Topics 4.1-- 4.4: Assessment Questions

Which of the following most directly led to European state sponsorship of maritime exploration?

• Improvements in European geographic knowledge of Africa and the Indian Ocean.

• Improvements in Europeans’ ability to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

• Religious divisions in Europe related to the Protestant Reformation.

• The development of theories of natural rights and representative government.

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4.2-Causes and Events from 1450 to 1750

Which of the following most immediately led to the global expansion of European political power in the period circa 1500?

• The Ottoman conquest of Constantinople.

• The Columbian Exchange

• Advances in medicine that improved Europeans’ ability to survive in tropical climates.

• Advances in shipbuilding and navigational methods.

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4.2-Causes and Events from 1450 to 1750

The maritime exploration efforts by England, France, and the Netherlands were most directly connected to which of the following?

• The need to ease population pressures in Europe by establishing settlement colonies.

• The transfer of engineering and navigational knowledge from the classical and Islamic worlds to Europe.

• The Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Reformation.

• Economic competition against other European states and a desire to find new sailing routes to Asia.

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4.2-Causes and Events from 1450 to 1750

The author uses all of the following as evidence to support his argument about the impact of smallpox on Native American populations EXCEPT...

• many Native Americans who contracted smallpox died from it

• the English settlers tried to help the Native Americans who were afflicted with smallpox

• the Native Americans feared smallpox more than any other disease

• smallpox was widespread among Native Americans

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4.3: Columbian Exchange

The author invokes which of the following to support his claim that smallpox’s impact on European settlers was different from its impact on Native Americans?

• Pseudoscientific theories of European racial superiority

• Evidence from population genetics

• Ideas about the role of divine providence in human affairs

• Protestant ideas about hard work and economic success as markers of personal virtue

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4.3: Columbian Exchange

The passage implies that the author was aware of smallpox being an infectious disease. Which of the following can best be cited as evidence of that claim?

• The author’s statement that Native Americans lived in a “trading house” near the English settlement

• The author’s statement that smallpox was so debilitating that those afflicted with it could not “make a fire, or fetch water to drink”

• The author’s statement that the English settlers “took pity” at the sight of the Native Americans’ suffering

• The author’s statement that no English settlers fell ill, even though “many performed these favors for the Indians for weeks”

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4.3: Columbian Exchange

The letter is best understood in the context of which of the following aspects of the historical situation in sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1600s?

• Political, religious, and economic rivalries shaped European colonial policies in Africa.

• State centralization in Europe led to a change from joint-stock company control to direct imperial control in many colonial territories.

• The arrival of Europeans led to the conquest and destruction of many native African states.

• Religious conflicts stemming from the spread of Islam from North Africa made sub-Saharan African states vulnerable to European conquest.

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4.4: Maritime Empires Established

The point of view expressed by the Dutch West India Company’s directors in the letter can best be described as...

• evenhanded in describing the benefits and detriments of various proposed options to the States-General

• shaped by views of European cultural and religious superiority over African peoples, which the States-General representatives would have been likely to share

• dismissive in its evaluation of the military and strategic importance of the kingdom of Kongo to the Netherlands

• seeking to steer the States-General representatives into taking action that would benefit the company financially

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4.4: Maritime Empires Established

The report’s position on the proposed transfer of Luanda to the Dutch is best understood in light of the authors’ goal to...

• secure profits from the rapidly expanding trans-Atlantic slave trade.

• highlight the gender and family imbalances created by the slave trade.

• recommend that the company expand its operations to the Indian Ocean and the spice islands of Southeast Asia.

• offer a comparison between the profitability of East African versus West African slave trade routes.

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4.4: Maritime Empires Established