Deck 2: Europeans Encounter the New World, 1492-1600

Question 1

Cities in what European nation dominated trade with the Far East until the fifteenth century?

A) Spain
B) Italy
C) Portugal
D) England

Answer 1

Italy

Question 2

Who were the "Indians" that Columbus met at San Salvador?

A) Tainos
B) Mexica
C) Mayans
D) Incas

Answer 2

Tainos

Question 3

Why was Portugal an unlikely nation to lead Europe into the Age of Exploration?

A) It lacked a strong leader who could initiate aggressive expansion.
B) It was a landlocked nation that had shown little interest in expanding its borders.
C) It had less than 2 percent of the population of Christian Europe.
D) The Catholic Church controlled the monarchy and resisted the idea of exploration.

Answer 3

It had less than 2 percent of the population of Christian Europe.

Question 4

The Treaty of Tordesillas, a 1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal,

A) divided the Atlantic territories between the two countries.
B) protected Spain's holdings in the New World and Portugal's holdings in Africa.
C) gave Portugal sole claim to the areas discovered by Columbus.
D) finally removed Muslims from Europe.

Question 5

In the 1460s, the Portuguese inaugurated a new phase of plantation labor by staffing the Cape Verde islands with

A) captured Indians.
B) Portuguese criminals.
C) African slaves.
D) captured Europeans.

Question 6

Which event brought Queen Isabella to the throne in 1474?

A) Her marriage to Ferdinand, King of Aragon
B) The death of her brother Henry
C) The death of her brother King John II
D) The success of the Spanish Inquisition

Question 7

How did the Portuguese adapt to the demands of lengthy ocean voyages in the fifteenth century?

A) They stole maps from Italian merchants.
B) Portuguese explorers made fewer but longer trips.
C) They developed a vessel known as the caravel.
D) They used enslaved Africans to pilot their ships.

Question 8

The government of which country sponsored Christopher Columbus's 1492 exploration?

A) Italy
B) France
C) Spain
D) Portugal

Question 9

Exploration and territorial expansion became popular with Europeans in the fifteenth century because

A) monarchs hoped to enlarge their power.
B) Europeans abandoned supernatural worship.
C) Europe had achieved political stability.
D) Europeans lived longer than they had before.

Question 10

How did a sea route to Asia affect Europe?

A) The sea route allowed Europeans to immigrate to the Far East.
B) The Catholic Church lost control over important Italian city-states.
C) The route allowed merchants to charge lower prices for imported Eastern goods.
D) The sea route lowered the prices of perishable products in Europe.

Question 11

What was a long-term consequence of the catastrophic bubonic plague in Europe?

A) Most survivors faced starvation conditions.
B) The plague eliminated hope for social mobility.
C) The plague stimulated exploration for new marketplaces.
D) The plague diminished religious enthusiasm.

Question 12

How did Ferdinand and Isabella react to Columbus's first voyage?

A) They believed Spain could challenge Portuguese dominance of the seas.
B) They chastised Columbus for failing to find gold.
C) They reluctantly agreed to continue their exploration program.
D) They refused to sponsor Columbus's second voyage.

Question 13

When Columbus first arrived in the New World, he believed he was in

A) St. Augustine.
B) Cuba.
C) the Caribbean.
D) the East Indies.

Question 14

Which area did John Cabot claim for England in his search for a Northwest Passage?

A) Ontario
B) Newfoundland
C) Brazil
D) Cuba

Question 15

Portugal's early interest in exploration and expansion stemmed from its desire to

A) expel Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula.
B) control the gold and slave trade of Africa.
C) seize the balance of power in Europe from France.
D) defeat its religious rival, Spain.

Question 16

Which technological advance aided European explorers by 1400?

A) The telescope
B) The steam engine
C) The compass
D) The printing press

Question 17

In the early 1500s, Martin Waldseemüller was among the very first to understand that

A) an explorer could sail around the world in only a month.
B) a round globe rather than a flat map depicted Earth with greater accuracy.
C) the Treaty of Tordesillas shifted power from Italy to Spain and Portugal.
D) there was a continent that existed separate from Europe and Asia.

Question 18

The Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvars Cabral accidentally made landfall in

A) Mexico.
B) Guatemala.
C) Peru.
D) Brazil.

Question 19

Who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in order to find a sea route from Europe to Asia?

A) Vasco da Gama
B) Henry the Navigator
C) Christopher Columbus
D) Bartolomeu Dias

Question 20

Christopher Columbus, like most educated Europeans, believed that

A) the earth was spherical and could therefore be circumnavigated.
B) explorers would never reach the East Indies by sailing west.
C) the earth was flat, making circumnavigation impossible.
D) the earth was much larger than it actually was.

Question 21

How did Malinali provide invaluable assistance to Hernán Cortés?

A) She helped kidnap Montezuma.
B) She taught the Spanish to avoid smallpox.
C) She saved John Smith from execution.
D) She served as an interpreter for Cortés.

Question 22

What was the significance of Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe?

A) He established the first Portuguese colony in the New World.
B) Europeans learned that a westward passage to the East was possible but not feasible.
C) His voyage validated the findings of Columbus and Cabral.
D) His voyage solidified the control of Italian merchants over Asian trade.

Question 23

In 1549, the Spanish government issued the repartimiento, which

A) limited the amount of labor Indians had to perform.
B) established political equality for the Indians.
C) led to the immediate elimination of encomienda.
D) challenged the principle of forced labor.

Question 24

Which European power dominated the New World during the 1500s?

A) Portugal, because it controlled the interior of the continent
B) Spain, because it had the most colonial possessions
C) England, because Portugal had diverted its attention to Asia
D) France, because of the Catholic Church's missionary work there

Question 25

The transatlantic exchange of goods, people, and ideas between the New World and Europe is referred to as the

A) Pan-Atlantic exchange.
B) Columbian exchange.
C) Renaissance.
D) triangular Atlantic Trade.

Question 26

Which Spanish conquistador settled New Mexico in 1598?

A) Francisco Pizarro
B) Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón
C) Pedro Menéndez de Avilés
D) Juan de Oñate

Question 27

The gender and number of Spanish settlers in New Spain created a society in which

A) Spaniards married Spaniards and Indians married Indians.
B) a fluid family structure based on Indian norms emerged.
C) a fluid class structure based on Spanish norms emerged.
D) Spanish men frequently married Indian women.

Question 28

Who held the largest treasure found in the New World before 1540?

A) Mexicans
B) Incas
C) Zuni
D) Tlaxcalans

Question 29

What was a result of contact and trade between the peoples of the Old and New Worlds?

A) Contact and trade allowed diffusion of American technology in Europe.
B) Clever European traders took advantage of gullible Indians.
C) Contact and trade exposed Indians to devastating Old World diseases.
D) Chaos and anxiety spread through European communities.

Question 30

When Catholic priests complained to the Spanish government about the brutal treatment of Indians, royal officials

A) ignored the problems because they thought priests were overreacting.
B) replaced the cavalier conquistadors with royal bureaucrats.
C) sent delegates to the colonies in order to investigate and punish the guilty.
D) encouraged the Catholic Church to suppress complaints from the priests.

Question 31

Why did Spain introduce encomienda?

A) To reward conquistadors with the tribute and labor of the Indians
B) To provide housing for the Indians who labored in the silver mines
C) To allot a portion of New World wealth for the Catholic Church
D) To punish wrongdoers in both the colonies and Spain

Question 32

Who did Cortés enlist to help defeat the Mexicans in 1521?

A) A Mayan chief and his followers
B) Militant Catholic priests
C) The Mexican people themselves
D) Indians who resented Mexican rule

Question 33

Which conquistador was buried in the Mississippi River by his men?

A) Juan Ponce de León
B) Pedro de Seville
C) Hernando de Soto
D) Francisco Vásquez de Coronado

Question 34

The system of coerced labor in New Spain grew directly out of Spaniards' assumption that

A) coercion was the only way Indians would work.
B) Indians would sabotage mines if not watched.
C) Spaniards were superior to Indians.
D) only harsh rule could control the Indians.

Question 35

Which segment of the Spanish population made up the majority of the approximately 225,000 Spaniards who settled in the colonies between 1492 and 1592?

A) The displaced younger sons of Spanish nobility
B) Women and families from northern Spain
C) Artisans, laborers, and sailors of Jewish faith
D) Poor young men of common lineage

Question 36

How did Spain benefit from settling Florida in the mid-sixteenth century?

A) Settlers found immense riches there.
B) Florida became the most populous Spanish colony.
C) The settlement protected Spanish ships from pirates.
D) The climate was ideal for growing tobacco.

Question 37

During the 1500s, what was the most valuable export from New Spain?

A) Precious metals
B) Leather hides
C) Indian laborers
D) Agricultural products

Question 38

The distribution of conquered towns, the right to rule the Indians and the land around them, and the right to exact tribute and labor from the Indians was called

A) repartimiento.
B) indenture.
C) encomienda.
D) peninsulares.

Question 39

Which factor helped the Spaniards conquer the Mexicans in the sixteenth century?

A) The Spanish possessed superior manpower.
B) A smallpox epidemic ravaged the Mexicans.
C) The Mexicans relied too heavily on cannons.
D) The Spanish sought surrender, not total victory.

Question 40

What was Francisco Vásquez de Coronado searching for when he ventured into the Southwest and Great Plains of North America?

A) The Seven Cities of Cíbola
B) The Gold City of Cahokia
C) The cliff dwellings of the Anasazi
D) The burial mounds of the Adena

Question 41

Which social class was made up of children who were born in the Spanish New World to parents who had emigrated from Spain?

A) Mestizos
B) Creoles
C) Peninsulares
D) Cajuns

Question 42

What was the result of Charles V's and Philip II's extensive warfare?

A) Spain reached unprecedented levels of wealth.
B) Most Spaniards were ashamed of their nation.
C) Spain became debt-free for the first time.
D) The majority of Spaniards became impoverished.

Question 43

How did the deaths of millions of Indians by the end of the sixteenth century affect Spain?

A) The Spanish believed Indians to be inferior so their demise was no great loss.
B) The Spaniards realized the value of germ warfare and used it in the future.
C) The deaths created a labor shortage that led to the purchase of African slaves.
D) The Spanish exhausted all natural resources in the areas they had colonized.

Question 44

Like many other European colonies in the New World, New Spain developed a pattern of social organization in which

A) Europeans became a dominant minority.
B) Indians gradually obtained equality.
C) everyone participated in an egalitarian society.
D) people shared the same cultural characteristics.

Question 45

Two Spanish groups became critical of the encomienda system and were influential in abolishing its early form in 1549. Identify both groups, cite their major criticisms, and explain the results of their criticism.

Question 46

How did King Charles I (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V) and his successors use the wealth of New Spain?

A) To challenge the Portuguese and Italian influences in Asia
B) To consolidate the largest empire in Europe
C) To support the exploration and colonization of interior Africa
D) To purchase luxury items and hire mercenaries for war

Question 47

What impact did Columbus's journeys have on Europeans' understanding of the world's geography?

Question 48

Cite two reasons why Spain was able to conquer as much land and as many people as it did in order to become the dominant colonial power in the Americas during the sixteenth century.

Question 49

Explain the model of exploration that sixteenth-century Spain set for France and England and discuss those two countries' attempts at exploration in the New World.

Question 50

Who established an unsuccessful colony along the St. Lawrence River in 1541?

A) Giovanni da Verrazano
B) Jacques Cartier
C) Albrecht Durer
D) John Cabot

Question 51

Describe trade patterns and routes in the Mediterranean from the twelfth century to the early sixteenth century. Be sure to mention which countries dominated trade at different times.

Question 52

What was the result of Martin Frobisher's expedition to northern Canada?

A) He was killed by Indians.
B) He established a new fishing colony for England.
C) He discovered substantial amounts of gold.
D) He returned to England with worthless ore.

Question 53

Identify and discuss how African slavery came to be associated with plantation labor on the Cape Verde Islands.

Question 54

Briefly explain the Reconquest and its significance to the Portuguese exploration of Africa, led by Prince Henry the Navigator.

Question 55

Why did the Spanish monarchy insist on having northern outposts in Florida and New Mexico?

Question 56

Identify three key factors that enabled Cortés to conquer the Mexica and gain control of the Mexica Empire's capital.

Question 57

Briefly explain results of the gender imbalance among Spanish immigrants in the New World during the sixteenth century.

Question 58

Which statement describes England's attempt to secure a North American settlement in the late sixteenth century?

A) Religious wars in Europe undermined its plans for the New World.
B) It sent explorers but could not sustain thriving colonies.
C) It colonized territory only where the Spanish were not already present.
D) It abandoned colonization in favor of raiding Spanish treasure ships.

Question 59

After fifty years of contact with Europeans in New Spain,

A) 90 percent of the native Indians had died.
B) about half of the native Indians had died.
C) most Indians had converted to Catholicism.
D) Indians were no longer subject to coerced labor.

Question 60

Martin Luther and the Catholic Church disagreed on

A) how salvation could be gained.
B) the role of saints.
C) the divinity of Jesus.
D) who could become a priest.

Question 61

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Pact negotiated in 1494 to delineate land claims in the New World. It drew an imaginary line west of the Canary Islands; land discovered west of the line belonged to Spain, and land to the east belonged to Portugal.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 62

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Land in the New World held by the Spanish crown.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 63

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Indian uprising against the Spanish in 1599. It was violently suppressed by Juan de Oñate, but the Indians revolted again later that year, after which many Spanish settlers returned to Mexico.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 64

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
The centuries-long drive to expel Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula undertaken by the Christian kingdoms of Spain and Portugal. The military victories of this effort helped the Portuguese gain greater access to sea routes.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 65

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
The reform movement that began in 1517 with Martin Luther's critiques of the Roman Catholic Church, which precipitated an enduring schism that divided Protestants from Catholics.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 66

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
The transatlantic exchange of goods, people, and ideas that began when the Spanish arrived in the Caribbean, ending the age-old separation of the hemispheres.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 67

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Term referring to the Spanish explorers and soldiers who conquered lands in the New World.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 68

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
A disease that in the mid-fourteenth century killed about one-third of the European population and left a legacy of increased food and financial resources for the survivors as well as a sense of a world in precarious balance.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 69

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Under the control of the emperor Atahualpa, this region stretched along the western coast of South America and contained more than nine million people and a wealth in gold and silver.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 70

In the decades after 1519, the Spaniards created the distinctive colonial society of New Spain. Discuss the features of this new society, how it benefitted the Spanish, and its toll on the native populations.

Question 71

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
Children born in the New World to Spanish parents. With the peninsulares, they made up the tiny portion of the population at the top of the colonial social hierarchy.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 72

A series of events and conditions existed in the Old World at the dawn of the fifteenth century that made New World exploration not only possible but also desirable. Identify these events and conditions and explain how each helped set the stage for exploration.

Question 73

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
A system for governing used during the Reconquest and in New Spain. It allowed a town's Spanish "owner" to collect tribute from the town in return for providing law and order and encouraging "his" Indians to convert to Christianity.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 74

Despite Columbus's lack of success in locating the Asian mainland by sailing west, his arrival in the Caribbean had a profound and lasting impact on both the Old and New Worlds. Discuss Columbus's voyages. Discuss Spanish claims to the new lands in the West. Explain how Europeans' understanding of world geography changed owing to Columbus's discoveries. Discuss the Columbian exchange.

Question 75

Discuss how the Portuguese became the leaders in exploration during the fifteenth century Include in your discussion the significant accomplishments of the Portuguese relating to exploration.

Question 76

Use the following to answer questions :
Select the word or phrase from the Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section.
The Indians who inhabited San Salvador and many Caribbean islands and who were the first people Columbus encountered after making landfall in the New World.

A)Acoma pueblo revolt
B)Black Death
C)Columbian exchange
D)conquistadors
E)creoles
F)encomienda
G)Incan empire
H)New Spain
I)Protestant Reformation
J)Reconquest
K)Tainos
L)Treaty of Tordesillas

Question 77

During the sixteenth century, Spain became the most powerful country in both Europe and the Americas. Explain how Spain rose to this position of power, including both victories and failures.