Chapter 5 - Political Transformations

Question 1

What geographic advantage helped European empires establish territories in the Americas?

Answer 1

Countries on the Atlantic rim (Portugal, Spain, Britain, France) were closer to the Americas than potential Asian competitors.

Question 2

What role did Atlantic winds and currents play in European exploration?

Answer 2

The fixed Atlantic winds enabled easier maritime navigation compared to the alternating monsoon winds in the Indian Ocean.

Question 3

Why were Europeans motivated to explore beyond their region?

Answer 3

They sought access to Eurasian trade, wealth from natural resources, rivalries among states, religious expansion, and opportunities for the impoverished.

Question 4

What technological innovations aided European exploration?

Answer 4

Innovations in mapmaking, navigation, sailing techniques, and ship design, influenced by the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and Chinese technologies.

Question 5

How did internal divisions in the Americas benefit European invaders?

Answer 5

Rivalries among local societies, such as discontent within the Aztec and Inca empires, provided allies for European forces.

Question 6

What was a key motivation for many Spanish conquistadors?

Answer 6

Conquistadors sought to serve God, the king, and gain wealth.

Question 7

What were the consequences of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire?

Answer 7

The Spanish expanded their territory, with the aid of local allies like the Tlaxcalans, to form a larger Mesoamerican empire.

Question 8

How did European colonization impact indigenous populations in the Caribbean, Virginia, and New England?

Answer 8

Immigrant populations quickly outnumbered the sharply diminished native peoples due to disease and displacement.

Question 9

What internal conflict weakened the Inca Empire before the Spanish conquest?

Answer 9

A dispute between brothers Atahualpa and Huáscar over the throne.

Question 10

How did Europeans mobilize resources for exploration and conquest?

Answer 10

They effectively used states and trading companies to organize human and material resources.

Europeans mobilized resources for exploration and conquest by leveraging the combined efforts of states and trading companies. Monarchies provided financial backing, legal authority, and administrative support, while trading companies like the British and Dutch East India Companies raised capital, organized expeditions, and even maintained private armies. These entities pooled human resources, including explorers, soldiers, and settlers, and invested in advanced shipbuilding, weaponry, and infrastructure.

Question 11

Why did some members of the Inca elite ally with the Spanish?

Answer 11

They saw the Spanish as liberators and sought to share control over resources and labor.

Question 12

What were the long-term economic consequences of European colonization in the Americas?

Answer 12

Access to natural resources and agricultural lands supported Europe’s economic growth into the 19th and 20th centuries.

Question 13

What role did religion play in European exploration?

Answer 13

Missionaries sought to expand Christendom, and religious zeal motivated many explorers.

Question 14

How did local allies contribute to Hernán Cortés’s success against the Aztecs?

Answer 14

Indigenous groups, such as the Tlaxcalans, resented Aztec rule and joined Cortés in battle.

Question 15

How did Spanish conquistadors justify their actions in the Americas?

Answer 15

They claimed to serve divine and royal purposes, alongside personal ambitions for wealth.

Question 16

What percentage of some Native American populations died due to European diseases?
.

Answer 16

Up to 90 percent

Diseases - Smallpox, measles, typhus, influenza, malaria, and yellow fever.

Question 17

What was the Little Ice Age?

Answer 17

A period of unusually cool temperatures from the 13th to 19th century, especially severe in the mid-17th century.

Question 18

How did the Little Ice Age exacerbate the “General Crisis” of the 17th century?

Answer 18

It caused widespread famines, droughts, epidemics, and social unrest across regions like Europe, China, and the Americas.

Question 19

How might the Great Dying have contributed to the Little Ice Age?

Answer 19

The reforestation of abandoned Native farmlands absorbed significant carbon dioxide, leading to global cooling.

Question 20

What was the Columbian Exchange?

Answer 20

The widespread transfer of plants, animals, diseases, people, and cultures between the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia after 1492.

Question 21

Which American crops had a profound impact on global diets?

Answer 21

Corn, potatoes, and cassava.

Question 22

How did the introduction of potatoes affect Ireland?

Answer 22

It supported population growth but also led to famine during the potato blight in the mid-19th century.

Question 23

How did corn affect Africa?

Answer 23

It became a staple food and was used as cheap sustenance for enslaved people during the transatlantic trade.

Question 24

How did European livestock, such as horses and cattle, affect the Americas?

Answer 24

They transformed ecosystems, enabled ranching economies, and altered Native American societies, especially with the rise of bison hunting.

Question 25

What cultural shift occurred among Native American societies due to horses?

Answer 25

Settled farming societies, like the Pawnee, shifted to male-dominated bison hunting cultures.

Question 26

How did the Columbian Exchange affect the global economy and trade?

Answer 26

It established an interconnected Atlantic world that facilitated trade, migration, and cultural exchange among Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Question 27

What long-term benefits did European colonial empires derive from the Columbian Exchange?

Answer 27

Access to new resources, foods, and markets that fueled population growth and economic expansion in Europe.

Question 28

What was the impact of American stimulants like tobacco and chocolate?

Answer 28

They became globally popular, with tobacco, in particular, becoming a widely consumed commodity.

Question 29

Why were Europeans less affected by the diseases they brought to the Americas?

Answer 29

They had built immunity through long exposure to these diseases in Afro-Eurasia.

Question 30

How did the Columbian Exchange contribute to population growth in Asia?

Answer 30

Crops like corn and sweet potatoes supplemented diets in China, supporting population increases.

Question 31

Why were the Americas critical to Europe’s rise in power?

Answer 31

Without the economic contributions of the Americas, Europe would have remained inferior in wealth and power

Question 32

How did European colonial rule in the Caribbean and South America differ from that in North America?

Answer 32

The Caribbean and South America focused heavily on **slave-based plantations and mining, **

North America leaned more toward settler agriculture.

Question 33

What role did mercantilism play in European colonial strategies?

Answer 33

Mercantilism guided European colonization by encouraging exports, accumulating bullion, and using colonies as closed markets for manufactured goods and sources of raw materials like silver and gold.

Question 34

How did coerced labor systems differ in Spanish colonies versus British colonies?

Answer 34

Spanish colonies used systems like encomienda and hacienda, exploiting Native Americans

British colonies relied more on African slavery in the South, while the North had indentured servitude.

Question 35

What was the encomienda system?

Answer 35

It was a Spanish labor system where colonial authorities forced Native Americans to work, often under conditions akin to slavery.

Question 36

How were Native American women treated under European rule?

Answer 36

They faced sexual violence, were transferred as gifts or slaves, and were often forced into marriages or relationships with colonizers. Some elite women gained social advantages through alliances.

Question 37

What is a mestizo?

Answer 37

A person of mixed Spanish and Native American heritage, common in Spanish colonies

Question 38

How did the British colonies’ social structures differ from those of the Spanish?

Answer 38

British colonies emphasized racial purity, creating rigid racial divisions.

Spanish colonies allowed for more fluid social mobility, with mestizos and mixed-race individuals forming distinct classes.

Question 39

What role did elite Native women play in colonial societies?

Answer 39

Elite Native women were often married or allied with European men to solidify political relationships, sometimes gaining land or social status.

Question 40

How did enslaved African women experience colonial societies?

Answer 40

They faced labor exploitation, sexual violence, and loss of family autonomy

Question 41

What distinguished the treatment of indigenous populations in Spanish versus British colonies?

Answer 41

Spanish colonies integrated indigenous people into labor systems and Christianity

British colonies often displaced Native Americans entirely.

Question 42

What challenges did Native American women face under Spanish colonial rule?

Answer 42

Legal systems defined them as minors, limiting property rights and autonomy, and they were often excluded from courts.

Question 43

How did African slavery differ in the Caribbean compared to North America?

Answer 43

The Caribbean had more intense use of African slave labor on sugar plantations, with high mortality rates and fewer family formations than in North America.

Question 44

Why did mestizo populations grow significantly in Spanish colonies?

Answer 44

A **gender imbalance **among Spanish settlers led to unions between Spanish men and Native women, often for social or economic security.

Question 45

How did British and Spanish colonies differ in their urban development?

Answer 45

Spanish colonies developed major cities, universities, and bureaucracies early, while British colonies focused more on small towns and rural settlement.

Question 46

What type of society emerged in the British settler colonies in North America, and how was it different from Spanish colonies?

Answer 46

The British settler colonies in North America, such as New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, developed small-scale family farms with limited class hierarchies. In contrast, Spanish colonies had sharp class hierarchies, large rural estates, and a dependent labor system.

Question 47

Why were British colonies in North America considered less prominent than Spanish or Portuguese colonies until the 18th century?

Answer 47

British colonies were viewed as less wealthy and culturally sophisticated, with fewer immediate impacts on the global stage compared to the Spanish or Portuguese colonies.

Question 48

How did religion influence the British colonies compared to Spanish colonies?

Answer 48

British colonies, influenced by Protestantism, emphasized personal Bible reading, resulting in high literacy rates and less centralized church-state ties.

Spanish colonies, predominantly Catholic, relied on well-funded missionary efforts to convert native peoples and tightly linked the church with the colonial state.

Question 49

What factors led to the British colonies having fewer indigenous and African populations compared to Latin America?

Answer 49

Aggressive military policies, devastating diseases, and the absence of a need for large-scale slavery due to small-scale farming practices led to the British colonies being largely European settler-dominated.

Question 50

How did the British approach to governance in their colonies differ from the Spanish?

Answer 50

The British colonies developed traditions of local self-government, with elected assemblies and minimal interference from Britain.

In contrast, the Spanish colonies were governed by a centralized imperial bureaucracy.