribbean?

A) Martinique
B) The Bahamas
C) Cuba
D) Jamaica
E) Barbados

Question 12

Which was NOT a method used to curtail African cultural traditions by European planters?

A) Learning colonial languages.
B) Converting to Christianity
C) Mixing slaves from different parts of Africa.
D) Mandatory primary education.
E) All of these.

Question 13

In the eighteenth century, West Indian plantations were controlled by a plantocracy,

A) a group of people concerned about the environment.
B) a small number of rich men who owned most of the land and slaves.
C) a group of botanists who encouraged the growth of new and exotic plants.
D) a religious sect of Protestantism.
E) none of these

Question 14

Where would slave children most likely be found working?

A) In the cane processing factories.
B) tending to livestock.
C) in "grass gangs" doing simple, lighter work.
D) With their parents.
E) Children were exempt from labor.

Question 15

In addition to being half as expensive as slaves, indentured servants only served three to four years while slaves, after their arrival, lived an average of

A) 3 years.
B) 7 years.
C) 11 years.
D) 15 years.
E) 25 years.

Question 16

Manumission permitted slaves to

A) sell their surplus produce or goods from their own work.
B) have time off during certain religious holidays.
C) purchase or receive their freedom from slavery.
D) marry and not have families separated.
E) switch job practices on the plantation.

Question 17

Chartered companies were

A) private investors with trade monopolies who paid annual fees to France and England in colonies.
B) maritime manufacturers of maps and charts.
C) companies of missionaries and religious societies.
D) groups of Amerindian investors who pooled money and resources.
E) illegal in most European countries.

Question 18

In the seventeenth-century Caribbean, indentured servants cost __________as slaves for cash-short tobacco producers.

A) twice as much
B) three times as much
C) half as much
D) approximately the same
E) four times as much

Question 19

Life expectancy for nineteenth-century Brazilian male slaves was

A) 10 years.
B) 23 years.
C) 39 years.
D) 50 years.
E) 65 years.

Question 20

On most islands, the percentage of slaves in the population was

A) 35 percent.
B) 55 percent.
C) 75 percent.
D) 90 percent.
E) 20 percent.

Question 21

The maroon community that first signed treaties recognizing their independent status as runaway slaves was

A) Jamaican.
B) Guianese
C) Haitian
D) Dominican
E) Belize.

Question 22

Generally, the Atlantic African slave trade was based on a partnership between

A) European opportunists and Arab merchants.
B) Asian and European elites.
C) European and African elites.
D) Islamic and African elites.
E) Arab merchants and African elites.

Question 23

During the "sugar boom" from 1650 to 1800,_________ slaves were transported.

A) 800,000
B) 5.5 million
C) 7.5 million
D) 10 million
E )1.6 million

Question 24

Africans who provided slaves to Europeans received what in return?

A) beads
B) rum
C) guns
D) textiles
E) all of the above

Question 25

In the eighteenth century, what was the major source of slaves in the interior of the Bight of Biafra?

A) Kidnapped people
B) Inland slave markets
C) Prisoners of war
D) Criminals
E) All of these

Question 26

Although the organization of the Atlantic slave trade varied from African region to region, it expanded and prospered because of

A) European merchants
B) African elite
C) African tribal warfare
D) European economic incentives
E) all of the above

Question 27

While the British system of mercantilism was defined by the Navigation Acts, the French system used laws known as:

A) les Tariffs
B) qu'elle domage
C) Exclusif
D) cose nostra
E) Entrepôt

Question 28

The second leg of the Atlantic Circuit, transporting slaves across the Atlantic to plantation colonies, was known as:

A) the Middle Passage
B) the Deadly Voyage
C) Impressment
D) Involuntary Servitude
E) Chains of Sorrow

Question 29

The "clockwise" network of trade in the Atlantic was known as the

A) Continental Trade Route.
B) Reverse Option Market.
C) Robinson Route.
D) European Circuit.
E) Atlantic Circuit.

Question 30

Most slaves taken from Africa were

A) kidnapped.
B) prisoners of war.
C) criminals.
D) political opponents.
E) Muslims.

Question 31

Mercantilism is

A) the recognition by the state that all individuals have economic rights.
B) the belief in a completely free-market economy.
C) a government policy that protects trade in return for the accumulation of gold and silver.
D) the political doctrine that only people who produce economic wealth may vote.
E) another name for capitalism.

Question 32

The English Navigation Acts in the 1660s were meant to

A) confine trade within its colonies to English ships and cargoes.
B) restrict the English shipping industry.
C) put a tariff on English goods.
D) restrict the English slave trade.
E) encourage free trade.

Question 33

The African state most dependent on the slave trade was

A) Oyo.
B) Dahomey.
C) Asante.
D) Elmina.
E) Kush.

Question 34

Among the planter elite in Saint Domingue, where would free blacks rank in the social hierarchy?

A) First.
B) Second, after the grands blancs
C) Third, after the petits blancs
D) Third, after free whites
E) Last; blacks were not accorded free status in Saint Domingue

Question 35

The majority of African slaves in the Islamic world were:

A) artisans
B) worked on sugar plantations
C) children
D) women for concubines and servants
E) translators.

Question 36

Though many Muslim rulers did not strictly enforce it, Islamic law prohibited the enslavement of

A) pagans.
B) Christians.
C) women.
D) Muslims.
E) anyone.

Question 37

To reduce the risks of overseas trading, companies

A) built larger ships.
B) bought insurance.
C) created the capitalist system.
D) conducted most of their commerce by land.
E) attacked one another's ships.

Question 38

During the first 150 years after the European discovery of the Americas, how many Africans were transported in the Atlantic slave trade?

A) 200,000
B) 800,000
C) 1.6 million
D) 5.2 million
E) 6.9 million

Question 39

Most slaves in the Islamic world were

A) agricultural workers.
B) part of the Atlantic Circuit.
C) soldiers and servants.
D) translators.
E) galley slaves.

Question 40

Which of the following resulted in the high mortality rate aboard Atlantic slave ships?

A) Abuse
B) Execution
C) Disease
D) Suicide
E) all of the above

Question 41

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
plantocracy

Question 42

Both Muslims and Europeans obtained slaves from sub-Saharan Africa, but

A) the Islamic trade, though substantial, was smaller.
B) the European trade was much smaller.
C) both slave trades ended soon after they began.
D) Africans refused to deal with Muslim traders.
E) Africans refused to deal with European traders.

Question 43

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
manumission

Question 44

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Bornu

Question 45

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Atlantic system

Question 46

Which of the following is not true of population loss in Africa as a result of the slave trade?

A) Areas near the Slave Coast lost a disproportionate number of people.
B) Population loss was uniform across all areas of west Africa.
C) Even at the peak of the trade, the population of Africa remained large.
D) New foods from the Americas helped to offset population losses due to the slave trade.
E) Population loss was reduced by the fact that more men than women were traded into slavery.

Question 47

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Royal African Company

Question 48

Which of the following is true regarding the Atlantic slave trade?

A) Africans gained far more wealth than Europeans.
B) Europeans gained far more wealth than Africans.
C) Europeans gained only slightly more wealth than Africans.
D) Europeans and Africans gained nearly the same amount of wealth.
E) Africans benefited from their inclusion in the world trade system but were harmed by European diseases.

Question 49

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
mercantilism

Question 50

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Dutch West India Company

Question 51

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Atlantic Circuit

Question 52

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Hausa

Question 53

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
maroon

Question 54

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Royal African Company

Question 55

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Songhai

Question 56

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
capitalism

Question 57

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
seasoning

Question 58

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
driver

Question 59

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
chartered company

Question 60

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Middle Passage

Question 61

What were the long-term effects of the Navigation Acts?

Question 62

Sugar cane was first grown in the West Indies by Spanish colonists shortly after 1500, but after 1600 the crop switched. Why?

Question 63

How did the Saharan slave trade differ from the Atlantic slave trade?

Question 64

One of the main sources of conflict between the Portuguese and the Dutch regarding Brazil was about what?

Question 65

Refer to Map 18.1 and discuss the different commodities traded. How did the rise of an Atlantic trading network lay the foundation for European wealth? How did the trade in these goods give Europe access to Asian markets?

Question 66

Give a detailed description of the Atlantic Circuit.

Question 67

What were the effects of the Middle Passage on both slave traders and slaves?

Question 68

Describe the lives of free people in West Indian society in the eighteenth century.

Question 69

Describe the similarities and differences of the slave trade with regard to Christianity and Islam.

Question 70

What was the life of a slave like on a West Indian sugar plantation in the eighteenth century? Include details from slaves' work lives, as well as from their family and social lives.

Question 71

Compare and contrast the European mercantilist and capitalist systems.

Question 72

One of the primary environmental effects of plantations in the Caribbean was deforestation, which led to what?

Question 73

Refer to Map 18.2 and trace the slave trade from north and east Africa to the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean. What differences are noteworthy between this slave trade network and that of the Atlantic Ocean?

Question 74

Refer to Map 18.2 and identify the regions that slaves were sold to. Why did the West Indies and Brazil require most of the slave trade?

Question 75

Discuss the role played by African traders and political leaders in the Atlantic slave trade. What steps did Africans take to control the trade with Europeans and how successful were they? How did the slave trade differ across different regions of Africa?

Question 76

Refer to Map 18.1 and explain how the Atlantic Circuit worked. What were the different parts of this trade network?

Question 77

Refer to Map 18.2 and identify the African regions that were most affected by the slave trade. How were these regions affected? How did they recover from this depletion of population?

Question 78

Refer to Map 18.1 and explain the slave trade in nontraditional regions such as Angola and the use of slaves along the Pacific territories.

Question 79

Instructions: Identify the following term(s).
Bight of Biafra

Question 80

What were the various aspects of the new Atlantic economy? Explain how each aspect was necessary for the economy's success.