Western Civilization Ch18-21
The techniques of mass production were first developed for
The techniques of mass production were first developed for A) iron making. B) making cotton goods. ***** C) ship building. D) distilling rum from colonial sugar. E) gun manufacturing. Feedback: Strong demand for cheap goods was a catalyst for propelling the market for cotton goods.
Enclosure had all of the following effects EXCEPT
A) increasing the productivity of the land. B) destroying cooperative farming villages. C) driving many peasants into destitution. D) causing a massive rural depopulation. **** E) making agricultural production more efficient. Feedback: To make use of new agricultural methods, farmers had to be free to manage the land as they saw fit. This land management was all but impossible under the open-field system that had dominated the countryside in Europe since the Middle Ages.
The British and French competed to control all of the following areas EXCEPT
The British and French competed to control all of the following areas EXCEPT A) the West Indies. B) East Africa. ***** C) North America. D) India. E) West Africa. Feedback: Both nations sponsored powerful companies for trade with India and other lands. These companies were supposed to compete for markets without establishing colonies.
Europe's economic growth had which of the following effects?
*** A) Rents rose while wages fell, benefiting landlords and businessmen and hurting farmers and laborers. B) Rents rose while wages fell, benefiting farmers and laborers and hurting landlords and businessmen. C) Rents fell while wages rose, benefiting landlords and businessmen and hurting farmers and laborers. D) Rents fell while wages rose, benefiting farmers and laborers and hurting landlords and businessmen. E) Rents fell and wages fell, hurting landlords, farmers, and laborers. Feedback: High rents in the countryside and low wages in the city took wealth from the poor and delivered it to the landlord and employer.
Britain established control of India by all of the following EXCEPT
A) moving aggressively to establish an overwhelming presence. *** B) exploiting divisions among Indian potentates. C) creating a class of landholders beholden to Britain. D) indoctrinating select Indians in British culture. E) creating a private corporation, the London East India Company, to administer its political and commercial interests. Feedback: The British created an enormous administrative bureaucracy comprised of Indian clerks, runners, and translators.
The triangular trade routes most consistently
revolved around A) Europe. B) Africa. C) Portugal. D) North America. E) the West Indies. ***** Feedback: French and British manufacturers in port cities made fortunes by refining or finishing colonial products.
During the eighteenth century, Europe's population grew by
A) 25%. B) 50%. *** C) 75%. D) 100%. E) 150%. Around 1730, Europe entered a new period of sustained population growth. Between 1730 and 1800, Europe's population jumped from about 120 million to about 180 or 190 million.
Britain won its rivalry for dominance in the colonial world with France primarily because
A) Britain's dominance at sea prevented France from reinforcing its colonies. **** B) Britain was able to stay out of the Seven Years' War, while France fought in it. C) Britain's ally Russia was able to beat France, Austria, and Prussia. D) the French economy was more dependent on overseas trade, and thus more vulnerable in a naval war. E) Britain had superior artillery that could not be matched by French fortifications. Feedback: The British were able to beat back French attempts to invade their country, destroying French fleets at Toulon and Brest.
How did the population increase affect the scope of economic activity during the eighteenth century?
A) Increasing competition for resources depressed the economy. B) Increasing demand for goods and services stimulated the economy. ***** C) Increasing competition and increasing demand canceled each other, so there was little net effect. D) Europe's surplus population emigrated to the colonies, making up the bulk of the labor force in them. E) Increasing competition for scarce resources led to increasing incidents of warfare on the continent. Feedback: While the economy experienced periods of fluctuation, of growth and decline, the long-term, or secular, trend was positive, compared with the stagnation and trouble of the "long seventeenth century."
The young British clerk who rose through the ranks of the East India Company to eventually oust the French from the Bengal region of India was
A) Robert Clive. *** B) Lord Cornwallis. C) William Pitt. D) Louis Montcalm. E) Edward Braddock. Feedback: Young British clerks who went to India poor but later returned to England as rich men were referred to as "nabobs."
England satisfied all of the following preconditions for innovation and economic growth EXCEPT
A) an excellent base of raw materials. B) a docile working population held firmly in place by seigneurialism. ***** C) a uniform system of tariffs, laws, and standards. D) a relatively wealthy population and pool of potential entrepreneurs. E) access to overseas markets. Feedback: Of all the nations of Europe, England was the first to develop a social structure strongly supportive of innovation and economic growth.
Adam Smith argued that
A) economic progress depended on the state's management of each individual's labor. B) divisions of labor do not naturally emerge, but must be imposed by government. C) laissez-faire economic theory made severe overestimations of an individual's capacity. D) guild regulations were the most effective means of encouraging productivity among individual enterprise. E) money itself did not constitute wealth, but was only its marker. **** Feedback: Smith argued that wealth derived from the added value in manufactured items produced by the combination of invested capital and labor. He believed that economic progress required that each individual be allowed to pursue his or her own self-interest freely, without restriction by guilds, the state, or tradition.
Protoindustrialization had all of the following effects EXCEPT that
A) economically, it strengthened marketing networks, spurred capital accumulation, and stimulated demand. B) socially, it familiarized rural inhabitants with industrial processes and cash relationships. C) demographically, it loosened restraints on marriage and births, which led to immigration into the cities. D) technologically, it stimulated innovations that increased productivity that sustained continuous growth. **** E) the volume of rural manufacturing increased under the putting-out system, as more rural families devoted time to industrial work. Feedback: Protoindustrialization is the name historians give to a type of economic development that occurred before the rise of the factory system in the late eighteenth century.
The Treaty of Paris did all of the following EXCEPT
A) eliminate the threat of French power in North America. B) reduce French holdings in the West Indies. C) establish British military supremacy in India. D) remove France as a naval power of consequence. **** E) essentially restore the status quo antebellum. Feedback: In the peace negotiations, a war-weary British government was prepared to return certain colonies to France in exchange for an end to the fighting.
Europe's population rose primarily because of
A) fewer battlefield mortalities. B) declining death rates due to improved medicine and hygiene. C) increasing birth rates due to increased economic opportunities. D) increasing birth rates due to a mild improvement in average climate. E) declining death rates due to better food supply. ***** Feedback: Declines in the death rate did not occur because of improvements in medical science or hygiene. Instead, Europe was beginning to enjoy a more stable and better food supply.
Convertible husbandry allowed landlords to
A) leave more fields fallow during a growing season without sacrificing productivity. B) experiment with techniques to enhance the quality of the soil. **** C) give control of more fields to peasants for their own personal use. D) be more absentee in their management of their farmlands. E) oppose the enclosure system. Feedback: Eighteenth-century agrarian innovators also experimented with the selective breeding of animals.
All of the following were impediments to economic innovation EXCEPT
A) small markets due to transportation limitations. B) demand skewed to finely crafted luxury items. C) entrenched economic privileges such as guilds and monopolies. D) laissez-faire attitudes among government administrators. **** E) governments that maintained counter-productive policies in order to enrich themselves. Feedback: Cultural attitudes often discouraged entrepreneurial efforts. Many persons, particularly in the aristocratic classes, still regarded money made in trade or manufacture as somehow tainted.
Eastern Europe was distinguished from Western Europe by
A) the continued existence of "feudal" relationships. B) the continued dominance of the system of serfdom similar to that of the Middle Ages. ***** C) the vigor of its urban commercial classes. D) the absolutist nature of its governmental structures. E) the control of territory by the Church. Feedback: In most of central and eastern Europe, nobles retained a near monopoly on the ownership of land, and peasants remained serfs, their personal freedom severely limited by the lord's supervision.
All of the following are true of the European slave system EXCEPT that
A) the risks of slaving ventures were high. B) it condemned some captives to death and the rest to a life of forced labor. C) it created luxuries and generated huge profits for the Europeans. D) almost half a million people were removed from Africa annually and placed into the slave trade. **** E) it sparked agitation against slavery by Quaker reformers in Britain and France. Feedback: The mortality rate on the slave ships resulting from horrific conditions was, in extreme cases, nearly fifty percent.
The West Indies were ideal colonies for all of the following reasons EXCEPT that
A) the slave system worked well, since they were islands. B) they produced tropical crops difficult to grow elsewhere. C) they depended on exports from Europe and America. D) they could manufacture the luxury goods demanded by the planter class. **** E) all colonial powers in the region were making money. Feedback: Their lack of an indigenous food supply or ability to manufacture the luxury goods demanded by the planter class kept the West Indies economically dependent on Europe.
