Deck 37: Africa in the Era of Informal Empire

Question 1

The only permanent European settlements in the southern part of Africa before the 1800s were the Dutch at Cape Town and the

A) Belgians in the Congo.
B) French in Morocco.
C) British in Rhodesia.
D) Portuguese in Angola.
E) British in Mozambique.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The African interior prior to incursions by Europeans in the 1900s was described as

A) a pristine wilderness.
B) a patchwork of kingdoms.
C) uninhabited.
D) the white man's graveyard.
E) filled with monstrous wildlife.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Most Africans taken for the slave trade were from

A) central and eastern Africa.
B) central and southern Africa.
C) western and west-central Africa.
D) eastern and southern Africa.
E) western and eastern Africa.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The African interior was opened to Europeans by expeditions whose original focus had been to

A) explore routes of major rivers.
B) capture slaves for rubber plantations.
C) search for lodes of gold and silver.
D) find the kingdom of Prester John.
E) Christianize the natives.

Question 5

Which of these was not descriptive of the African continent?

A) The mortality rate for visiting Europeans was probably higher than that for slaves being taken to the Americas.
B) Coastal African traders often exaggerated tales of many savages lying in wait for any intruders who might venture away from the coast.
C) Europeans could not take their animals into the interior, because the diseases that killed men also killed horses and mules.
D) Most rivers running toward the coast have now been determined to be fairly easy to navigate, despite the warnings of the original traders.
E) Africa is mostly a plateau continent, but with the equator slicing it in two, it contains generous rain forests.

Question 6

Explain the lengthy absence of European intervention in Africa.

Question 7

Which of these explorers was not associated with Africa?

A) David Livingstone
B) Henry Stanley
C) Meriwether Lewis
D) René Callé
E) Richard Frances Burton

Question 8

One would best describe the European-African interaction in the 1400s and 1500s as

A) mutually rewarding.
B) respectfully undertaken.
C) one-sided, with Africans benefiting most.
D) one-sided, with Europeans benefiting most.
E) one-sided, with Africans deferring to Europeans.

Question 9

The main factor(s) contributing to the harsh slaving raids that took place within Africa was

A) the gold with which Europeans purchased slaves.
B) the firearms the Europeans introduced into the continent.
C) long-running rivalries between African kingdoms.
D) both a and b
E) both b and c

Question 10

The first slaves purchased by Europeans came from the region of

A) the Senegal River.
B) Western Sahara.
C) Equatorial Guinea.
D) the Congo.
E) Zanzibar.

Question 11

One of the most controversial questions concerning modern African history is

A) Dr. Livingstone's role as a Belgian spy.
B) the excursions of Arab slavers into southern Africa.
C) the role of African leaders in partnership with European slavers.
D) the use of Gatling guns during the Boer War.
E) the extent of death from disease experienced by Europeans in Africa.

Question 12

How did European colonization in West Africa differ from that in the North? Compare and contrast the policies of the French, British, and Portuguese, and evaluate the relative success of their applications.

Question 13

Surprisingly, it appears that by the end of the 18^th century, the British had

A) decided to do away with slavery in the British Isles.
B) decided to put most of its colonizing efforts into the Indian subcontinent.
C) developed a conscience about slavery.
D) been convinced by the French that they should get out of the slave business.
E) already stopped the slave trade, Parliament having passed a law against it in the same year that the United States ended the Civil War.

Question 14

The first Europeans to become involved in slavery as a business were the

A) British.
B) Dutch.
C) Portuguese.
D) Spanish.
E) French.

Question 15

During the period known as the Informal Empire in Africa, Europeans

A) settled only the Mediterranean coast.
B) remained only in coastal areas.
C) refused to consider Africa as a colonial interest.
D) fought many wars for control with Arab Muslims.
E) settled only the Cape Town area of South Africa.

Question 16

The country most responsible for convincing other countries to end the slave trade in the early 1800s was

A) Spain.
B) Portugal.
C) the Netherlands.
D) the United States.
E) Britain.

Question 17

Which of these statements would be most accurate concerning African slavery in the Americas?

A) Human beings became property of other human beings during that Atlantic crossing.
B) The Dutch were the first Europeans to engage in slave trading.
C) Most Africans brought to the Americas came from the southwest coast of the continent.
D) Most whites preferred to use Amerindian slaves, but they simply refused to work.
E) The Portuguese founded the Royal African Company in 1672, but the British soon seized the initiative, buying and selling twice as many slaves as the their Iberian neighbors.

Question 18

Analyze the African slave trade. Describe its extent, evaluate its implementation, and assess its repercussions.

Question 19

How profoundly did European imperialism impact African society? Give specific examples to support your statements.

Question 20

It would be most accurate to say of early European trading centers in Africa that

A) Europeans usually made more profit from the trading than did the African leaders.
B) the factories, as they were called, existed on all of Africa's coastlines.
C) there were no factories in the interior of the African continent.
D) white traders often accompanied the African leaders back to their homes in the interior to gather more goods.
E) most of the items Europeans purchased from Africans could have been bought elsewhere, but they were much cheaper in Africa.

Question 21

Britain came to South Africa in 1815, having been ceded the territory as part of the ____________________ ____________________.

Question 22

By the time the slave trade in Africa died down, outsiders had exported all of the following from the continent except

A) gold.
B) slaves.
C) palm oil
D) ivory and skins
E) coal

Question 23

The Boers were

A) an important tribe in Zaire.
B) Dutch settlers in southern Africa.
C) rulers of a great kingdom centered in Zimbabwe.
D) dull, boring people.
E) farmers from the Netherlands who settled Rhodesia.

Question 24

The French had most of their colonial holdings in

A) East Africa, including Sudan.
B) the West Coast of Africa, including Liberia.
C) the northern part of Africa, including Algeria.
D) the southern part of Africa, including Zimbabwe.
E) the central part of Africa, including the Congo.

Question 25

The coastal cities of East Africa in the 19^th century

A) already had centuries of trading history at the time they were put under Omani rule.
B) were already part of Christian culture.
C) had never before experienced foreign contacts.
D) were enclaves of Arab colonists.
E) exported no slaves.

Question 26

The first in a series of jihads in Africa that ended with a Muslim caliphate being established began over

A) an accusation that new converts to Islam had returned to old tribal worship.
B) a charge of infidelity against a local leader.
C) control of the supply of fresh water in Hausaland.
D) unsubstantiated charges that Muslims had been stealing African women.
E) the illegal collection of taxes by the Muslims.

Question 27

The jihad of Abd al-Qadir

A) began in the 1840s and lasted until the death of al-Qadir in 1853.
B) successfully defended Algeria against the French for about fifty years.
C) ended almost as quickly as it began, with terrible losses for the African Muslims.
D) in many ways hinted at the Algerian war for independence a century later.
E) was actually a thinly-disguised attempt by al-Qadir to seize political control of Algeria.

Question 28

Only the ____________________ , ____________________, and ____________________ rivers in Africa are navigable very far inland, and those only at certain times.

Question 29

The Great Trek took place when

A) British soldiers moved to the interior of Africa to meet Zulu warriors.
B) Zulus and Belgians clashed in Central Africa.
C) Dutch settlers moved northward in South Africa to escape domination by the British.
D) the Dutch moved northward through South Africa searching for gold.
E) the British moved into Dutch territory to seize gold holdings there.

Question 30

In Algeria, the French subordinated the native ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 31

In his letter to the King of Portugal, Kongo King Affonso I blamed rising instability in his kingdom on

A) slave traders.
B) the Boers.
C) the Portuguese-sponsored war against him.
D) an Islamic jihad.
E) the actions of Christian missionaries.

Question 32

The plantation economy of East Africa was originally based on the cultivation of

A) cloves.
B) sugarcane.
C) elephants for ivory.
D) opium.
E) grain.

Question 33

Which of the following was not true of the Swahili peoples of east Africa?

A) Those who lived in urban areas usually converted to Islam.
B) The main reason for their city-states was commercial
C) The Swahili traded up and down Africa's east coast as well as far into the interior.
D) Slave trading was never a large part of the Swahili trade network.
E) Many Swahili who lived in remote areas never converted to the Islamic faith.

Question 34

Under the Zanzibar Sultanate, Sayyid Sáid and his successors took control of

A) the Bantus.
B) the Transvaal.
C) Great Zimbabwe.
D) the Swahili coast of East Africa.
E) Tanzania.

Question 35

The perception that Africa had little to offer the world except slaves changed dramatically when ____________________ were discovered at Kimberly.

Question 36

Islam in western Africa established itself

A) in coexistence with pagan rites.
B) by legally persecuting animists.
C) by wars of conquest.
D) by imperial decree.
E) as the only accepted religion.

Question 37

In the ____________________ ____________________, Boers marched from the Cape to settle in the interior of southern Africa.

Question 38

The most technologically and economically advanced of the native tribes that inhabited southern Africa appears to have been the

A) Khoikhoi.
B) Bantu.
C) Khoisan.
D) Zulu.
E) Xhosa.

Question 39

Political and religious unrest in the area around the Niger and Senegal rivers included all of the following people except

A) Arab Muslims.
B) the French.
C) the governor of Senegal.
D) Stanley and Livingstone.
E) al-Hajj Umar Tal.

Question 40

The ____________________ were the first Europeans to become involved in the slave trade.

Question 41

Using threats of piracy as an excuse, the French invaded the African states of ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 42

By the late 1800s, the French and the British had carved ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ in West Africa.

Question 43

Not only did the Dutch enslave local peoples after they settled in South Africa, but they also imported slaves from ____________________ and ____________________.

Question 44

Boer is the Dutch word for ____________________.