Deck 4: Around the Pacific Rim: Eastern Eurasia and the Americas, 5000-600 Bce

Question 1

Life in ancient Southeast Asian villages could best be characterized as what?

A) Healthy and peaceful
B) Nasty, brutish, and short
C) Frequently on the verge of war

Answer 1

Healthy and peaceful

Question 2

Which of the following best describes Austronesian trade networks by 1000 BCE?

A) Small but powerful, controlling all trade around Taiwan
B) Formidable, covering about 2500 miles its main port in the Pacific
C) Vast, stretching over 5000 miles

Answer 2

Vast, stretching over 5000 miles

Question 3

The Shang demonstrated considerable skill working with which of the following metals introduced in 1400 BCE?

A) Iron
B) Copper
C) Bronze

Answer 3

Bronze

Question 4

Which of the following best describes the construction of Anyang?

A) It took 18 years and some 10,000 workers to construct.
B) It took hundreds of years of incremental growth to become the capital.
C) It sprang up seemingly overnight thanks to the discovery of gold.

Question 5

According the Mandate of Heaven, which of the following circumstances could lead to the withdrawal of support for a ruler by the gods?

A) Famine
B) Political assassinations
C) Abuse of power

Question 6

Between which of the following date ranges did the Xia dynasty exist?

A) 3000-2200 BCE
B) 2600-2184 BCE
C) 2183-1752 BCE

Question 7

The Lapita culture that emerged in the Pacific did not have roots in which of the following?

A) Micronesian peoples
B) Melanesian peoples
C) Austronesians peoples

Question 8

The islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, and Kyushu constitute 90 percent of the landmass of what?

A) Korea
B) Guinea
C) Japan

Question 9

Which of the following is true of the Zhou dynasty?

A) They ruled over a much smaller geographic area than their predecessors.
B) They ruled over all of China whereas their predecessors only controlled Manchuria.
C) They ruled over a much larger geographic area than their predecessors.

Question 10

Austronesians spread their culture throughout the Pacific thanks in part to what technology?

A) Long-distance oceangoing vessels
B) Swift-moving chariots
C) The Silk Road

Question 11

Which of the following is true of women in Shang society?

A) No woman could wield a modicum of power.
B) Only women in the lower classes enjoyed any freedom.
C) A few aristocratic women enjoyed power that accompanied high status.

Question 12

Leaders in the Shang dynasty passed on power according to which descent system?

A) Unilineal
B) Matrilineal
C) Patrilineal

Question 13

In Southeast Asia, bronze works emanated from where?

A) Cities
B) Armies
C) Villages

Question 14

Austronesians arrived in Southeast Asia over the course of several millennia from which island?

A) Japan
B) Taiwan
C) Java

Question 15

Approximately what year did the Shang dynasty begin?

A) 2183 BCE
B) 1752 BCE
C) 1122 BCE

Question 16

The advent of agriculture in Southeast Asia led to what?

A) Rapid population growth
B) Intercontinental migration
C) Lower life expectancies

Question 17

Built around 2000 BCE, the city of Erlitou may have been the capital for which?

A) The Xia dynasty
B) The Longshan people
C) The Yangshao people

Question 18

The majority of modern Japanese people can trace their roots to which of the following peoples?

A) Korean
B) Ainu
C) Siberian

Question 19

What solution did the Chinese arrive at to counter the thousands of spoken dialects among their people?

A) A state-published dictionary designated for each dialect
B) A written language based on a single set of characters
C) A ban on oral communication for all political discourse

Question 20

Though there is some disagreement about when agriculture took root in Southeast Asia, the cultivation of rice proved central by what year?

A) 9000 BCE
B) 6000 BCE
C) 3000 BCE

Question 21

Which of the following developed the first hieroglyphic writing system in the Americas?

A) The Maya
B) The Olmec
C) The Chavín

Question 22

Prior to European contact, the absence of what exposed peoples in the Western Hemisphere to fewer infectious diseases?

A) Microbes
B) Draft animals
C) Insects

Question 23

How did Shang dynasty estates maintain profitability?

Question 24

Which of the following enabled the fostering and maintenance of a common Chinese identity during the first millennium BCE?

A) A standardized written language
B) A single dialect
C) A shared lineage traced to a single village

Question 25

What evidence exists to support the claim that a thriving trade existed in early China?

Question 26

The Bering land bridge that the ancestors of Native Americans crossed connected what two locations?

A) Siberia and Alaska
B) Taiwan and Mexico
C) The Netherlands and Newfoundland

Question 27

How did climate affect Chinese agriculture?

Question 28

Archaeological evidence strongly suggests that modern Native Americans can trace their lineage to which of the following groups?

A) Europeans who crossed the Atlantic
B) Melanesians who crossed the Pacific
C) Asians who crossed the Bering Strait

Question 29

Archaeological evidence of the Yangshao peoples suggests which of the following?

A) A majority lived into their 80s.
B) A majority did not live past 40.
C) A majority did not live past 15.

Question 30

How did Yellow and Wei Rivers present obstacles to early communities in ancient China?

Question 31

How did the Yellow and Wei Rivers make human communities possible in ancient China?

Question 32

Which of the following caused the majority of deaths of Native Americans following European contact?

A) Disease
B) Warfare
C) Starvation

Question 33

Which of the following groups relied on and cultivated maize, beans, and squash?

A) Peruvian coastal peoples
B) Andean peoples
C) Mesoamericans

Question 34

How did the Shang dynasty govern its empire?

Question 35

The Huaca Prieta in northern Peru is an example of what?

A) A stone temple
B) An earthen mound
C) A thatched home

Question 36

Which of the following best describes the basic farming patterns of the ancient Americas?

A) Marked by wide diversity, each major region grew items best suited to their respective climates.
B) Largely identical due to very similar climates.
C) Ancient Americans only subsisted on foods acquired via hunting and gathering.

Question 37

The ancestors of Native Americans most likely arrived on the North American continent approximately when?

A) 29,000-26,000 years ago
B) 13,000-14,000 years ago
C) About 500 years ago

Question 38

Why was bronzeworking so important for the Shang?

Question 39

What sources for very early Chinese history exist?

Question 40

The oldest ceremonial temple complex in North America dates to approximately when?

A) 1600 BCE
B) 2500 BCE
C) 500 CE

Question 41

Describe key aspects of Shang religion.

Question 42

How did migrations across the Pacific affect plants and animal populations on those islands?

Question 43

How was early Japan linked to China?

Question 44

Describe the Mandate of Heaven.

Question 45

Describe the diet of early American societies.

Question 46

How did the climate influence the diet of early Mesoamerican societies?

Question 47

What technologies enabled communication between Pacific Islanders and Polynesians?

Question 48

What evidence exists to support the claim that Poverty Point was an important part of a vast ancient American trade network?

Question 49

How was early Korea linked to China?

Question 50

Describe the suspected origins of early American peoples.

Question 51

What problems arose due to the much larger territorial extent of the Zhou empire?

Question 52

Describe the living conditions of early American societies.

Question 53

How did the demand for high-quality bronzework affect societies in East Asia?

Question 54

In what year did agriculture in China begin?

A) ca. 7000 BCE
B) ca. 2200 BCE
C) ca. 1750 BCE

Question 55

Describe the origins of Pacific islanders and Polynesians.

Question 56

How was early Vietnam linked to China?

Question 57

What effect did Zhou decentralization have?

Question 58

Describe the significance of earthen mounds to early American societies.

Question 59

What evidence exists to support the claim that Pacific Islanders and Polynesians traded regularly?

Question 60

Which of the following best describes the advent of agriculture in China?

A) It began about 1000 years later than in Mesopotamia.
B) It began at about the same time as in Mesopotamia.
C) It began about 1000 years earlier than in Mesopotamia.

Question 61

What functions did cities serve in Mesoamerica and what proof exists for these claims?

Question 62

How were cities built by early Andean societies similar to or different from Mesoamerican cities?

Question 63

Describe trade patterns of early Pacific Islander societies.

Question 64

How did the Zhou empire differ from the Shang empire?

Question 65

Why is the rice/wheat line significant in Chinese history?

Question 66

What role did migration play in early Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese societies?

Question 67

Why do we think Shang rulers were so interested in knowing the future?

Question 68

During what years did the Longshan culture flourish?

A) 7000-5000 BCE
B) 5000-3000 BCE
C) 3000-2200 BCE

Question 69

How did the Xia successfully consolidate their empire?

Question 70

How did cities act as sites of religion transmission in the early Andean world?

Question 71

What evidence exists to support the claim that Mesoamericans traded extensively with one another?

Question 72

Why is the existence of Poverty Point so significant for our understanding of early American history?

Question 73

How did concepts of Yin and Yang influence Shang religion, society, and politics?

Question 74

Describe the similarities and differences between early American societies.

Question 75

The Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, and vast deserts are geographical features which impacted contact between the Chinese and other South and West Asian peoples in which of the following ways?

A) They all served to easily link peoples across the continent.
B) They all hindered contact between peoples across the continent.
C) They all proved easy to navigate and therefore promoted contact between peoples across the continent.

Question 76

How did control over the food supply affect the structure of the Shang empire?

Question 77

Describe settlement patterns of Pacific Islander societies.

Question 78

During what years did the Yangshao culture flourish?

A) 7000-5000 BCE
B) 5000-3000 BCE
C) 3000-2200 BCE

Question 79

Describe the similarities and differences between Monte Verde and Clovis sites.

Question 80

What factors led to the formation of cities in early Korea, Vietnam, and Japan?