According to a widely held theory, early migrants reached the Americas from Asia by crossing a land bridge that once joined Siberia and Alaska. What is this land bridge called?
Beringia
✓
Aztlán
Mesoamerica
Xochimilco
Correct Answer
Beringia
Beringia was a stretch of land exposed when sea levels were lower, and migrants following game crossed it from Asia into North America. Melting glaciers later flooded it, forming the Bering Strait. Aztlán is the legendary homeland of the Mexica. Mesoamerica is the cultural region of central Mexico and Central America. Xochimilco is an area of Mexico City known for its canals.
Category: Early Migration
Question 2
Which Mesoamerican civilization, which flourished on Mexico's Gulf Coast from about 1200 to 400 BCE, is best known for colossal heads carved from stone?
Maya
Olmec
✓
Inca
Pueblo
Correct Answer
Olmec
The Olmec carved giant stone heads, some weighing many tons, and many scholars call them the mother culture of Mesoamerica because features of their art and religion appear in later cultures. Maya city-states rose in southern Mexico and Central America and reached their height later. The Inca lived in the Andes of South America. Pueblo peoples lived in the American Southwest.
Category: Mesoamerican Civilizations
Question 3
Which civilization built city-states such as Tikal, Copan, and Chichen Itza and developed advanced writing, mathematics, and astronomy?
Inca
Hopewell
Maya
✓
Mississippian
Correct Answer
Maya
The Maya built independent city-states with temples, pyramids, and observatories across present-day southern Mexico and Central America, and they refined a calendar and writing system. The Inca built an empire in the Andes and kept records with knotted strings rather than a script like Maya glyphs. The Hopewell built burial mounds in the Ohio River Valley. Mississippian peoples built mound cities such as Cahokia along the Mississippi River.
Category: Mesoamerican Civilizations
Question 4
The Mexica began building their capital, Tenochtitlán, in 1325 on an island in which body of water?
Lake Titicaca
Gulf of Mexico
Lake Nicaragua
Lake Texcoco
✓
Correct Answer
Lake Texcoco
Tenochtitlán rose on an island in Lake Texcoco in the Valley of Mexico, linked to the mainland by causeways, and present-day Mexico City stands on the same site. Lake Titicaca lies high in the Andes on the border of Peru and Bolivia. The Gulf of Mexico is the coast where the Olmec lived, not the site of the capital. Lake Nicaragua is in Central America, far south of the Valley of Mexico.
Category: Mesoamerican Civilizations
Question 5
What were the chinampas that helped feed the population of Tenochtitlán?
Raised farm plots in the lake
✓
Stone temple pyramids
Knotted record strings
Paved mountain roads
Correct Answer
Raised farm plots in the lake
Chinampas, sometimes called floating gardens, were raised beds built up from mud and reeds in the shallow lake and watered by it, which let the Mexica grow food for a very large city. Stone temple pyramids were religious buildings, not farms. Knotted record strings were the Inca quipu. Paved mountain roads were a feature of the Inca empire in the Andes.
Category: Mesoamerican Civilizations
Question 6
How did the Inca keep records of things such as population and tribute?
Painted bark codices
Knotted, colored strings
✓
Carved stone glyphs
Inscribed clay tablets
Correct Answer
Knotted, colored strings
The Inca used the quipu, a set of colored strings whose knots recorded numbers and other information. Painted bark codices were folding books used by the Maya and other Mesoamerican peoples. Carved stone glyphs were part of Maya writing. Inscribed clay tablets belong to ancient Mesopotamia, not the Andes.
Category: Andean Civilization
Question 7
Under the Inca labor system known as the mita, what were peasants required to do?
Hand all of their crops to the ruler
Move permanently to the capital
Work on public projects for set periods
✓
Serve as priests of the sun god
Correct Answer
Work on public projects for set periods
The mita required peasants to spend a set number of days working on state projects such as roads, bridges, and buildings, which is how the Inca built their vast road system. Peasants did not hand over all of their crops; they farmed their community's lands for themselves and owed labor, not their whole harvest. The mita did not require people to move permanently to the capital. Priests were an elite group, not drafted peasant laborers.
Category: Andean Civilization
Question 8
Which settlement near present-day St. Louis had more than 100 earthen mounds and was a center of trade along the Mississippi River around 1100 CE?
Chaco Canyon
Mesa Verde
Teotihuacan
Cahokia
✓
Correct Answer
Cahokia
Cahokia was the largest settlement in North America north of Mexico at its height, with over 10,000 residents and mounds that served as bases for leaders' buildings. It declined after about 1300. Chaco Canyon was a Pueblo center in New Mexico. Mesa Verde in Colorado is known for cliff dwellings. Teotihuacan was a great city in the Valley of Mexico.
Category: Native North America
Question 9
Why did the Spanish call some peoples of the American Southwest "Pueblo"?
They lived in multistory stone and adobe towns
✓
They traveled in large fleets of canoes
They built huge earthen burial mounds
They followed bison herds on horseback
Correct Answer
They lived in multistory stone and adobe towns
Pueblo is Spanish for town or village, and the name described the many-storied stone and mud buildings these peoples lived in. Large canoe fleets were not their way of life in the desert. Earthen burial mounds were built by peoples of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, such as the Hopewell. Bison hunting on horseback developed on the Plains after the Spanish brought horses.
Category: Native North America
Question 10
How did the way most Eastern Woodlands peoples thought about land differ from the European view?
They bought and sold land with written deeds
They claimed hunting grounds but not private ownership
✓
They held that all land belonged to one king
They valued land mainly as a source of gold
Correct Answer
They claimed hunting grounds but not private ownership
Native groups claimed hunting and farming areas, often marked by landmarks, but did not treat land as private property to be bought and sold. Europeans saw land as private wealth to own and exploit, a difference that fueled later conflict. Written deeds for buying and selling land were a European practice. Rule by a single king over all land does not describe the autonomous clans and tribes of the Eastern Woodlands. The search for gold was a European motive, not a Native view of land.
Category: Native North America
Question 11
In medieval Europe's feudal system, what did serfs owe in return for a lord's protection?
Military service as knights
A share of Church tithes
Labor farming the lord's land
✓
Votes in the lord's council
Correct Answer
Labor farming the lord's land
Serfs worked the land of a lord's manor and were bound to it, receiving protection in return. Military service as knights was what knights, not serfs, gave their lords. Tithes were paid to the Church, not collected by serfs for lords. Serfs had no votes or council role; lords held power over them.
Category: Medieval Europe
Question 12
The Great Schism of 1054 split Christianity into which two branches?
Catholic and Protestant
Catholic and Anglican
Lutheran and Calvinist
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
✓
Correct Answer
Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox
In 1054 the Latin-speaking church led by the pope in Rome split from the Greek-speaking church centered in Constantinople, creating the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Catholic and Protestant churches divided during the Reformation of the 1500s. Catholic and Anglican churches separated when Henry VIII broke with Rome. Lutheran and Calvinist churches are both Protestant branches from the 1500s.
Category: Medieval Europe
Question 13
What was the goal of the Crusades that European Christians began in 1095?
To take Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule
✓
To find a sea route around Africa to Asia
To end the feudal system across Europe
To convert the Norse settlers of Greenland
Correct Answer
To take Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim rule
The Crusades were military campaigns to seize Jerusalem and the surrounding Holy Land, sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, from Muslim rulers; crusaders were also drawn by land, titles, and the Church's promise of forgiveness of sins. A sea route around Africa was a later Portuguese goal. Ending feudalism was not an aim of the Crusades. Converting Norse settlers in Greenland had nothing to do with the Crusades.
Category: Crusades and Trade
Question 14
Which lasting economic effect did the Crusades have on Europe?
An end to trade between Europe and Asia
Greater demand for Asian silk and spices
✓
The decline of Italian trading cities
First European contact with the Americas
Correct Answer
Greater demand for Asian silk and spices
Contact with the eastern Mediterranean gave Europeans a taste for silk, spices, and porcelain, expanding trade and enriching Italian cities such as Venice. Trade with Asia grew rather than ended. Italian trading cities prospered from this trade instead of declining. Sustained European contact with the Americas came only with Spanish and Portuguese voyages in the late 1400s.
Category: Crusades and Trade
Question 15
Which Portuguese prince sponsored voyages that explored the western coast of Africa in the 1400s?
Ferdinand of Aragon
Charles Martel
Henry the Navigator
✓
Sundiata Keita
Correct Answer
Henry the Navigator
Prince Henry of Portugal, known as Henry the Navigator, backed expeditions down the African coast in search of trade and a sea route to Asia. Ferdinand of Aragon was a Spanish monarch who later sponsored Columbus. Charles Martel was a Frankish leader who defeated a Muslim army at Tours in 732. Sundiata Keita was the founder of the Mali Empire in West Africa.
Category: Iberian Exploration
Question 16
How did Spain's monarchs bring the Reconquista to an end in 1492?
By defeating the Portuguese navy at sea
By recapturing Jerusalem from Muslim rule
By signing a peace treaty with the Ottomans
By conquering Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Iberia
✓
Correct Answer
By conquering Granada, the last Muslim kingdom in Iberia
Ferdinand and Isabella completed the Reconquista by taking Granada in 1492, ending centuries of Christian efforts to retake the Iberian Peninsula from Muslim rulers. Defeating the Portuguese navy was not part of it; Portugal was a fellow Christian kingdom. Jerusalem was the goal of the Crusades, not the Reconquista. A treaty with the Ottomans did not end Muslim rule in Spain.
Category: Iberian Exploration
Question 17
Why was the 1469 marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella important for the history of Spain?
It led to the joint rule of Aragon and Castile
✓
It united the crowns of Spain and Portugal
It settled Spain's claims in the Americas
It made Spain part of the Holy Roman Empire
Correct Answer
It led to the joint rule of Aragon and Castile
The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile brought two powerful Iberian kingdoms under joint rule once both had inherited their thrones, laying the foundation of a unified Spain that centralized power and funded exploration. The marriage did not unite Spain with Portugal, which kept its own monarchs. Spain's claims in the Americas came only after Columbus's voyage of 1492. The marriage did not make Spain part of the Holy Roman Empire.
Category: Iberian Exploration
Question 18
What did Christopher Columbus intend to reach on his first voyage in 1492?
West Africa, by sailing south
Asia, by sailing west
✓
Norse settlements in Greenland
A continent known to lie west of Europe
Correct Answer
Asia, by sailing west
Columbus believed he could reach the riches of Asia by sailing west across the Atlantic, and he underestimated the distance. West Africa by sailing south was the route the Portuguese were already exploring. Norse settlements in Greenland were not his goal. Europeans did not know the Americas lay between Europe and Asia, so he was not seeking a known continent.
Category: Iberian Exploration
Question 19
Which ruler of Mali made a famous pilgrimage to Mecca in the 1300s, giving away so much gold that prices rose in cities along his route?
Sundiata Keita
Sonni Ali
Mansa Musa
✓
Moctezuma
Correct Answer
Mansa Musa
Mansa Musa's pilgrimage displayed Mali's vast gold wealth and made the empire famous across North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Sundiata Keita founded the Mali Empire about a century earlier. Sonni Ali was a later Songhai ruler whose empire overtook Mali. Moctezuma was the Mexica emperor when the Spanish arrived in 1519.
Category: West African Empires
Question 20
How did slavery in the Americas come to differ from most forms of slavery in West Africa?
It was limited to prisoners captured in war
It ended after a fixed term of years
It let children of the enslaved be born free
It became permanent, hereditary, and tied to race
✓
Correct Answer
It became permanent, hereditary, and tied to race
In the Americas, slavery became a lifelong status passed from mother to child and was defined by race. In much of West Africa, bondage often came from debt, war, or famine, and enslaved people and their children could often be absorbed into the owner's household or lineage over time. Limiting slavery to war captives does not describe the American system. A fixed term of years describes indentured servitude. Children of the enslaved could often move toward free status in Africa, not in the Americas.
Category: Slavery and Labor