Unit 1

Unit 1 Multiple Choice Test

Select the one answer that best answers the question or completes the statement.

Chapter One:

The Indian Empire that dominated modern Mexico at the time of the Spanish conquest was the:

A. Mayan.

B. Inca.

C. Aztec.

D. Chico.

At the time of the Spanish conquest, the economies of most of the Native Americans in South and Central America and Mexico were based on:

A. Hunting and gathering.

B. Herding.

C. Fishing and gathering.

D. Agriculture.

The eastern third of what is now the United States was inhabited by the:

A. Woodland Indians.

B. Plains Indians.

C. Mountain Indians.

D. Coastal Tribes.

Indian societies in North America:

A. Made little distinction between gender roles.

B. Tended to divide tasks according to gender.

C. Put women in important political positions.

D. Did not allow women to exercise any control over social or economic matters.

Paralleling the rise of commerce in Europe, and in part responsible for it was:

A. The return of the Black Death.

B. The invention of the compass.

C. The revival of the African slave trade.

D. The rise of united and powerful nation states.

At least partly as a result of Columbus’s voyages, Spain:

A. Got involved in the Indian slave trade.

B. Soon went to war with France.

C. Replaced Portugal as the foremost seafaring nation.

D. Opened trade with the great khan in China.

Through a combination of daring, brutality, and greed, the conquistadors:

A. Made possible the creation of a Spanish empire in America.

B. Brought capitalism to Mexico.

C. Founded St. Augustine.

D. Introduced African slavery into America.

With the Indians’ conversion to Catholicism:

A. Native religions died out.

B. Most natives continued to practice their own religions.

C. Rebellions against whites ceased.

D. Spain was able to control all southwestern tribes.

The first and perhaps most profound results of the meeting of native and European cultures was the:

A. Exchange of plants and animals.

B. Importation of European diseases.

C. Native adoption of European ways of waging war.

D. Intermarriage of Europeans and natives.

Ultimately more important to Europe than the gold and silver found in the New World was the:

A. Importation of new crops that could feed larger numbers of people.

B. Discovery of new forms of religious worship.

C. Indian labor force.

D. Architectural knowledge gained from the Aztecs.

In matrilineal Indian and African societies:

A. the father is the sole authority in the family.

B. local gods are the basis of religious beliefs.

C. women play a major, often dominant role.

D. slavery does not exist.

The African slave trade began:

A. in the fifteenth century, soon after the Spanish conquest.

B. as early as the eighth century.

C. with the English settlement of Virginia.

D. when the sugar industry moved to the Caribbean.

13. In the sixteenth century the market for slaves grew dramatically as a result of:

A. the rising European demand for sugar cane.

B. the need for labor in the tobacco fields.

C. a desire to Christianize Africans.

D. the English entry into the slave market.

Which of the following was not an English incentive for colonization?

A. To escape religious strife at home.

B. To bring the Christian religion to the Indians.

C. To escape the economic transformation of the countryside.

D. To find new markets for English products.

15. According to the theory of mercantilism, a nation could be made strong by:

A. exporting more than it imported.

B. building up a large standing army.

C. defeating its neighbors in war.

D. importing more than it exported.

16. Members of the Church of England who claimed that the church had not given up Rome’s offensive beliefs and practices were the:

A. Baptists.

B. Presbyterians.

C. Methodists.

D. Puritans.

17. As a result of their experiences in Ireland, the English believed that:

A. all they needed to do was subdue the natives and rule them.

B. they must retain a rigid separation from the native population.

C. they could not build a complete society of their own.

D. they should intermarry with the Native Americans.

The country that produced the most successful fur trader and trappers was:

A. Spain.

B. Holland.

C. France.

D. Germany.

19. The first permanent English settlement was:

A. Massachusetts Bay.

B. Jamestown, Virginia.

C. Plymouth, Massachusetts.

D. St. Augustine, Florida.

20. The man to whom Queen Elizabeth granted the land on which the "lost colony" was planted was:

A. John White.

B. Walter Raleigh.

C. Humphrey Gilbert.

D. James Cobb.

Chapter Two:

21. Which of the following did not shape the character of English settlements in America?

A. The colonies were business enterprises.

B. The colonies promoted freedom and religion.

C. The colonies were designed to transplant society from the old world to the new.

D. The colonies were able to develop their own political and social institutions.

Captain John Smith helped Jamestown survive when he:

A. divided the duties and privileges of leadership among several members of a council.

B. imposed work and order on the colony.

C. ended raids perpetrated on neighboring Indian villages to steal food and kidnap natives.

D. divided the colony’s profits among the stockholders.

23. The Englishman who first cultivated tobacco in Virginia was:

A. John Smith.

B. Lord De La Warr.

C. John Rolfe.

D. Walter Raleigh.

24. The year 1619 was important in the history of Virginia because that year the colony:

A. elected its first House of Burgesses.

B. made its first profit.

C. received its first royal governor.

D. put down an Indian uprising.

To entice new laborers to their colony, the Virginia Company established the "headright" system to:

A. pay the Indians for their services.

B. import African slaves.

C. grant land to current and prospective settlers.

D. promise the colonists the full rights of Englishmen.

26. In 1619, two new elements were introduced into the Virginia social order. They were:

A. women and Catholics.

B. mestizos and blacks.

C. blacks and women.

D. women and mestizos.

Which of the following colonies allowed freedom of religion to all Christians?

A. Massachusetts.

B. Virginia.

C. Plymouth.

D. Maryland.

Which of the following factors contributed to the outbreak of Bacon’s Rebellion?

A. the autocratic rule of Governor Berkeley.

B. Over-representation in government of the frontier settlements.

C. The government’s pursuit and destruction of Indian marauders.

D. All of the above.

29. Bacon’s Rebellion was significant because:

A. it revealed the bitterness of competition among rival elites in Virginia.

B. it was evidence of the continuing struggle to define the Indian and white spheres of influence in Virginia.

C. it demonstrated the potential for instability in the colony’s large population of landless men.

D. A. and C.

E. of all of the above.

30. Caribbean colonies built their economies on:

A. the slave trade.

B. shipbuilding.

C. export crops.

D. fishing.

31. Many Virginians turned to slaves rather than to indentured servants for labor because Africans:

A. already knew how to raise tobacco.

B. did not have to be released, so there was no fear that they might become an unstable, landless class.

C. were cheaper to purchase at the outset.

D. were more naturally subservient and caused the master no trouble.

32. The majority of colonists who first settled in Plymouth were:

A. members of a Puritan Separatist congregation.

B. not members of a Puritan Separatist congregation.

C. upper middle class Puritans from the London area.

D. moderate Puritans who wanted only minor reforms in church practices.

33. The first governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony was:

A. John Winthrop.

B. William Bradford.

C. Roger Williams.

D. Thomas Hooker.

34. Anne Hutchinson’s teaching threatened to undermine the spiritual authority of the established clergy because she:

A. claimed believers could communicate directly with God.

B. preached that the clergy was corrupt.

C. denounced clergymen who were also politicians.

D. stressed faith over good works.

35. Regarding the Indians, Puritan settlers were least likely to advocate a policy of:

A. conversion to Christianity.

B. tolerance and respect.

C. displacement.

D. extermination.

36. The Restoration colonies had in common that they were all:

A. located in the south.

B. profitable for the crown.

C. proprietary ventures.

D. royal colonies.

37. Slavery in Carolina was greatly influenced by slavery in:

A. Virginia.

B. Barbados.

C. St. Augustine.

D. England.

38. The Navigation Acts were designed to:

A. regulate commerce according to the theory of mercantilism.

B. destroy the power of rising colonial merchants.

C. keep the price of tobacco low.

D. raise money to pay off England’s war debts.

39. The overthrow of James II in the Glorious Revolution was:

A. well received in New England.

B. criticized by colonial merchants.

C. the results of pressure on Edmund Andros.

D. hardly felt by colonial politicians.

40. In America, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 led to changes which revealed:

A. a colonial desire for self government.

B. that local issues were more important than questions over the nature of the empire.

C. that the institution of monarchy was unpopular.

D. that the established church was unpopular.

Chapter Three:

41. During the seventeenth century, at least three-fourths of the immigrants who came to the Chesapeake colonies came as:

A. slaves.

B. artisans.

C. indentured servants.

D. convicts.

42. The high mortality rate in the colonies had the effect of:

A. weakening the traditional patriarchal family structure.

B. creating significant labor shortages in New England.

C. making it difficult for women to find husbands.

D. keeping the birth rate low.

43. In the Puritan colonies, the principal economic and religious unit in the community was the:

A. family.

B. meeting house.

C. town meeting.

D. small farm.

44. The mid-1690s marked a turning point in the history of the black population in America because:

A. planters from Barbados came to Carolina.

B. slavery was introduced in Georgia.

C. Massachusetts and Rhode Island abolished slavery.

D. the Royal Africa Company lost its monopoly.

45. The one factor which determined whether a person was subject to the slave codes in the British American colonies was:

A. their country of origin.

B. the ancestry of their father.

C. the ancestry of their mother.

D. their African ancestry.

46. Historian Edmund S. Morgan argued that the institutionalization of African slavery in America reflected.

A. an effort by colonial governments to attract more white indentured servants by offering them a relatively high status.

B. the deep seated racism that white settlers had brought with them.

C. white fears of black resistance or even revolt.

D. economic and social needs for an easily recruited and controlled labor force.

47. The most numerous of the non-English immigrants were the:

A. Scotch-Irish

B. Pennsylvania.

C. French Huguenots.

D. Scottish Highlanders.

48. Which of the following was not one of the reasons that Africans were so valuable to planters along the Carolina and Georgia coast.

A. they could be forced to do work that white laborers refused to do.

B. they often came from rice-producing regions of Africa.

C. they were more accustomed to the hot and humid climate.

D. they could be counted on to work the fields without protest.

49. Conditions for agriculture were good in Pennsylvania because of the:

A. cold weather and rocky soil.

B. concentration of land ownership and the maintenance of great estates.

C. success of German immigrants in applying European methods of intensive cultivation.

D. oversupply of single male workers.

50. A common problem in American commerce in the seventeenth century was:

A. the lack of a commonly accepted currency.

B. an insufficient number of ships to carry colonial goods.

C. too many large companies in every colony.

D. a small, unprofitable coastal trade.

51. The maze of highly diverse trade routes that involved the buying and selling of rum, slaves, and sugar was known as the:

A. staple system.

B. triangle trade.

C. middle passage.

D. Atlantic highway.

52. During the seventeenth century, colonial plantations were:

A. rough and relatively small.

B. English country estates on a smaller scale.

C. seats of an entrenched, landholding aristocracy.

D. insignificant in the colonial economy.

53. African slaves in the colonial South:

A. were rigidly separated from whites.

B. were widely scattered on small farms, seldom in contact with one another.

C. often participated in various forms of organized resistance.

D. began to develop a society of their own.

54. The characteristic social unit in New England was the:

A. isolated farm.

B. meeting house.

C. town.

D. plantation.

55. In colonial New England, tension between expectations of a cohesive, united community and the reality of an increasingly diverse and fluid one led to:

A. a general economic decline.

B. the witch trials.

C. a decline in piety.

D. the rise of the merchant class.

56. Which of the following was not a function of a colonial American city?

A. they were trading centers.

B. they were centers of industry.

C. they were intellectual centers.

D. they were areas of few social distinctions.

57. In matters of religion, Americans were:

A. less tolerant than their English counterparts.

B. more tolerant than their English counterparts.

C. more inclined to be members of an Anglican congregation.

D. unconcerned about piety, especially in New England.

58. Which of the following was not a reason for the decline of piety in colonial America?

A. Denominationalism.

B. Rise of towns.

C. Corrupt ministers.

D. The importation of Enlightenment ideas.

59. The Great Awakening was:

A. an effort to alert colonists to British efforts to control them politically.

B. the way the Enlightenment influenced American educations.

C. the opening of new commercial opportunities in the West.

D. the first great American revival.

60. During the first half of the eighteenth century, colonial legislatures were generally:

A. able to act independently of Parliament.

B. controlled by the governor.

C. free from class distinctions.

D. a reflection of democracy in their respective colonies.

Bonus:

If the statement is true-mark true. If the statement is false-mark false.

Chapter one:

1. The Aztec capital built on the site of present-day Mexico City was Cuzco.

2. The large Indian trading center in the Mississippi River Valley near present day St. Louis was Cahokia.

3. The Iroquois Confederation consisted of tribes in the southernmost region of the eastern seaboard.

4. All Native American tribes traced their families through the father’s line.

5. By the end of his first voyage Columbus knew he had not reached China.

6. Cortes might not have been able to defeat the Aztecs had it not been for an epidemic of smallpox that decimated the native population.

7. The oldest permanent European settlement in the present-day United States is St. Augustine.

The riches of America ultimately hurt Spain because they caused that country to ignore domestic economic growth.

Encomiendas were large estates or land grants.

New Mexico brought the Spanish almost as much gold and silver as Mexico did.

Chapter Two:

11. Virginia was a profitable colony from the start.

12. The "headright" system was used to attract colonists to Virginia.

13. Although designed to be " transplantations" from the Old World to the New, the English colonies in America nonetheless developed a distinctive society.

14. The first Africans brought to the English colonies in America in America arrived on a Dutch ship in 1619 and were immediately sold as slaves.

15. Bacon’s Rebellion successfully overthrew the government of Sir William Berkeley.

16. The English planters who settled on Barbados were gentlemen with little ambition apart from finding an easy way of life in the islands.

17. The first enduring European settlement in New England was at Scrooby.

Roger Williams insisted that the land on which Massachusetts was settled belonged to the Indians, not the king.

After New Englanders defeated the local Indians, the French refused to aid the Native Americans.

John Locke was the author of the Fundamental Constitution for Carolina.

Chapter Three:

21. After the 1650s, natural increase became the most important source of population growth in New England.

22. In colonial America few women remained unmarried for long.

23. The survival rate for children higher in the South than in any other section.

24. Because women were scarce in colonial America, they were not bound by patriarchal authority.

25. The " middle passage" was the route taken by settlers trying to get to the Ohio Valley.

26. Africans were enslaved from the time of their arrival.

27. The earliest non-English European immigrants to arrive in the British-American colonies were the Huguenots.

Between 1700 and 1775 the colonial population increase from under 300,000 to over 2 million.

Tobacco was the major cash crop in Georgia and South Carolina.

The largest industrial enterprise in English North America employed fewer than 100 workers.