Chapter 24

New Worlds: The Americas and Oceania

MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Doa Marina was
a. the first viceroy of the Spanish colonies in the Americas.
b. the leading Spanish banker who funded exploration.
c. the Portuguese explorer who first sighted Australia.
d. a Mexican woman who aided Corts in his conquest of the Aztecs.
e. the nautical term for the dominant westerly wind that made voyages to the Americas faster.
Answer: d
Page: 523
2. The term mestizo refers to
a. the coins that were used in the Aztec empire.
b. an individual of indigenous and European parentage.
c. the Spanish plantations on which millions of Central and South Americans were enslaved.
d. the Aztec term for the mysterious disease that devastated their population.
e. the percentage of silver that went to the Spanish government.
Answer: b
Page: 533
3. The most important factor in explaining the Spanish victory over the Aztecs and Incas was
the
a. overwhelming Spanish superiority in guns and cannons.
b. devastating loss of life caused by European-borne diseases.
c. Spanish strength in numbers.
d. military precision of the well-trained Spanish troops.
e. Spanish alliance with the Maya.
Answer: b
Page: 524
4. The first people of the Americas to come into contact with the Spanish were the
a. Maya.
b. Aztecs.
c. Incas.
d. Tano.
e. Chimu.
Answer: d

Page: 527

5. Christopher Columbuss first plan was to

a. build trading posts where merchants could trade with the local population.
b. plunder the legendary wealth of the Aztecs.
c. form an alliance with the Aztecs against the Incas.
d. form an alliance with the French before attacking the Tano.
e. subjugate the native population as a slave race for the Spanish.
Answer: a
Page: 525
6. The encomenderos were
a. Aztec priests who viewed the Spanish as visiting gods.
b. Spanish settlers.
c. the first society of the Americas to come into contact with the Spanish.
d. the Spanish administrative officials who ruled over the colonies and reported back to
Spain.
e. individuals of indigenous and European parentage.
Answer: b
Page: 526
7. The population of the Caribbean went from about 4 million in 1492 to ________ in the
1540s.
a. 8 million
b. 5 million
c. 4 million
d. 2 million
e. a few thousand
Answer: e
Page: 526
8. Hernn Corts was responsible for the conquest of the
a. Tano.
b. Chimu.
c. Incas.
d. Aztecs.
e. Moche.
Answer: d
Page: 527
9. The last emperor of the Aztec empire was

a. Atahualpa.
b. Motecuzoma II.
c. Itzcatl.
d. Topa.
e. Motecuzoma I.
Answer: b
Page: 527
10. The conquistador who conquered the Incas was
a. Balboa.
b. Corts.
c. Cabral.
d. Magellan.
e. Pizarro.
Answer: e
Page: 528
11. The last emperor of the Inca empire was
a. Motecuzoma II.
b. Atahualpa.
c. Topa Inca.
d. Viracocha.
e. Pachacuti.
Answer: b
Page: 528
12. The conquistadores
a. established empires in Central and South America that lasted until the eighteenth century.
b. lost control because of a bloody battle between the forces of Corts and Pizarro.
c. eventually lost control and were replaced with formal rule by the Spanish crown.
d. eventually died of the very same smallpox they had unwittingly introduced to the
Americas.
e. in turn were defeated by French forces.
Answer: c
Page: 529
13. The two centers of Spanish royal authority in the Americas were
a. Lima and Chanchan.
b. Mexico City and Cuzco.
c. Lima and Mexico City.
d. Tenochtitlan and Mexico City.
e. Cuzco and Tenochtitlan.
Answer: c

Page: 529
14. The chief Spanish royal administrators in the Americas were
a. the viceroys.
b. the peninsulares.
c. the conquistadors.
d. the encomiendas.
e. the haciendas.
Answer: a
Page: 529
15. The power of the viceroys was checked by reviews conducted by the
a. mestizo.
b. zambos.
c. encomiendas.
d. conquistadores.
e. audiencias.
Answer: e
Page: 529
16. The Treaty of Tordesillas
a. granted England control over Australia.
b. split Central and South America between Spain and Portugal.
c. ended the Seven Years War.
d. limited Spanish northern expansion to modern-day Florida.
e. ended the English practice of raiding Spanish treasure galleons.
Answer: b
Page: 529
17. The Portuguese began to show much more interest in Brazil after
a. the establishment of profitable sugar plantations.
b. the English victory over the Spanish Armada.
c. brazil wood became a major cash crop.
d. a Spanish military loss to France removed Spain as a serious rival for control of Brazil.
e. the discovery of rich gold and silver mines.
Answer: a
Page: 530
18. The English, French, and Dutch
a. were like the Spanish in that they viewed the Americas as a land to exploit rather than a
place to settle.
b. did not play a role in the Americas until the mid-eighteenth century.
c. never showed any serious interest in the Americas.

d. discovered gold and silver mines that rivaled Spanish claims.

e. were more interested in setting up permanent colonies than were the Spanish.
Answer: e
Page: 530
19. Which of the following sites in North America was originally a Dutch colony?
a. Plymouth
b. Jamestown
c. Port Royal
d. New York
e. Quebec
Answer: d
Page: 531
20. The English colony of Jamestown
a. was nearly destroyed due to mass starvation.
b. was wildly successful and quickly recouped the original financial investment.
c. mysteriously disappeared during a period in which the English were too busy to send aid.
d. served as a remarkably satisfactory location for the Puritans.
e. was burned to the ground during a French invasion.
Answer: a
Page: 531
21. Which of the following was NOT a difference between the Spanish approach to colonization
and that of the English and French?
a. Private investors played a much greater role in the English and French approach.
b. The English and French viewed the indigenous populations as their equals.
c. The English and French did not encounter large, centralized states.
d. The Spanish saw the Americas as a land to exploit rather than one to settle or colonize.
e. Iberian explorers had royal backing.
Answer: b
Page: 531-532
22. Which of the following is NOT true of the native Americans that the English and French
came into contact with?
a. The native societies of North America did not have large, centralized states like the Aztecs
and Incas.
b. The native Americans did not live in densely populated areas.
c. The native Americans practiced agriculture, but moved frequently in pursuit of game.
d. The native Americans lived in dozens of distinct societies.
e. The native Americans guarded their claims to private ownership of land even more
jealously than the Europeans.
Answer: e

Page: 531-532
23. The native population in what is now the United States stood at five million to ten million in
1492, and at ________ in 1800.
a. fifteen million
b. ten million
c. eight million
d. six million
e. six hundred thousand
Answer: e
Page: 532

24. Spanish migrants who were born in Europe were known as

a. zambos.
b. encomiendas.
c. mestizos.
d. peninsulares.
e. mulattoes.
Answer: d
Page: 533
25. The mtis were
a. French Jesuit missionaries.
b. migrants who had been born in Europe.
c. the Spanish administrative officials who reported back directly to the king.
d. the French equivalents of the peninsulares.
e. individuals of French and indigenous parentage.
Answer: e
Page: 534
26. For the Spanish, the greatest attraction of the Americas was
a. precious metals.
b. tobacco.
c. the new class of trading partners to buy Spanish manufactured goods.
d. sugar.
e. slaves.
Answer: a
Page: 534

27. By the seventeenth century, the most prominent site of agriculture in Spanish America was
the
a. mtis.
b. hacienda.
c. repartimiento.
d. quinto.
e. zambo.
Answer: b
Page: 535
28. To provide labor for their sugar plantations, the Portuguese
a. offered higher wages than did their Spanish counterparts.
b. copied the Spanish encomiendas.
c. made extensive use of indentured servants.
d. copied the Spanish repartimiento system.
e. relied on imported African slaves as laborers.
Answer: e
Page: 535-536
29. In North America, the Europeans initially found a profitable commodity when they bartered
for
a. furs.
b. maize.
c. tobacco.
d. indigo.
e. molasses.
Answer: a
Page: 537
30. Plantations created a high demand for
a. cheap labor.
b. cash crops.
c. tobacco.
d. money.
e. education.
Answer: a
Page: 538
31. The first plentiful labor force for North America was
a. indentured servants.
b. peninsulares from South America.
c. African slaves.
d. mtis purchased from Canada.

e. native Americans who worked as part of a complicated barter system.

Answer: a
Page: 538-539
32. The Virgin of Guadalupe essentially became a national symbol for
a. Peru.
b. Mexico.
c. Argentina.
d. Brazil.
e. Chile.
Answer: b
Page: 540
33. The first recorded European sighting of Australia was made by the
a. Portuguese.
b. Dutch.
c. English.
d. French.
e. Spanish.
Answer: b
Page: 541
34. Which of the following countries established the first permanent settlement in Australia?
a. England
b. the Netherlands
c. Portugal
d. Spain
e. France
Answer: a
Page: 541
35. The British initially made use of Australia
a. because of its rich silver mines.
b. because of its extraordinary agricultural abundance.
c. as a busy port on the route from Acapulco to Manila.
d. as a penal colony.
e. as a tourist retreat.
Answer: d
Page: 541
36. In the 1670s and 1680s, the Spanish were interested in consolidating control in which area
because it lay directly on the route from Acapulco to Manila?
a. Guam

b. New Zealand
c. the Marquesas Islands
d. Tahiti
e. Hawai`i
Answer: a
Page: 542

TRUE/FALSE
37. The first site of interaction between European and American peoples was the Caribbean, and
when the Spanish arrived there, the Tano were the most prominent people.
Answer: True
Page: 545
38. Christopher Columbus and his immediate followers made the island of Cuba the base of
Spanish operations in the Caribbean.
Answer: False
Page: 525
39. Between 1519 and 1521, Hernn Corts and a small band of men brought down the Aztec
empire in Mexico.
Answer: True
Page: 527
40. On the mainland, as in the Caribbean, epidemic disease aided Spanish efforts in the conquest
of native American peoples and their lands.
Answer: True
Page: 527
41. Private investors rather than royal financial backing played a larger role in French and
English colonial efforts in the Americas.
Answer: True
Page: 531
42. In both Spanish and Portuguese colonies, migrants from Europe known as peninsulares stood
at the top of the social hierarchy, followed by criollos, individuals born in the Americas of
Iberian parents.
Answer: True
Page: 533

43. The Spanish government reserved a fifth of the gold production, known as the quinto, for
itself. This represented the principal revenue that the crown derived from its American
possessions.
Answer: False
Page: 535
44. While the Spanish American empire concentrated on the extraction of silver, the Portuguese
empire in Brazil depended on the production and export of sugar.
Answer: True
Page: 536
45. Planters in North America initially met the demand for cheap labor by recruiting indentured
servants from Europe.
Answer: True
Page: 538
46. In 1788 a Dutch fleet arrived at Sydney carrying about one thousand passengers, eight
hundred of them convicts, and established the first European settlement in Australia as a
penal colony.
Answer: False
Page: 541

ESSAY
47. Bernardino de Sahagn reported that the Aztecs were amazed by the Spanish guns. The
Spanish gun resounded as if it thundered when it went off. It indeed bereft one of strength.
What role did a difference in technology play in the fall of the Aztecs and Incas? Think of
earlier instances in the class when a difference in technology had a profound effect.
48. Captain James Cook, when talking about the Hawaiians, proposed that No people could
trade with more honesty than these people. Why would honesty be important to Cook? Were
Cooks relations with the Hawaiians always this positive? Discuss the nature of the
relationship between Europeans and indigenous peoples in the Americas and Oceania.
49. Examine the exploration of the Americas by the French, Dutch, and English. How and why
was their approach different from that of the Spanish and Portuguese?
50. Examine the social structure of colonial life in North America. How was it different from the
social structure of life in Central and South America? What explains the differences? In what
ways did the different societies intermingle?

51. Examine the world of trade in the Americas. What were its economic and social
implications? How did trade in the Americas fit into the larger trading world of the
Europeans?
52. Examine the exploration and colonization of Australia and Oceania. Compare and contrast it
to the European settlement of the Americas.
53. How was the story of Doa Marina representative of the collapse of Mesoamerican and
South American societies?
54. What factors help to explain the rapid Spanish conquest of Central and South America? What
advantages did the Spanish enjoy? What events were important?
55. What role did disease play in the Spanish conquest of the Americas? What can this event
express about the isolation of these societies?
56. The Spanish colonial history has always had a very dark reputation. Do the Spanish actually
deserve this tradition? Were their colonial policies any different from those of the Dutch,
French, and English?
57. Examine the role played by the Portuguese in the exploration and colonization of South
America. How did this role relate to Portuguese exploration and colonization elsewhere?
How were the Portuguese different from the Spanish or the English, French, and Dutch?
58. Examine the social transformation of Mesoamerica and South America. How complete was
this transformation? How much of native traditions remained?
59. Examine the picture of the mining operations at Potos on page 535. What does this picture
tell us about the Spanish interest in the Americas? Was it different from that of the other
Europeans? What was life like for the native miners? What result would a high death rate
have on the search for a labor force?
60. Examine the picture of slaves working on a plantation on page 539. Why did slavery
eventually become more common than indentured servitude?
61. What became of the Tano people of the Caribbean?
62. Consider the impact of the encomienda system of land distribution on the future of Spanish
America.
63. How did Pizarro conquer the Inca empire with 180 men?

64. What kinds of communities were established in the New World colonies of Portugal and
Spain? How were they organized? How were they governed?
65. Describe the typical relations between French and English settlers and the native Americans.
66. What determined the social hierarchy in the Iberian colonies? Who tended to have wealth and
power?
67. What was the basis of the economy of the Spanish empire? Who profited most from this?
68. Explain how sugar production came to dictate so much of colonial Brazilian life.
69. What became the basis of the economy and settlement in the North American colonies of
France and England?
70. When and how did slavery come to North America? How did the arrival of slavery impact
the societies that emerged there?
71. What was distinctive about the European exploration and settlement of Australia?