Deck 2: The Invention of Race

Question 1

When did the term "race"obtain its modern meaning?

A) late 1500s
B) mid 1600s
C) late 1700s
D) mid 1800s
E) early 1900s

Answer 1

late 1700s

Question 2

Which two European countries, according to the authors, had more influence than others in creating the system of racial classification we know today?

A) England and France
B) Germany and England
C) Spain and Portugal
D) England and Spain
E) Italy and Portugal

Answer 2

England and Spain

Question 3

During the fourteenth century, which country's citizens were regarded as nothing short of "savages"to England?

A) American Indian
B) France
C) Ireland
D) Germany
E) Scotland

Answer 3

Ireland

Question 4

Spain's great interest in "religious purity"during the fifteenth century would lead others in the future to have a great interest in what type of "purity"?

A) political
B) spiritual
C) blood
D) economic
E) none of these

Question 5

What form of identity could we see in its beginning stages within fifteenth century Spain?

A) tribalism
B) state
C) regionalism
D) nationalism
E) cosmopolitan

Question 6

What term do sociologists use to describe the time period when people began to reject superstition and myth and instead used rational forms of thought to explain the world?

A) great divide
B) disenchantment of the world
C) anomie of the world
D) great awakening
E) first enlightenment period

Question 7

Which of the following individuals was alive and contributed during the period of great intellectual revolution mentioned by your textbook's authors, which helped reshape our understanding of the world?

A) Leonardo da Vinci
B) Niccolo Machiavelli
C) Copernicus
D) Christopher Columbus
E) all of these

Question 8

Which of the following terms refers to a historical era marked by the rise of nationalism, development of capitalism, global expansion, and disenchantment of the world and rapid growth of scientific knowledge?

A) neoclassical revolution
B) the great experience
C) modernity
D) age of discovery
E) spiritual awakening

Question 9

Who were the first to colonize the Americas?

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

Question 10

Which of the following was a reason for Spain's desire to colonize the Americas?

A) to profit from gold and silver in the land
B) to claim the land for Spain's rulers
C) to convert indigenous people to Catholicism
D) none of these
E) all of these

Question 11

Which of the following are the terms for the two steps used by the English to create the concept of "The Indian"?

A) assimilation and re-education
B) homogenization and polarization
C) polarization and assimilation
D) homogenization and re-education
E) none of these

Question 12

According to the textbook, colonialism is always, everywhere, and above all:

A) profitable.
B) expensive.
C) illegal.
D) desirable.
E) violent.

Question 13

How many years did the violence known as "The Indian Wars"last in the Americas?

A) 35 years
B) 75 years
C) 135 years
D) 175 years
E) 350 years

Question 14

What is the term for a laborer who was bound to an employer for a fixed amount of time, after which they were freed?

A) slave
B) peasant
C) indentured servant
D) chattel
E) vassal

Question 15

Which of the following was the reason given by the textbook's authors as to why Native Americans were not also permanently enslaved?

A) their numbers were too few to meet the needs of plantation capitalism
B) they were too familiar with the land and could easily escape potential owners
C) their work as guides and trappers in fur trade industry was too lucrative to disrupt
D) none of these
E) all of these

Question 16

From the following, which was given as the reason Africans were viewed at the time as "the perfect slaves"?

A) Africans had no other refuge than those provided by their masters
B) Africans were immune to Old World diseases
C) Africans were used to the Southern U.S. climate
D) Many Africans were already farmers
E) all of these

Question 17

The Atlantic slave trade, transporting African slaves to the Americas, had been in operation since when?

A) mid-fourteenth century
B) mid-fifteenth century
C) mid-sixteenth century
D) mid-seventeenth century
E) mid-eighteenth century

Question 18

Which of the following was a consequence for the African societies who participated in the slave trade?

A) the trade ultimately underdeveloped Africa as a whole
B) depleted its population of young men
C) directed its attention away from more productive economic activities
D) constructed Africans as an inferior people in the minds of Europeans
E) all of these

Question 19

For every one enslaved African working in the plantation fields for their entire life, how many perished en route during the voyage?

A) one
B) two
C) three
D) four
E) five

Question 20

Which North American crop single-handedly reinvigorated slavery due to its high demand and increased technological efficiency?

A) tobacco
B) wheat
C) corn
D) cotton
E) none of these

Question 21

Which sociologist stated that white laborers in the service of plantation owners were compensated for their low wages with a public and psychological wage?

A) Emile Durkheim
B) Karl Marx
C) W.E.B. Du Bois
D) Michel Foucault
E) Max Weber

Question 22

Before the eighteenth century, race, as we know it today, did not exist.

Question 23

The primary social division during the Middle Ages was between "sophisticated Christians"and "barbarous heathens."

Question 24

Nations are "imagined communities"bound together inside artificially created political borders.

Question 25

The "Age of Discovery,""Age of Colonialism,"and "Age of Terrorism"all refer to the same events based upon different points of view.

Question 26

Exploration narratives such as The Travels of Marco Polo often preferred fantasy to fact and legend to observation when chronicling the indigenous peoples encountered.

Question 27

Columbus was not the first European to have encountered the Americas.

Question 28

The rulers of Spain discouraged intermarriage between conquistadores and indigenous women.

Question 29

Bartolome de Las Casa was one of the most notorious of Spanish conquistadores.

Question 30

The English were primarily interested in converting the lost souls of the natives.

Question 31

The Indian was created by the English when settling the eastern coast of North America.

Question 32

Historians have documented cases where British soldiers intentionally infected Native Americans with diseases.

Question 33

Between 1600 and 1900, 50% of America's indigenous peoples died as a direct result of European colonization.

Question 34

In America, indentured servitude steadily evolved into slavery.

Question 35

While the Constitution secured whites' freedom, granting them access to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,"it also legalized black slavery.

Question 36

Virginia was the first colony to legalize chattel slavery when they introduced laws in the 1660s.

Question 37

Africans who played a role in the slave trade did so for the same reasons as the Europeans - to get rich.

Question 38

Slave traders could still turn a profit even if 45% of the slaves died during the voyage across the Atlantic.

Question 39

By 1865, it is estimated there were about 1 million slaves in America.

Question 40

During slavery, black men often raped white women, while the Masters or "Southern Gentlemen"rarely molested black women.

Question 41

The Monroe doctrine outlawed the conquest of Latin America by both the Europeans and Americans.

Question 42

Assimilation and removal were the primary strategies employed to deal with the "Indian problem."

Question 43

Asians began migrating to the United States in large numbers in the late 1790s.

Question 44

Discuss how the change from medieval workshop into capitalist factory played a role in the "Age of Discovery."

Question 45

Provide specific examples from history to support Francis Jennings's quote, "The American land was more like a widow than a virgin. Europeans did not find a wilderness here; rather, however involuntarily, they made one."

Question 46

Explain why the sentiment "American prosperity is due to the special ingenuity and hard work of Americans and is uniquely blessed"is a lie. Provide the statement which is more truthful concerning the United States' economic success.

Question 47

Through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo, the United States acquired New Mexico, California, Utah, Nevada, parts of Arizona, and disputed areas of Texas from Mexico. Provide multiple examples for why the United States did not claim the entirety of Mexico after the war and though this treaty.

Question 48

Define the Indian Allotment Act and explain why it was a failure for indigenous people.

Question 49

Explain the Ghost Dance Movement and its significance to what historians refer to as "The Indian Wars."

Question 50

Discuss in multiple detail how white ethnic hierarchies began to disappear during the 1920s and 1930s in the United States. Be sure to be specific and provide origins for definitions so as to provide context for your answer.

Question 51

Discuss the various human taxonomies covered in the chapter and also explain how the terms "phrenology"and "physiognomy"fit into this discussion.

Question 52

Explain the significance of Emile Durkheim's quote: "It is history, which is the true unconscious."

Question 53

Choose one of the following questions asked at the end of the chapter and provide a personal and honest answer: How do you feel about what you have just read? When you learned that several of America's major cities are majority nonwhite, how were you moved? When you tell your friends what you have just learned, what tone of voice will you use? Also, compare what you know now to what you knew before you began this class. How have your perceptions or "knowledge" changed?