1: Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress

Question 1

Columbus wrote this about the Arawak upon their first encounter (1):

Answer 1

“They would make fine servants. . . . With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want”

Question 2

Upon arrival to the Americas, Columbus most wanted to know the location of this precious resource (1)

Answer 2

Gold

Question 3

The Arawaks resided on which Islands? (1)

Answer 3

The Bahamas

Question 4

Recently unified Spain had a nobility which despite representing 2% of the population owned this percentage of the land (2)

Answer 4

95%

Question 5

What was the name of the largest of the three sailing ships that Columbus set out with? (2)

Answer 5

the Santa Maria

Question 6

On October 12 1492, a sailor on Columbus’ expedition spotted land belonging to this set of Islands in the Caribbean sea (2)

Answer 6

The Bahamas

Question 7

The Arawaks had a developed agriculture of these 3 goods (2)

Answer 7

Corn, yams, cassava

Question 8

Columbus built the first European military base in the Western Hemisphere on this island and named it this Spanish word for Christmas (3)

Answer 8

Hispaniola; Navidad

Question 9

Columbus’ report to the Court in Madrid promised their Majesties “as much gold as they need . . . and as many of these as they ask” (3)

Answer 9

Slaves

Question 10

Being unable to find vast fields of gold in Haiti, Columbus and his men turned instead to collecting these (4)

Answer 10

Slaves

Question 11

In 2 years on Haiti, how many of the 250,000 Indians were dead by murder, mutilation, or suicide? (4)

Answer 11

Half

Question 12

How many Indians were left on Haiti by 1550? (4)

Answer 12

500

Question 13

Who is the chief source of information about what happened on the Islands after Columbus came? (5)

Answer 13

Bartolome de las Casas

Question 14

Las Casas wrote that Indians looked upon this with “as much casualness as we look upon a man’s head or at this hands” (5)

Answer 14

Nakedness

Question 15

Husband and wives in Hispaniola, together once every eight or ten months due to the men’s work in the mines, and being so exhausted and depressed, ceased to do this (6)

Answer 15

Procreate

Question 16

Las Casas claims that this many people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines from 1494 to 1508 in Hispaniola (7)

Answer 16

Over 3,000,000

Question 17

About the mass death on Hispaniola, Las Casas wrote, “Who in future generations will ____ this?” (7)

Answer 17

Believe

Question 18

True or false: Zinn’s discussion of our “learned sense of moral proportion” describes the way in which we inherit the weight given to different events in History by scholars. (Example: 80% concern with greatness of Columbus, 20% concern with genocide) (9)

Answer 18

True

Question 19

“History is the memory of states” is a quote by this man in his book “A World Restored” (9)

Answer 19

Henry Kissinger

Question 20

This “explorer” reeked havoc on the Aztecs in Mexico (11)

Answer 20

Hernando Cortes

Question 21

Name the Spanish conquistador who terrorized Peru (12)

Answer 21

Pizarro

Question 22

The hasty hunt for gold was part of what Karl Marx called “the primitive ______ of ______” (12)

Answer 22

Accumulation of capital

Question 23

Complete the sentence: “Not able to _____ the Indians, and not able to _____ with them, the English decided to _______ them” (13)

Answer 23

Enslave; live; exterminate

Question 24

What was “the first year of the white man in Virginia”? (13)

Answer 24

1607

Question 25

True or False: The Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, created the excuse to take Indian land by declaring the area legally a “vacuum” because the Indians had not “subdued” the land (13)

Answer 25

True

Question 26

The Puritans used this Bible verse to justify their use of force to take the land: “Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation” (14)

Answer 26

Romans 13:2

Question 27

True or False: Captain John Mason instructed his troops NOT to attack Pequot warriors (14)

Answer 27

True, he proposed deliberate attacks on noncombatants and demolition/burning of villages

Question 28

Indian tribes drew these 3 lessons from the Pequot war

Answer 28

1) That the Englishmen’s most solemn pledge would be broken whenever obligation interfered with advantage. 2) That the English way of war had no limit or scruple of mercy; and 3) That Indian weapons were useless against European weapons

Question 29

Arguing that bloodshed is the price of progress resembles arguments made by these three mass murderers (17):

Answer 29

Stalin, Churchill, Harry Truman

Question 30

Early Indians in the Americas were successful in growing this important crop (18)

Answer 30

Corn (Maize)

Question 31

True or False: In Iroquois villages, Houses and land were privately owned (20)

Answer 31

False, they were owned in common

Question 32

True or False: Iroquois societies were Matrilineal (20)

Answer 32

True

Question 33

How many Indians were there in the Americas when Columbus arrived (approximately), and how many in North America? (18)

Answer 33

75 million; 5 million