World History Topic 2 Test

The control of most trade between Asia and Europe in the 1400s by Arab and Italian merchants caused

• disruption in trade of luxury goods brought overland to Europe.
• Europeans outside Italy to search for direct access to Asia.
• Renaissance curiosity to spark a major religious revival in Europe.
• Europeans outside Italy to seek direct access to North Africa.

Why did the Portuguese think that they could find an easier way to reach Asia?

• They had alliances with European nations to send out expeditions.
• They had a large country and a long tradition of Asian exploration.
• They had a large fleet and had defeated Spain in recent sea battles.
• They had expert knowledge and advanced navigational technology.

Why did Columbus reach the Caribbean islands rather than the East Indies?

• He did not know that he had sailed far off course until he landed near present-day Argentina.
• He greatly underestimated the size of Earth and did not realize that North and South America existed.
• He was unaware that Earth was a sphere and so did not pursue his plan of sailing west.
• He ran out of food and water and landed too soon.

Why were the results of Columbus’s first meeting with Native Americans in the West Indies important?

• It had a sudden, short-term effect on European expansion.
• It had a serious, far-reaching impact on Native Americans.
• It had a major but gradual effect on Portuguese colonization.
• It had an unexpected, long-lasting impact on trade with Africa.

How were the Aztec and Inca empires impacted by Spanish conquistadors and European colonization?

• Conquistadors made peace with the empires, and then Europeans set up colonies.
• The Aztec and Inca empires shrank and survived only into the 1700s.
• Conquistadors destroyed the empires, and then Europeans built new settlements.
• The Aztec and Inca resisted and expelled both conquistadors and European settlers.

Which was an effect of Spain’s regulation of trade in its American colonies?

• Colonists could only trade with other Spanish colonies.
• Colonists could export raw materials only to Spain.
• Colonists could trade silver with other European nations.
• Colonists could not buy Spanish manufactured goods.

How did England's political traditions affect the types of government established in England’s American colonies?

• English colonies were direct democracies with rights and freedoms.
• English colonial governments prohibited discrimination based on race or religion.
• English colonists had some limited representative self-government.
• English colonists elected members of Parliament.

How did Britain become the dominant power in North America?

• by paying mercenaries and privateers to fight the Indians
• by winning a global war against France
• by staying neutral in the French and Indian War
• by buying Canada and Florida from Spain

What was one main reason why the slave trade greatly expanded beginning around the 1500s?

• Africans gave up trying to resist capture by European slave traders.
• Europeans started depending on enslaved people for labor in new colonies.
• Europeans needed more enslaved people to manage the arrival of new colonial goods.
• Arab merchants expanded the slave trade into South and East Asia.

How did the Atlantic slave trade contribute to the rise of some African states?

• Some African leaders went to Europe to acquire industrial technology.
• Europeans encouraged African empires to fight against each other.
• Some African groups moved inland to avoid the slave trade.
• Some African states participated in slave trading to gain wealth and power.