ACE Practice Test

Chapter 1: New World Beginnings

 

1.      The geography of the North American continent was fundamentally shaped by the glaciers of the Great Ice Age.

A. True      B. False

 

2.      North America was first settled by people who came by boat across the waters of the Pacific Strait from Japan to Alaska.

A. True      B. False

 

3.      The early Indian civilizations of Mexico and Peru were built on the economic foundations of cattle and wheat growing.

A. True      B. False

 

4.      Most North American Indians lived in small, semi-nomadic agricultural and hunting communities.

A. True      B. False

 

5.      Many Indian cultures like the Iroquois traced descent through the female line.

A. True      B. False

 

6.      No Europeans had ever set foot on the American continents prior to Columbus's arrival in 1492.

A. True      B. False

 

7.      A primary motive for the European voyages of discovery was the desire to find a less expensive route to Asian goods and markets.

A. True      B. False

 

8.      The beginnings of African slavery developed in response to the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

A. True      B. False

 

9.      Columbus immediately recognized in 1492 that he had come across new continents previously unknown to Europeans.

A. True      B. False

 

10.  The greatest effect of the European intrusion on the Indians of the Americas was to increase their population through intermarriage with the whites.

A. True      B. False

 

11.  Spanish gold and silver from the Americas fueled inflation and economic growth in Europe.

A. True      B. False

 

12.  The Spanish conquistadores had little to do with the native peoples of Mexico and refused to intermarry with them.

A. True      B. False

 

13.  The province of New Mexico was first settled by French colonizers from the North.

A. True      B. False

 

14.  Spain expanded its empire into Florida and New Mexico partly to block French and English intrusions.

A. True      B. False

 

15.  The Spanish empire in the New World was larger, richer, and longer-lasting than that of the English.

A. True      B. False

 

16.  The geologically oldest mountains in North America are

      A. the Appalachians.

      B. the Rockies.

      C. the Cascades.

      D. the Sierra Nevada.

 

17.  The Indian peoples of the New World

A. developed no advanced forms of civilization.

B. were divided into many diverse cultures speaking more than two thousand different languages.

C. were all organized into two large empires of the Incas and the Aztecs.

D. relied primarily on nomadic herding of domesticated animals for their sustenance.

 

18.  The Iroquois Confederacy remained a strong political and military influence until

A. the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

B. the fur trade was wiped out in the 1700s.

C. King Philip’s War.

D. the American Revolution.

 

19.  Among the important forces that first stimulated European interest in trade and discovery was

A. the Christian crusaders who brought back a taste for the silks and spices of Asia.

B. the Arab slave traders on the east coast of Africa.

C. the Scandinavian sailors who had kept up continuous trade contacts with North America.

D. the division of Spain into small kingdoms competing for wealth and power.

 

20.  Among the most important American Indian products to spread to the Old World were

A. animals such as buffalo and horses.

B. technologies such as the compass and the wheel.

C. economic systems such as plantation agriculture and livestock raising.

D. foodstuffs such as maize, beans, and tomatoes.

 

21.  The primary staples of Indian agriculture were

A. potatoes, beets, and sugar cane.

B. rice, manioc, and peanuts.

C. maize, beans, and squash.

D. wheat, oats, and honey.

 

22.  Before Columbus arrived, the only Europeans to have temporarily visited North America were

A. the Greeks.

B. the Irish.

C. the Norse.

D. the Italians.

 

23.  The Portuguese were the first to enter the slave trade and establish large-scale plantations using slave labor in

A. West Africa.

B. the Atlantic sugar islands.

C. the West Indies.

D. Brazil.

 

24.  Much of the impetus for Spanish exploration and pursuit of glory in the early 1500s came from Spain's recent

A. successful wars with England.

B. national unification and expulsion of the Muslim Moors.

C. voyages of discovery along the coast of Africa.

D. conversion to Roman Catholicism.

 

25.  A crucial political development that paved the way for the European colonization of America was

A. the rise of the centralized national monarchies such as that of Spain.

B. the feudal nobles’ political domination of the merchant class.

C. the rise of the centralized national monarchies such as that of Spain.

D. the political alliance between the Christian papacy and Muslim traders.

 

26.  The primary reason for the drastic decline in the Indian population after the encounter with the Europeans was

A. the rise of intertribal warfare.

B. the Indians' lack of resistance to European diseases such as smallpox and malaria.

C. the sharp decline in the Mexican birthrate.

D. the sudden introduction of the deadly disease syphilis to the New World.

 

27.  Cortés and his men were able to conquer the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán partly because

A. they had larger forces than the Aztecs.

B. the Aztec ruler Montezuma believed that Cortés was a god whose return had been predicted.

C. the Aztecs were peace-loving people who did not believe in war or conquest.

D. the city of Tenochtitlan already had been devastated by a disease epidemic.

 

28.  The primary early colonial competitor with Spain in the New World was

A. Portugal.

B. Italy.

C. France.

D. England.

 

29.  The belief that the Spanish only killed, tortured, and stole in the Americas while doing nothing good is called

A. the encomienda.

B. the mission of civilization.

C. the Evil Empire.

D. the Black Legend.