Ch. 13: Political Trasformations: Empires and Encounters

Which of the following distinguished the empires of Western Europe from other empires?

• They were initiated by maritime expansion.

• They were created by merchants.

• They were accompanied by religious conversion of conquered peoples.

• They spread diseases to conquered peoples.

Which of the following was a reason that Portugal, Spain, France, and Britain were the first to expand into the New World?

• They believed in ancient legends of a lost world across the ocean.

• They were on the Atlantic coast and were closer to the Americas.

• Their lands lacked iron, which drove them to search for deposits.

• They had a long tradition of exploring distant lands by boat.

How did many Native Americans in Mesoamerica and Peru respond to Spanish missionaries’ efforts to convert them to Catholicism?

• They blended their old customs into Catholic practices.

• They rejected Catholicism completely and maintained their local cultures.

• They only pretended to be Catholic when Europeans were around.

• They abandoned their old religions and embraced Catholicism entirely.

In contrast to the Portuguese and Spanish colonists in Latin America, British colonists in North America...

• were almost exclusively male and Catholic.

• sought to escape rather than re-create European traditions in the Americas.

• married indigenous women more frequently and were less racist.

• faced many class and racial restrictions.

What contributed to higher literacy rates in the British colonies in North America than in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in Latin America?

• The Spanish and Portuguese governments discouraged literacy among the colonial population.

• The British government invested massive funds into building libraries throughout North America.

• Spanish and Portuguese colonizers thought Native Americans could not be taught to read.

• Protestantism, which was practiced by most British colonists, encouraged reading the Bible for oneself.

How did Chinese and Russian expansion into Central Asia affect the nomadic peoples inhabiting the steppe lands?

• They abandoned their nomadic lifestyle and enjoyed success as merchants.

• They were absorbed into Chinese and Russian society and lost their identity.

• They formed a military confederation and won their independence.

• They no longer enjoyed political independence and economic prosperity.

Which of the following was a result of the Ottoman Empire’s policy toward the Christian population in southeastern Europe?

• The majority of the population had converted to Islam by the sixteenth century.

• Christians remained a permanent underclass in Ottoman society.

• Christian communities enjoyed considerable autonomy over their own affairs.

• Christians who refused to convert migrated to the Americas.

Which of the following was an outcome of the establishment of European empires in the Americas?

• A sharp decline in population in Europe and Asia

• A shift in the global balance of power in favor of Russia

• The spread of smallpox from the Americas to Eurasia

• The emergence of an Atlantic world connecting four continents

How did silver from the mines of Mexico and Peru affect international commerce?

• It shifted the center of long-distance trade to the Americas.

• It enabled Europeans to buy Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain.

• It weakened the effectiveness of mercantilist fiscal policies.

• It encouraged piracy and smuggling among colonists in North America.

Which of the following was a reason Russia expanded beginning in the sixteenth century?

• To secure its borders from attack

• To control the Silk Roads

• To monopolize the spice trade

• To gain access to gunpowder weapons