Deck 11: Contending with Isolation: ca. 1000–1200

Question 1

In The Tale of Genji,a world is depicted in which the supreme values are

A) military valor and bravery.
B) wealth and luxury.
C) snobbery and sensitivity.
D) learning in Confucian philosophy.

Answer 1

snobbery and sensitivity.

Question 2

What three reasons did the Norsemen give for going to Greenland?

A) gain, conquest, and the spread of Christianity
B) conquest, fame, and gain
C) the spread of Christianity, gain, and fame
D) fame, curiosity, and gain

Answer 2

fame, curiosity, and gain

Question 3

The Eurasian people who were most involved in trade in East Africa during the twelfth century were

A) Arabs.
B) Europeans.
C) Chinese.
D) Indians.

Answer 3

Arabs.

Question 4

In his famous sermon in 1095,Pope Urban II saw Christian Europe as

A) only a small part of Europe itself and of the world.
B) comprising Europe, which he thought took up much of the world.
C) a military and economic powerhouse that had always been on the rise.
D) evenly divided between Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Question 5

In eleventh century India it is particularly remarkable that

A) the Brahman caste had fallen from its place as the political elite.
B) the warrior caste was successful in expanding its power through the prosecution of a series of wars that created a large, stable empire.
C) the merchant caste presented themselves as warriors.
D) the peasant caste gained new political and social rights.

Question 6

Why were emperors in Japan largely pushed out of having political power?

A) They were preoccupied with religious duties.
B) They were militarily weak.
C) They were never interested in political power.
D) They relied on others to handle this while they focused on hunting and feasting.

Question 7

The population of Cahokia at its height in 1200 C.E.was approximately

A) 5,000 persons.
B) 10,000 persons.
C) 15,000 persons.
D) 20,000 persons.

Question 8

How did powerful families like the Fujiwara legitimate their power at court?

A) by gaining more wealth than others
B) by marrying their daughters into the imperial family
C) through military victories over enemies like the Taira
D) through the support of the Buddhist monks

Question 9

The Holy Roman Empire was

A) holy in the sense of being an integrated part of the Roman church.
B) Roman in that its capital was in Rome.
C) an empire because of the strong, central authority of the emperor himself.
D) a German state.

Question 10

What environmental event occurred around 1000 C.E.that made possible a migration of the Thule Inuit across the Arctic region?

A) The weather became colder and created more ice floes that could be used by the migrants.
B) A cooling trend created better conditions for the whales and polar bears upon which the Thule Inuit depended.
C) A warming trend made conditions easier for hunting and navigating.
D) A warming trend opened new lands for farming that the Thule Inuit exploited.

Question 11

In the region dominated by the Mixtec culture,civilization was characterized by

A) large, densely inhabited cities and elite craftsmen.
B) elite craftsmen, but a lack of any community life.
C) large cities, but a lack of literacy.
D) small communities with a literate class.

Question 12

Ethiopian kings used an ideology of holy war to spread which religion throughout their growing kingdom?

A) Christianity
B) Islam
C) Buddhism
D) Hinduism

Question 13

The Minamoto clan established themselves as shoguns after a series of civil wars in

A) 1066 C.E.
B) 1122 C.E.
C) 1185 C.E.
D) 1200 C.E.

Question 14

How did the rulers of the Canyon peoples deal with the environmental challenges that their region presented?

A) by peacefully incorporating neighboring peoples into their system
B) by giving their people a high level of participation in the running of the community
C) by adopting harsh military methods
D) by developing a remarkable level of exchange with the Mississippian cultures to the east

Question 15

Which of the following geographical elements did NOT separate Western Europeans from the rest of the world?

A) the Sahara Desert
B) the Ural Mountains
C) the forests and open steppe
D) the Atlantic Ocean

Question 16

To appeal to the gods to gain safe passage on the sea,Japanese voyagers would reportedly

A) sacrifice animals.
B) sacrifice people.
C) fling tokens from the ships.
D) leave matters to fate and not worry.

Question 17

In order to obtain food,the Thule Inuit were primarily focused on

A) agriculture.
B) hunting.
C) gathering plants.
D) herding animals.

Question 18

The city of Angkor was laid out to evoke

A) the greatness of the Khmer regime.
B) the rhythms of the seasons and the natural world.
C) ideas of the divine design of the world.
D) the power of the new Muslim ruler of the Khmer people.

Question 19

Aside from being an island,Japan was isolated from East Asia largely because

A) of the difficulty of the navigating the sea around it.
B) of the hostility of Japanese culture to its neighbors.
C) most East Asian peoples had little regard for Japan.
D) Japan had no natural resources or products for trade.

Question 20

During the rule of Khmer King Jayavarman VII,he surrounded Angkor with shrines,palaces,and

A) massive walls.
B) hospitals.
C) military garrisons.
D) marketplaces.

Question 21

One of the great revolutions in the art of medieval Europe during the eleventh to twelfth centuries C.E.is

A) the naturalism of the depiction of human figures.
B) the new focus on the portrayal of scenes from classical mythology in churches.
C) the appearance of commoners in religious scenes.
D) the use of new types of oil paints.

Question 22

Despite its isolation from foreign threats,Japan came to be dominated by a warrior class.What does this tell us about politics in the twelfth-century world?

Question 23

What were the challenges that geography created for the development of long distance contacts and communication in North America?

Question 24

What were the political effects of Japan's isolation during the ninth to twelfth centuries?

Question 25

The theologian and Archbishop of Canterbury Anselm wrote about God,

A) arguing that only through scripture and revelation could he be understood.
B) using reason alone to prove God's existence.
C) using a combination of scripture and revelation to prove God's existence.
D) arguing that faith alone could demonstrate God's existence.

Question 26

The story of Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis monastery illustrates

A) how monks were ignorant of the economic realities of the Middle Ages.
B) how monasteries became wealthy from increased trade and commerce.
C) the role of monasteries in the preservation of learning during the Middle Ages.
D) the role of monasteries in the interior expansion of Europe during the Middle Ages.

Question 27

How did geography affect connections within Mesoamerica and between Mesoamerica and the rest of the Americas?

Question 28

What was the relationship between religion and trade in the Indian Ocean world in this era? Did religion reinforce trade connections,interfere with them,or have some other effect?

Question 29

What two changes seem to underlie the phenomenon of the rise of heretical movements during the Later Middle Ages?

A) a desire by the clergy to gain the wealth of lay people and of lay people to gain the wealth of the church
B) the militarization of European society and its increasing wealth and prosperity
C) the rise of many charismatic kooks and charlatans and a church that was intolerant of them
D) imperfections in lay religion detected by a legalistic clergy and lay people's increased demands on the clergy

Question 30

A group of northern European merchant cities organized themselves into what came to be called the

A) Hanseatic League.
B) Knights Templar.
C) League of Lübeck.
D) Commercial League of North Europe.

Question 31

What new invention(s)were introduced into Christian Europe from elsewhere in Eurasia during the Later Middle Ages?

A) windmills
B) ground lenses
C) blast furnaces
D) clocks

Question 32

How did Japan develop economically and culturally during this period? What were its relations with other states in East Asia?

Question 33

The development of Cahokia in North America was probably a result of

A) contact with Mesoamerican cultures.
B) an entirely unique culture unaffected by outsiders.
C) peoples who migrated to the area from the North.
D) an invasion by peoples from the eastern regions of North America.

Question 34

One stated reason that the Cistercians razed forests and drove their flocks deep into the forests was

A) to develop those areas' wealth.
B) to fulfill one of the conditions for the end of the world.
C) to bring secular society to those wild areas.
D) to build ever more elaborate abbeys.

Question 35

How did the isolation of areas like Greenland and North America compare with the isolation of Japan? Why was the experience of Japan so different?

Question 36

What effect did the connection with the Indian Ocean region have on the development of Ethiopia?

Question 37

During the period from 1000 to 1200 C.E.,most of the Indian states

A) grew as a source of scientific knowledge.
B) declined in population.
C) ceased to be centers of trade.
D) converted to Islam.

Question 38

During a period of relative isolation from 1000 to 1200 C.E.,Japan experienced

A) a decline in its literary arts.
B) a loss of knowledge about mainland Asia.
C) a restoration of trade with China.
D) a loss of technological skill in metalworking.

Question 39

What connections existed between states in India and Southeast Asia,and how did these connections affect the development of these states?

Question 40

In Italy,some new cities

A) fell under the authority of the Greeks.
B) had authority even over the local nobility.
C) became independent republics and had authority even over the local nobility.
D) neither became independent republics nor had authority even over the local nobility.

Question 41

What were the political effects of relative isolation on the development of Western Europe?

Question 42

How did the relative isolation of Western Europe affect its relations with its neighbors as it began to reassert itself in the eleventh to twelfth centuries?

Question 43

Compare the development of "canyon cultures" and "Mississippian cultures" in North America during the early thirteenth century.In what ways did isolation facilitate cultural development? What role did trade play in supporting these cultures in a relatively hostile climate?

Question 44

How did trade in the Indian Ocean connect peoples in Africa with Eurasia?

Question 45

Compare the effects of isolation on Europe and Japan.What similarities did their responses show? What differences?
In Perspective

Question 46

What are the benefits and drawbacks of cultural and economic isolation?

Question 47

Contrast the social,religious and commercial changes that marked the Ethiopian Empire and Japan in the period from about 900 to 1200 C.E.Consider how one society emerged from isolation while the other actively sought to isolate itself.

Question 48

In what areas of the Americas were people able to communicate and trade with other peoples in the largest numbers? What was the effect of these exchanges?

Question 49

How do we know about such long-term processes as climate change,and why have such factors been so rarely incorporated into world history narratives?

Question 50

What economic and cultural effects may be seen in Western Europe because of its relative isolation from the rest of Eurasia?