Unit reading quiz. 1-13

Before 1492, many American Indian cultures were strongly influenced by the

• ravages of smallpox epidemics

  
  

• regular contacts with Africa

  
  

• spread of corn cultivation

• invention of the spoked wheel

  
  

“[Before European contact] Cahokia [in present-day Missouri] and such other major centers as those now known as Coosa and Etowah in Georgia, Moundville in Alabama, and Natchez in Mississippi were home to highly stratified societies, organized as chiefdoms and characterized by a sharp divide between elites and commoners. . . . Surrounding networks of agricultural hamlets provided food to support the urban centers. . . .

“From the Ohio River through most of present-day Canada and down the coast to the Chesapeake were speakers of Algonquian languages. . . . Nearly everywhere [here], villages composed of 500 to 2,000 people were the norm. . . .

“[This] Indian country was decentralized and diverse, but not disconnected. . . . Routes of trade and communication, most of them millennia old and following the great river systems, crisscrossed the continent. The goods that moved along them were, for the most part, few and rare. . . . Some closely neighboring people might exchange crucial resources—corn, for instances, for meat or fish.”

Which of the following most supported the development of the commerce described in the third paragraph?

• Metal tools became valuable objects in Native American religions.

  
  

• Maize cultivation spread northward from Mexico

• Native Americans constructed extensive road networks.

  
  

• Native Americans in the Northeast of North America formed extensive empires.

  
  

“[Before European contact] Cahokia [in present-day Missouri] and such other major centers as those now known as Coosa and Etowah in Georgia, Moundville in Alabama, and Natchez in Mississippi were home to highly stratified societies, organized as chiefdoms and characterized by a sharp divide between elites and commoners. . . . Surrounding networks of agricultural hamlets provided food to support the urban centers. . . .

“From the Ohio River through most of present-day Canada and down the coast to the Chesapeake were speakers of Algonquian languages. . . . Nearly everywhere [here], villages composed of 500 to 2,000 people were the norm. . . .

“[This] Indian country was decentralized and diverse, but not disconnected. . . . Routes of trade and communication, most of them millennia old and following the great river systems, crisscrossed the continent. The goods that moved along them were, for the most part, few and rare. . . . Some closely neighboring people might exchange crucial resources—corn, for instances, for meat or fish.”

Daniel K. Richter, historian, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America, 2001

Which of the following best describes the economic system that supported the Native American villages discussed in the second paragraph of the excerpt?

• Trade and manufacturing of luxury goods

  
  

• Settled subsistence farming

  
  

• Seminomadic hunting

  
  

• Migration and colonization of new territories

  
  

The image best serves as evidence that many Native American groups had developed farming techniques that...

• 
  supported permanent villages

  
  

• differed dramatically from English agricultural practices

  
  

• spread tobacco cultivation throughout the continent

  
  

• allowed for continuous warfare

  
  

Which of the following statements about the population of North America at the time of Christopher Columbus’ voyages is supported by the map above?

• The most densely populated regions of North America would eventually become part of New France.

  
  

• The American Indian population was distributed uniformly throughout North America.

  
  

• The most densely populated regions of North America would eventually become part of New Spain.

  
  

“You have told us that we do not know the One who gives us life and being, who is Lord of the heavens and of the earth. You also say that those we worship are not gods. This way of speaking is entirely new to us, and very scandalous. We are frightened by this way of speaking because our forebears who engendered and governed us never said anything like this. . . .

“It would be a fickle, foolish thing for us to destroy the most ancient laws and customs left by the first inhabitants of this land. . . . All of us together feel that it is enough to have lost, enough that the power and royal jurisdiction have been taken from us. As for our gods, we will die before giving up serving and worshiping them. This is our determination; do what you will.”

Lords and holy men of Tenochtitlan [the Aztec capital], reply to the Franciscans in 1524 after the conquest of Mexico, from a Spanish account written in 1564

The ideas expressed in the excerpt most directly resulted from which of the following?

• Treaties for the purchase of Native American territory

  
  

• Grants of encomiendas to Spanish colonists

  
  

• The arrival of Christian missionaries in the Americas

  
  

• Internal disputes among Native American leaders

  
  

Which of the following was an outcome of the Columbian Exchange?

• The life expectancy of Native Americans increased.

  
  

• Horses and smallpox were introduced in Europe.

  
  

• The diets of Europeans improved.

  
  

• Dramatic decrease of Native populations

“I said everything to them I could to divert them from their idolatries, and draw them to a knowledge of God our Lord. Moctezuma replied, the others assenting to what he said, that they had already informed me they were not the aborigines of the country, but that their ancestors had emigrated to it many years ago; and they fully believed that after so long an absence from their native land, they might have fallen into some errors; that I having more recently arrived must know better than themselves what they ought to believe; and that if I would instruct them in these matters, and make them understand the true faith, they would follow my directions, as being for the best. Afterwards, Moctezuma and many of the principal citizens remained with me until I had removed the idols, purified the chapels, and placed the images in them, manifesting apparent pleasure.”

Moctezuma’s statement that the Mexica “were not the aborigines of the country” most likely refers to which of the following developments?

• Widespread deadly epidemics before the arrival of the Spanish

  
  

• The presence of different and complex societies before European contact

  
  

• The development of African slavery in the Spanish colonies

  
  

Developments such as that depicted in the image most directly led to which of the following?

• The increasing use of indentured servants in the Caribbean

  
  

• The settling of the eastern North American seaboard by the Spanish

• The importation of enslaved Africans to the Caribbean

  
  

• The spread of Spanish missionaries into portions of Florida

  
  

Which of following best capture Spanish Conquistadors' motivation to conquer the New World?

AKA GOD, GOLD, GLORY

• To find a new trade route to Asia
• To spread Christianity
• To seek wealth and political power
• To explore unknown territories