1. Most Common Incorrect Answers
8. The establishment of the Mongol Empire had all of the following consequences EXCEPT:
(A) The reopening and extension of the Silk Road
(B) The strengthening of maritime trade in the South China Sea
(C) The diffusion of gunpowder technology
(D) The increase in the demand for European products such as wool, porcelain, sugar, spices and coffee
Porcelain, sugar, spices and coffee were not European products
Mid-Term Reflections
Most Common Incorrect Answers

2. Upanishads was early Hindu Text in South Asia
21. All of the following are associated with Classical Persia EXCEPT:
(A) the royal road
(B) Persepolis
(C) Zoroastrianism
(D) Upanishads

3. Rome brought order to vast Empire
24. When Rome conquered a foreign land, it usually:
(A) Visibly executed local leaders to set an example of who was in charge
(B) Outlawed any preexisting native religions and persecuted anyone who refused to convert to the Roman religion
(C) Allowed considerable autonomy to local leaders and customs as long as the area cooperated with Roman rule
(D) Opened libraries and universities to study and collect local art, technology, and ideas

4. The cyclical, philosophical and religious nature of Asian Empires promoted more continuity after their fall
28. Which of the following most helps to explain why the collapse of political institutions was more devastating to the Roman civilization than to Han China or Gupta India?
(A) Political institutions in Rome were weaker to begin with. (B) Roman emperors had more power than did Han or Gupta emperors, so their downfall eviscerated the Roman Empire.
(C) Han China and Gupta India had strong religious/philosophical traditions to provide continuity.
(D) The Romans were economically more self-sufficient than the Han or Gupta, so they had no long-distance trade to cushion their fall.

5. (A) Shintoism was formally suppressed.
Heian period and its corrupt practices led to the rise of Japanese Feudalism( aristocracy = land holding elite AKA Daimyo)
32. When the emperor moved his government from Nara to Heian (Eighth Century C.E.),
(A) Shintoism was formally suppressed.
(B) Buddhism ceased to play a major role in Japanese society.
(C) The scholar-gentry was able to assert itself through the examination system.
(D) Buddhism was formally suppressed.
(E) The aristocracy took over most of the positions of the central government

6. This one was just careful reading
“The evil-disposed in these districts [of England] began to rise, saying, they were too severely oppressed; that at the beginning of the world there were no slaves, and that no one ought to be treated as such…This they would not longer bear, but had determined to be free, and if they labored for their lords, they wanted to be paid for it. A crazy priest in the county of Kent, called John Ball, who for his absurd preaching, had been thrice confined in prison, inflamed those ideas. He would say: ‘Are we not all descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? And what can the lords show, or what reasons give, why they should be more the masters than ourselves?”
~ Jean Froissart, account of a peasant revolt in England, 1381
42. The description of the peasant revolt best supports which of the following conclusions?
(A) Peasants were hostile to the idea of wage labor.
(B) Peasants used religious beliefs to justify their resistance.
(C) Peasant demands for equality were supported by the highest levels of religious leaders.
(D) Peasant revolts were more frequent in England than elsewhere in this period.
43. The point of view of the author can best be described as
(A) sympathetic to the peasants
(B) hostile to the peasants
(C) indifferent to the peasants’ grievances
(D) sympathetic to the leaders of the revolt

7. What do historians have to study migratory people’s technology without written evidence?
. A historian researching the timeline of the spread of iron metallurgy in sub-Saharan Africa would find which of the following sources most useful?
(A) Bantu-language oral histories transmitted through generations
(B) Archaeological evidence of early forges and smelting operations
(C) European travelers’ accounts from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries describing African industrial practices
(D) North African Muslim merchants’ account books detailing purchases of iron tools

8. This is what enabled the Pax Mongolica ( many began their testing lethargy here)
. The Mongol conquests of much of Eurasia in the thirteenth century tended to encourage trade along the Silk Roads primarily by
(A) opening large new markets for both European and East Asian goods in Central Asia
(B) increasing the demand for military supplies needed by the Mongol armies that occupied various regions
(C) decreasing the risk of bandit attacks and reducing the number of local rulers collecting tribute from trade caravans
(D) discouraging seaborne trade along the Indian Ocean routes that competed with the Silk Roads

9. This one was tricky: While the last is plausible, the second is directly based on the quotes
58. “Romantic glorifications of Greece create the impression that the Greeks sought rational solutions…actually, far from being devoted to the risks of rationality, the vast majority of the Greeks sought always the safe haven of superstition and the comfort of magic charms.”
~ Finley Hooper, historian of ancient Greece, 1967
“I do not believe that the ‘Sacred Disease’ [epilepsy] is any more divine or sacred than any other disease, but, on the contrary, I believe it has specific demonstrable characteristics and a definite cause.”
~ Hippocrates of Kos, Greek physician, circa 350 B.C.E.
The passage by Hippocrates weakens Hooper’s claim in the first passage by
Suggesting that medicine was a thriving discipline in ancient Greece
Expressing a mistrust for supernatural causes of medical conditions
Seeking to understand a disease that does not have an obvious external cause
Implying that Greek physicians did not have effective treatments for some diseases

10. West vs East?
63. Some historians maintain that a transition between two major periods in world history most likely occurred around 500 C.E.; others maintain that this transition occurred around 600 C.E.
These two groups of historians are most likely to disagree about the relative importance of which of the following?
The emergence of the classical Maya civilization
The role of technological change in world history periodization
The decline of polytheism in the Mediterranean and the Middle East after the fifth century C.E.
The fall of the western Roman Empire

11. You got 65 but not the nuance of sarcasm that Americanism is a result of cultural diffusion and Insidious denotes a negative view of “foreign” ideas. Many of you were really suffering from testing lethargy here
Questions 65 – 66 refer to the passage below:
“There can be no question about the average American’s Americanism or his desire to preserve his precious heritage at all costs. Nevertheless, some insidious foreign ideas have already wormed their way into his civilization without his realizing what was going on. Thus dawn finds the unsuspecting patriot garbed in pajamas, a garment of East Indian origin; and lying in a bed built on a pattern which originated in either Persia or Asia Minor. He is muffled to the ears in un-American materials: cotton, first domesticated in India; linen, domesticated in the Near East; wool from an animal native to Asia Minor; or silk whose uses were first discovered by the Chinese. All these substances have been transformed into cloth by methods invented in Southwestern Asia.” Source: Ralph Linton
65. The excerpt best illustrates the effects of
(A) Cultural diffusion
(B) The agricultural revolution on technology
(C) Geography on cultural development
(D) The independent development of cultural traits
66. The author’s reference to “insidious foreign ideas”
Reinforces his idea that Americans should preserve their independent culture
Demonstrates his arrogance about the contributions of America to other cultures
Illustrates his cynicism towards the contributions of foreign ideas to his own culture
Is sarcastic because he feels his own culture owes much to its roots in earlier foreign lands

12. This EXCEPT choice was about the reconquista and not American colonization by Europeans
78. Between 1500 and 1750, Europeans were interested in colonies in the Americas for all the following reasons EXCEPT
They wanted to Christianize the indigenous peoples.
They wanted to empower Spain to reconquer its territories under Muslim control.
They wanted to enrich the treasuries of Europe.
The wanted to bring honor to their respective nations.
They sought adventure

13. The Aztecs had a thriving tribute based Empire prior to Spanish Conquest
84. Which of the following did NOT contribute to the fall of the Aztec Empire to the Spaniards?
Military assistance of Mesoamerican peoples.
Epidemic disease.
Mesoamerican traditions.
The economic weakness of the Aztecs.
Superior weaponry of the Spaniards

14. Percentage of an entire peoples ( it would be better worded as per capita percentage)
The largest decline in percentage of global population in history occurred as a result of the
Black Death in Europe
Global flu pandemic of 1918 – 1919
Spread of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa in the twentieth century
Spread of syphilis in Renaissance Europe
Epidemics in sixteenth-century Mesoamerica