US History Quiz 1

What crop was cultivated by nearly every Native American farming culture? A) Beans. B) Corn. C) Pepper. D) Tobacco.

B) Corn.

The enslavement of Africans A) Was an important aspect of European economy in the 1400s. B) Evolved over time. C) Was limited only to Africa. D) Was an inherited condition.

B) Evolved over time.

Iroquoian political decisions were A) Dictatorial and controlled by the hunters in the group. B) Influenced by women because their work in agriculture was highly valued. C) Determined by the League of Five Nations, which was also called Deganawidah in Iroquoian language. D) Fair minded and egalitarian because women who were primarily hunters and gatherers controlled decision making.

B) Influenced by women because their work in agriculture was highly valued.

Malinche was A) The name of Cortes's primary ship. B) A woman who used her linguistic and cultural knowledge to help Columbus. C) Moctezuma's confidant and advisor.m D) A woman who used her linguistic and cultural knowledge to help Cortés.

D) A woman who used her linguistic and cultural knowledge to help Cortés.

Scholars know a good deal about the Maya and Aztec because A) Maya and Aztec writers recorded their own events. B) Maya and Aztec writers used their native pictoglyphic writing and also later used the Spaniards' Roman alphabet to record their histories. C) Remains, other than writing, have supplemented scholarly research. D) Each statement is correct.

D) Each statement is correct.

Totem poles were central to Native American communities in what region? A) South America. B) Mesoamerica. C) The Mississippi Valley. D) The Pacific Northwest.

D) The Pacific Northwest.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the earliest Americans arrived on the continent A) By 12,000 BCE. B) In large groups of hunters and gatherers. C) In one small group that had been banished from Siberia. D) No earlier than 9000 BCE.

A) By 12,000 BCE.

From Maya and Aztec writings and other cultural indications, we can conclude that A) They were probably the most violent people at the time. B) Maya and Aztec people lived in a complex political world complete with alliances with different groups. C) The Maya especially lived in isolated, rural communities. D) Aztec cities were ruled by dictatorial chiefs who did not give their subjects any voice in decision making.

B) Maya and Aztec people lived in a complex political world complete with alliances with different groups.

Because Spain became a wealthy nation as a result of her New World colonies, A) Spain dominated early European colonization. B) Other nations wanted colonies so they could become wealthy. C) Spain had first choice of all undiscovered lands. D) Each statement is correct.

B) Other nations wanted colonies so they could become wealthy.

Sugar production demanded a large labor force. Encomenderos decided to A) Increase the number of Native workers by including women and children in the workforce. B) Replace Indian workers with African workers. C) Abandon the cultivation of sugar. D) Each statement is correct.

B) Replace Indian workers with African workers.

What was the reconquista? A) A 700-year contest between Spain and Islamic peoples for control of the Iberian Peninsula. B) The foolish wandering of a demented knight who insisted that windmills were dragons. C) A movement within the Catholic Church to require uniformity of belief throughout Spain. D) The portion of the New World administered by those who conquered it.

A) A 700-year contest between Spain and Islamic peoples for control of the Iberian Peninsula.

Among other things, the Mississippian people were known for A) Building mounds, some for ceremonial purposes and some as burial sites. B) Discovering how to extract gold and silver from ore. C) Living in tipis that could be moved easily. D) Surviving on roots and nuts.

A) Building mounds, some for ceremonial purposes and some as burial sites.

The term ________ suggests the consequences of blending plants, animals, and humans with their diseases from Europe and the New World. A) Columbian Exchange. B) Encomienda. C) Line of demarcation. D) Requerimiento.

A) Columbian Exchange.

A sharp decline in the Indian population followed the arrival of Europeans because A) Diseases were introduced inadvertently by the Spanish. B) Food production could not support both Indians and Europeans. C) Many moved away to avoid contact with Europeans. D) Spanish soldiers killed so many trying to convert them to Spanish culture.

A) Diseases were introduced inadvertently by the Spanish.

The Treaty of Tordesillas A) Divided the discovered world between Spain and Portugal. B) Created what we now call the International Date Line, which divides the globe. C) Gave Pope Alexander VI the authority to approve native baptisms. D) Gave Portugal to Spain.

A) Divided the discovered world between Spain and Portugal.

For the natives, the encomienda resulted in A) Forced labor. B) Their loss of land to the new Spanish owners. C) The status of "property" of Spanish landowners. D) Their learning to read and write English.

A) Forced labor.

Which of the following statements about Moctezuma is correct? A) Moctezuma II was also known as Montezuma. B) Mocteczuma II was a woman who was the religious leader of the Mexica. C) Moctezuma II was the queen of the Coatzacoalcos and she married Mocteczuma before the arrival of the Spanish. D) Mocteczuma II was the thirty-year-old Aztec warrior chief of Mexico.

A) Moctezuma II was also known as Montezuma.

Spaniards in the American Southwest abandoned the region around 1541 because A) They found nothing of value to keep them there. B) Silver was discovered further south in Mexico. C) The Pueblo warriors were so fierce that the Spanish soldiers would not fight them. D) Coronado married a Zuni woman.

A) They found nothing of value to keep them there.

The children of Pedro de Alvarado and Tlecuiluatzin (doña Luisa) A) Were forgotten because their mother was not Spanish. B) Became members of the higher ranks of Spanish society in the New World. C) Were sent to England to be educated. D) Were raised by their mother's people.

B) Became members of the higher ranks of Spanish society in the New World.

Which of the following statements about Tenochtitlan is not correct? A) The city boasted clean streets, markets, and a zoo. B) Compared to Paris or Venice, Tenochtitlan was a small, rural village. C) Tenochtitlan's neighborhoods were organized according to the inhabitants' wealth and status. D) All sorts of goods and services could be found at the city market called Tlateloco.

B) Compared to Paris or Venice, Tenochtitlan was a small, rural village.

A dramatic change in Indian culture produced by the arrival of Spain was the A) Benevolent attitude of conquistadors toward Indians. B) Conversion of the Plains Indians to a horse culture. C) Improvement in the health of Indians after the arrival of European medicine. D) Indians' eager acceptance of Christianity.

B) Conversion of the Plains Indians to a horse culture.

While the Spanish were occupied expelling Muslims, Portugal was A) Locked in a bloody civil war. B) Developing ship technology that enabled her sailors to explore the coast of Africa. C) Developing the printing press. D) Protecting her overland trade routes to China.

B) Developing ship technology that enabled her sailors to explore the coast of Africa.

Why did the European monarchs refuse to finance Columbus's venture? A) Each monarch believed the world was flat. B) Each monarch assumed Columbus had miscalculated the earth's circumference. C) The monarchs were more comfortable investing their money in overland trade routes. D) The Chinese controlled the oceanic routes to China and prevented all but a few European ships from entering Asia.

B) Each monarch assumed Columbus had miscalculated the earth's circumference.

Hernando de Soto led the expedition that A) Conquered the Aztec and Inca empires. B) Explored the southeastern part of the United States, including the Mississippi River. C) Discovered the Grand Canyon. D) Opposed the use of African slaves in New Spain.

B) Explored the southeastern part of the United States, including the Mississippi River.

Ferdinand and Isabella A) Married in 1485. B) Forced defeated people in Spain to convert to Christianity or leave the country. C) Were timid rulers who tried to please everyone. D) Each statement is accurate.

B) Forced defeated people in Spain to convert to Christianity or leave the country.

Despite their motivation to get rid of the Spanish, Native Americans lost the battles to the Spanish because A) The Aztecs and others had horses but no guns. B) The Aztecs and others could not compete against advanced European technology. C) They were preoccupied most of the time trying to take Spanish soldiers as prisoners of war. D) The Spanish outnumbered the Native warriors.

B) The Aztecs and others could not compete against advanced European technology.

Why did most Anasazi return to hunting and gathering practices at times? A) They lacked the skills of Mesoamerican corn cultivators. B) They could grow corn, but without beans this proved an insufficient diet. C) Changing climates and nomadic enemies forced them to resort to alternative forms of sustenance. D) The poor soil of the Southwest only produced three or four crops before it was depleted and communities had to move on.

C) Changing climates and nomadic enemies forced them to resort to alternative forms of sustenance.

Which of the following appears to have been the most important reason for the extinction of the woolly mammoth? A) Overhunting. B) European diseases. C) Climactic shifts. D) A massive earthquake.

C) Climactic shifts.

Columbus was born into a world A) Controlled by Muslim clerics. B) Flooded with cheap imports from China. C) Influenced by European investors seeking low-risk investments. D) Unimpressed and uninfluenced by Europe.

C) Influenced by European investors seeking low-risk investments.

In Spain's New World culture, the offspring of conquistadors and Indians were known as A) Ayuantamiento. B) Encomienda. C) Mestizo. D) Requerimiento.

C) Mestizo.

In 1513 the Spanish Crown issued the Requerimiento, which A) Divided Spain's claims in the New World among those who had conquered it. B) Formally enslaved Indians living in territory claimed by Spain in the New World. C) Promised Indians who accepted Christianity and the authority of Spain that they would be left in peace. D) Required priests in Spanish colonies to be approved by the Inquisition.

C) Promised Indians who accepted Christianity and the authority of Spain that they would be left in peace.

How did Malinche contribute to Hernando Cortés's conquest of the Aztec empire? A) She betrayed her own mother, the ruler of the Chontal Maya. B) She was held hostage until her people gave him more gold. C) She interpreted Spanish and Nathuatl languages so he could speak with native people. D) She revealed the fastest route to their capital at Tenochtitlán.

C) She interpreted Spanish and Nathuatl languages so he could speak with native people.

The most profitable commodity produced on North American Spanish plantations in the 1500s was A) Rice. B) Cotton. C) Sugar. D) Tobacco.

C) Sugar.

By the end of the fifteenth century, Europeans had little accurate information about Africa because A) No educated Europeans had access to any kind of information about Africa. B) African warriors killed those Europeans who managed to travel in Africa. C) The Sahara Desert was an obstacle to Europeans traveling south. D) Portuguese explorers prevented information about Africa from being made public.

C) The Sahara Desert was an obstacle to Europeans traveling south.

Why did the combination of corn and beans prove so crucial to the diet of early Americans? A) Corn remedied the digestive issues that beans created. B) Beans neutralized an otherwise toxic compound in Archaic forms of corn. C) The beans added amino acid to the corn, making the combination as nutritious as meat. D) Corn and beans grew under different conditions and in different places, making harvests more reliable.

C) The beans added amino acid to the corn, making the combination as nutritious as meat.

Why have scholars called Mesoamerica the "Cradle of the Americas"? A) The Native American population originated in this region. B) The region was the first to embrace a monotheistic religion. C) The region hosted the first technologically advanced civilizations. D) This was the only region in which Native Americans survived the Ice Age.

C) The region hosted the first technologically advanced civilizations.

Christopher Columbus's theories of exploration were based on A) The knowledge of other explorers. B) The possibility that Europeans' knowledge of the outside world was not always accurate. C) The hope that there was a southern continent similar to Africa that could be exploited. D) Each statement is accurate.

D) Each statement is accurate.

Columbus's attitude toward the Taino or Arawak people and other native people in general was A) Based on his ignorance of native cultural traditions. B) Based on the Europeans' assumptions that the natives were inferior to the Europeans. C) Disrespectful. D) Each statement is accurate.

D) Each statement is accurate.

Following the arrival of Cortes, the Spanish and Aztecs A) Formed a strong alliance against traditional Aztec enemies. B) Were pleased that Moctezuma II had voluntarily submitted to Cortés's authority. C) Viewed each other with a mixture of curiosity and caution, which eventually grew to fear and violence. D) Each statement is accurate.

D) Each statement is accurate.

Queen Isabel was motivated to support Columbus's first voyage west because A) She hoped Columbus could get a foothold to trade with the East. B) She had money to invest in a venture that would strengthen Spain's position in the world. C) She was desperate to prevent her newly unified country from falling into economic dependence. D) Each statement is correct.

D) Each statement is correct.

Why were European diseases such as smallpox, typhus, and influenza so devastating to Native populations? A) The Native populations had been isolated from Europeans for so many centuries that they had no immunities to European diseases. B) Europeans, Africans, and Asians shared the same environments and over time built up immunities to the diseases. C) Epidemic diseases could be spread to Native communities by germs, meaning that infection did not need physical contact between individuals. D) Each statement is correct.

D) Each statement is correct.

The Columbian Exchange refers to the process by which A) Goods, germs, and ideas travel from the Old World to the New World. B) The environments in both the Old World and the New World changed and that, in turn, changed the plants and animals. C) Goods, germs, and ideas travel from the New World to the Old World. D) Goods, germs, and ideas travel from the Old World to the New World and the New World to the Old World.

D) Goods, germs, and ideas travel from the Old World to the New World and the New World to the Old World.

Native populations declined because of all of the following reasons except A) Malnutrition. B) Disruption of normal Native traditions. C) Declining birth rate. D) Increased life spans.

D) Increased life spans.

What explains the conquistadors' conviction that glimmering cities of gold existed in the Americas? A) They had read other travelers' reports. B) Much of the gold Europeans had acquired over centuries originated in the Americas. C) European metallurgists offered evidence of gold-bearing soils in Mesoamerica. D) Indians told Europeans of glittering empires further west to get rid of the intruders.

D) Indians told Europeans of glittering empires further west to get rid of the intruders.

Hernán Cortés was aided greatly in his conquest of the Aztecs by the A) Aztecs' abrupt departure from the area. B) Division within the Indian confederacies. C) Mysterious appearance of a Lady in Blue, who gave him encouragement. D) Initial reluctance of the Aztecs to fight.

D) Initial reluctance of the Aztecs to fight.

Why did corn cultivation move so far northward from Mesoamerica? A) Europeans introduced the crop to the North American continent. B) Corn seeds spread northward through birds and trade winds. C) Aztec merchants traveled as far as the Great Lakes region, introducing the crop. D) Like other goods and practices, corn cultivation traveled north on the Mississippi River.

D) Like other goods and practices, corn cultivation traveled north on the Mississippi River.

Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his entourage traveled from A) Mexico City to Zuni Pueblo to Kansas. B) Mexico City to the Grand Canyon. C) Bernallilo, New Mexico, to the Grand Canyon to Mexico City. D) Mexico City to the Grand Canyon to Cibola.

D) Mexico City to the Grand Canyon to Cibola.

Ponce de León was the first European who A) Convinced Aztecs to accept Spanish authority so they could preserve their religion. B) Discovered gold in the New World. C) Sailed around the world in a continuous voyage. D) Set foot on the mainland that would become the United States.

D) Set foot on the mainland that would become the United States.

What explains the dramatic growth in world population beginning in the sixteenth century? A) Medical advances pioneered in treating Native Americans suffering from smallpox. B) The introduction of wheat in the Americas. C) The intermingling of Europeans and Americans, which resulted in higher birth rates. D) The introduction of corn and potatoes in the Old World.

D) The introduction of corn and potatoes in the Old World.

The Spanish soldiers who fought in the reconquista A) Were unsuccessful in almost all battles. B) Were largely ignored by other Spaniards. C) Could only rarely become prestigious. D) Were influenced in part by their Christian faith and promises of wealth and glory.

D) Were influenced in part by their Christian faith and promises of wealth and glory.