World History Practice Questions (Unit 2)

Passage (questions 13-15)

APPROXIMATE POPULATION OF MALES AGE 12 AND OLDER ON SELECTED MANORS IN ESSEX COUNTY, ENGLAND, CIRCA 1320-1450 Year 1320 1350 1400 Great Waltham 260 120 156 Hatfield Broadoak 500 325 200 High Easter 260 120 140 Total 1,020 565 496 Source: Data adapted from L. R. Poos, "The Rural Population of Essex in the Later Middle Ages," The Economic History Review 38:4 (1985): 522-3. The data is based on manorial population surveys ordered by the earls of Essex and on the court records of the earls' manor courts.

Question 13- Based on the information in the table, the Black Death outbreak of the bubonic plague struck Essex County in which of the following periods?

Between 1320 and 1350

Question 2-Which of the following developments in the period circa 1250-1450 represents a situation that is the opposite of nomadic conquerors assimilating into the cultures of the conquered societies?

Conquered peoples being drawn into their conquerors' economic and cultural orbits, as illustrated by Turkic peoples converting to Islam and integrating into Muslim societies

Question 12- Which of the following best describes the historical circumstances of Rashid al-Din's career?

His career illustrates the possibilities for diffusion and intermingling of cultures brought about by the Mongol conquests.

Question 14- A comparison between the data for the three manors shown in the table best illustrates which of the following about the bubonic plague?

In some but not all areas, the population was beginning to recover by 1400

Question 15- Which of the following best describes the change in the total population of males age 12 and older in the three manors shown in the table from 1320 to 1400 ?

It declined to less than a half of its 1320 level (over 50% decline).

Question 11- Which of the following best describes the historical situation in Eurasia at the time the passage was written?

Political upheaval and reorganization increased cultural and scientific exchanges across regions.

Question 1- The general pattern of nomadic conquest followed by the assimilation of the conquerors into the cultures of the conquered societies was most clearly expressed in which of the following developments in the period circa 1250-1450 ?

The rulers of the Yuan dynasty adopting Chinese court culture and methods of rule

Question 3- The Mongol conquests resulted in all of the following developments EXCEPT

the initial diffusion of Buddhism and Christianity to East Asia

Question 7-The integration of West African states into wider regional and transregional economic networks in the period circa 1200-1450 was carried out mostly via the

trans-Saharan trade routes

Question 6- The pattern of trade described in the passage was most characteristic of which of the following types of goods in the period 1200-1450 ?

Luxury goods such as spices or porcelain

Question 5- Based on the pattern of trade described in the third paragraph, the Egyptian karim merchants were most likely directly involved in which of the following broader developments in the Indian Ocean in the period circa 1200-1450 ?

The establishment of diasporic merchant communities

Question 4- The "long stays in harbors" mentioned in the description of the sea journeys in the first paragraph were most likely necessary because Indian Ocean maritime trade in the period circa 1200-1450

had to take into account environmental factors such as the timing and direction of the monsoons

Question 10- Which of the following best describes the author's purpose in the passage?

To portray his patron as a generous supporter of the sciences and a man of unusual intelligence

Question 8-The spread of Islam into sub-Saharan West Africa in the period circa 1200-1450 was mostly a result of the conversion of the rulers of which of the following states?

The Mali Empire

Question 9- In the period circa 1200-1450, which of the following most directly enabled merchants to bring salt and other bulk products to markets in sub-Saharan Africa?

The adoption of innovative practices in overland trading, such as the use of camel caravans and saddles

First passage (questions 1-3)

"Throughout its history, Central Asia has provided the ancient civilized empires on its borders with new Shahs, Sultans, or Sons of Heaven. These periodic invasions by the nomads of the steppe, whose khans ascended the thrones of Changan, Luoyang, Kaifeng, or Beijing*, of Isfahan or Tabriz**, Delhi or Constantinople, became one of the geographic laws of history. But there was another, opposing law which brought about the slow absorption of the invaders by the ancient civilized lands. The civilizations of China and Persia, though conquered, would in the long run vanquish their conquerors, intoxicating them with the pleasures of settled life, lulling them to sleep, and assimilating them culturally. Often, only fifty years after a conquest, the culturally Sinicized or Persianized former barbarian would be the first to stand guard over his adopted civilization and protect it against fresh nomadic onslaughts." *capital cities of various Chinese dynasties **capital cities of various Persian dynasties René Grousset, French historian of Central Asia, The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, 1939

Passage (questions 10-12)

"On several occasions, Ghazan Khan* went to the observatory at Maragha** and watched the Muslim, Christian, and Chinese astronomers make their observations. He looked at all the operations and instruments, studied them, and asked about their procedures, which he understood in spite of their difficulty. He also ordered the construction of a dome in order to investigate the Sun's motion and he spoke out with his astronomers about it. All of them said that although they had never seen such an instrument, it was reasonable and sensible. He gave orders for the construction of an observatory next to his tomb in Tabriz in Persia. He explained how to construct the observatory with such clarity that local wise men marveled at his intelligence, because such work had not been done in any era. Those wise men said that constructing the observatory would be extremely difficult. He guided them, whereupon they commenced building it and they finished it following his instructions. Those wise men and all the engineers agreed that nobody had done such a thing before nor had imagined doing it." *ruler of the Mongol Ilkhanate, whose territories included most of the Muslim Middle East; reigned 1295-1304 **an astronomical observatory in present-day Azerbaijan, established by a grant from the first Ilkhanid ruler in the mid-thirteenth century Rashid al-Din Hamdani, Persian Muslim historian and government minister in Ghazan Khan's court, excerpt from a universal history commissioned by Ghazan Khan, completed circa 1316

Passage (questions 7-9)

"The eleventh king of the sultanate of Kano* was Yaji Ali [reigned 1349-1385]. In Yaji's time merchants came from the north bringing Islam. They commanded the king Yaji to observe the times of prayer. He complied, and made one man an imam (prayer leader) and another a muezzin (the person reciting the call to prayer from a mosque). The king commanded every town in his kingdom to observe the times of prayer. So they all did so. A mosque was built beneath the sacred tree facing east, and prayers were made at the five appointed times in it. The nineteenth king of the Hausa kingdom was Yakubu [reigned 1452-1463]. He was a good king. In his time traders came to Kano from Mali bringing with them books on Islamic divinity and the study of the Arabic language. Formerly our religious scholars had, in addition to the Qur'an, only a few books of Islamic law. At this time too, salt became common in Kano. In the following year merchants from the region of Gwanja in the south began coming, and from the north Berbers** came in large numbers, and a colony of Arabs arrived." *a West African state established by the Hausa people of present-day northern Nigeria **ethnic group from the western part of North Africa Excerpts from The Kano Chronicle, an oral tradition that records the exploits of the kings of Kano, written down in the late nineteenth century

Passage (questions 4-6)

"[Between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries] . . . Muslim maritime traders from Egypt sought goods coming from China and Southeast Asia [and] purchased these items on India's southwestern coast. . . . Sea voyages between Egypt and India were still dangerous and still involved long voyages, as well as long stays in harbors where they waited, sometimes for several months, for the winds to shift direction. . . . To protect themselves, Muslim merchants organized karim, convoyed merchant fleets. The rulers of Egypt began providing an armed escort for the fleets and succeeded in making the trade between the Red Sea and India a government-protected, regularly accomplished endeavor. The karim merchants were organized in large family firms with substantial assets and clients in markets all over the trading networks. In the Indian Ocean trade, Muslim traders not only dealt with other Muslims, but also Hindus, Zoroastrians, Christians, and Jews. Traders of various religious backgrounds boarded the same ships or stayed in the same caravanserai. In Egypt, many Jewish traders actually operated their businesses within the framework of Muslim business networks." Xinru Liu and Lynda Norene Shaffer, historians, Connections across Eurasia, published in 2007