Chapter 10 & 11 Practice Test
1) The post-classical period in Western history between the fall of the Roman Empire and the
15th century is referred to as
A) Middle Ages B) Renaissance C) Age of Discovery D) Baroque E) Modern Era
2) Which of the following statements concerning the impact of Christianity on polytheistic
religions in western Europe is most accurate?
A) Christianity eradicated all traces of those earlier religions as the new religion became
universal in western Europe
B) The process of conversion produced a religious amalgam in which beliefs in magic and
supernatural spirits coexisted with Christianity
C) Although Christianity made inroads, many areas of Europe retained polytheistic beliefs
and rejected the new religion
D) Small islands of polytheistic belief remained, but Christianity eradicated belief in magic
and spirits wherever the new religion was accepted
E) Few polytheistic religions existed in Europe during the Middle Ages, but their influence
grew
3) The northern nomadic peoples who entered central Mexico following the decline of
Teotihuacan were the
A) Aztecs B) Incas C) Olmecs D) Toltecs E) Maya
4) The Toltec capital was established at
A) Teotihuacan B) Tula C) Tenochtitlan D) Twantinsuyu E) Tlotelolco
5) Which of the following was NOT a sign of vitality in the medieval western culture following
the Roman Empire’s fall?
A) population growth
B) the development of the university
C) the development of new political forms and social organization
D) the development of a purely secular society
E) the strong current of spirituality
6) Following the fall of Rome, where was the center of the post-classical West?
A) the former Roman colony of Spain
B) Italy, particularly Rome
C) The central plain of northern Europe: France, the Low Countries, southern and western
Germany
D) Greece
E) The British Isles
7) The Toltec empire lasted until about what date?
A) 1000 B) 1150 C) 1236 D) 1434 E) 1521
8) After the sack of Tula, the center of population and political power in Mexico shifted to
A) Yucatan
B) The valley of Mexico and the shores of a chain of lakes in that basin
C) Teotihuacan
D) Chimor
E) The southern Pacific coast
9) The system that described the economic and political relations between landlords and their
peasant laborers was called
A) manorialism B) feudalism C) slavery D) capitalism E) monasticism
10) In the period shortly after the arrival of the Aztecs in the valley of Mexico, what was the
nature of the political organization of the region?
A) imperial
B) regional kingdoms
C) city-states
D) hunting and gathering groups
E) a large confederation
11) Which of the following was NOT one of the cities challenging for dominance at the time of the
Aztec arrival in the valley of Mexico?
A) Teotihuacan B) Azcapotzalco C) Culhuacan D) Texcoco E) Tlacopan
12) Which of the following statements about the manorial system is NOT true?
A) It was technologically sophisticated
B) It had originated in the Roman Empire
C) Its obligations bore heavily on serfs
D) Agricultural productivity was low
E) It was practically self-sufficient
13) Which of the following statements concerning the three-field rotation system is most
accurate?
A) Introduced in the 8th century, the three-field rotation added acres to production by
leaving only a third of the land unplanted
B) The three-field system removed land from production by reserving one-third for fallow
C) The three-field system was rapidly replaced after the 8th century by the two-field system
that offered greater flexibility in terms of crop rotation
D) The three-field system removed fallow fields and replaced them with nitrogen-bearing
crops
E) It represented a net increase in productivity where it was used
14) In the period shortly after the arrival of the Aztecs in the valley of Mexico, what was the
nature of the political organization of the region?
A) Imperial
B) regional kingdoms
C) city-states
D) hunting and gathering groups
E) a large confederation
15) Which of the following was NOT one of the cities challenging for dominance at the time of the
Aztec arrival in the valley of Mexico?
A) Teotihuacan B) Azcapotzalco C) Culhuacan D) Texcoco E) Tlacopan
16) What Frankish king was responsible for the conversion of his people to Christianity in order
to gain a vague domination over the Franks?
A) Charles Martel B) Clovis C) Charlemagne D) Pepin III E) Louis IX
17) What belief did the conversion of Germanic kings create among western religious leaders,
particularly the pope?
A) That the Church was subordinate to the secular monarchs
B) That the Church had a legitimate authority separate from and superior to the secular
rulers
C) That the Church should avoid conversion of northern Germanic kings
D) That such conversion represented a danger to the papal hierarchy
E) That the church should fear powerful kings
18) Which of the following was NOT one of the major themes or cults of Aztec religion?
A) gods of fertility
B) creator deities
C) gods of warfare and sacrifice
D) deities devoted to contemplation and salvation
E) the agricultural cycle
19) The central figure of the cult of human sacrifice and the most sacred deity of the Aztecs was
A) Quetzalcoatl B) Tlaloc C) Tonatiuh D) Huitzilopochtli E) Chac
20) What dynasty took over the Frankish monarchy in the 8th century?
A) Merovingian B) Hohenstaufen C) Carolingian D) Saxon E) Norman
21) In what year was Charlemagne able to establish a substantial, if temporary, empire in France
and Germany?
A) 500 B) 800 C) 900 D) 1000 E) 1100
22) What was the Aztec view of history?
A) They believed in a linear view of history dedicated to the premise of Aztec superiority
for eternity
B) Like other Mesoamerican peoples, the Aztecs believed in a cyclical pattern of repetitive
destructions of the world
C) Unlike other Mesoamerican peoples, the Aztecs rejected the cyclical view of history for a
more modern historical view based on the history of their empire
D) Because they lacked a calendar system, the Aztecs had no formal historical viewpoint
E) They believed in a linear history ending with their total destruction
23) Which of the following statements concerning the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan is NOT
accurate?
A) It was built on an island in the middle of a lake
B) By 1519 it probably had a population of about 150,000
C) Despite the existence of thousands of homes and other varieties of domestic
architecture, unlike other Mesoamerican cities it lacked a temple complex
D) The city was divided into more than 60 wards controlled by kinship groups
E) It was larger than Paris or Seville
24) What was the impact of the improved economy after the 10th century on the social system of
western Europe?
A) The improvements in the agricultural system retarded the development of towns
restricted social mobility
B) Harsh serfdom became the rule throughout western Europe
C) The increased pace of economic life created a les rigid structure
D) Despite the improved economy, the rigid social system associated with feudalism
continued to dominate western Europe
E) The merchants lost considerable power
25) Where was the greatest concentration of urbanization after the 10th century?
A) Italy and the Low Countries
B) England and France
C) France and the Holy Roman Empire
D) England and Scandinavia
E) Spain and Poland
26) The Aztec innovation in intensive agriculture in the aquatic environments of the lakes of
central Mexico was the development of
A) Chinampas B) pipiltin C) quipus D) calpulli E) Pochteca
27) What was the nature of the Aztec economy?
A) The Aztecs failed to develop a merchant class, so all distribution of goods was carried
out by the state
B) The Aztecs developed a free market economy in which all trade was in the hands of
specialized merchants
C) The Aztec state redistributed many goods received as tribute, but there was a
specialized merchant class that also handled long-distance trade in rare commodities
D) There was little trade within Aztec society, as almost all communities were selfsufficient
E) The Aztec traded the entire length of the inhabited Pacific coast
28) Which of the following areas was NOT one of the regions into which expansion from western
Europe took place?
A) eastern Germany and Poland
B) northern Africa
C) Spain
D) Iceland and Greenland
E) Asia Minor
29) One of the most permanent features of Aztec society was its organization into clans or
A) Chinampas B) pipiltin C) quipus D) calpulli E) pok-ta-pok
30) The capital of the Inca empire was
A) Cuzco B) Chan Chan C) Tihuanaco D) Chichen Itza E) Cajamarca
31) In what year did Pope Urban II call for the First Crusade?
A) 1095 B) 1130 C) 1236 D) 1453 E) 1066
32) Which of the following did not occur as a result of the crusades?
A) The Kingdom of Jerusalem was established for nearly a century in the Holy Land
B) The fourth crusade resulted in the temporary conquest of Constantinople
C) The crusaders helped to open the West to new cultural and economic influences from
the Middle East
D) The crusades demonstrated a new Western superiority in the wider world
E) The crusaders did not always remain focused on religious goals
33) The religious practice most closely associated with the state and the person of the Inca in
Andean civilization was the cult of
A) human sacrifice B) the rain god C) the sun D) Quetzalcoatl E)Twantinsuyu
34) Which of the following was utilized in the Inca empire, but NOT by the Aztecs?
A) a semi-divine emperor
B) extensive use of colonization
C) use of local rulers in exchange for recognition of sovereignty
D) identification of the nobility with the administrative and military functions of the state
E) elaborate road systems
35) The reforming monastic orders founded in Assisi in the 13th century were created by
A) St. Benedict and Clovis
B) St. Clare and St. Benedict
C) St. Francis and Charlemagne
D) St. Francis and St. Clare
E) St. Bernard and Abelard
36) Pope Gregory VII decreed the practice of investiture invalid. What was investiture?
A) the practice whereby aristocrats dressed in bishop’s robes and attempted to rule in their
place
B) the practice of state appointment of bishops
C) the practice of trying clerics in secular courts
D) the state’s power to tax the clergy
E) loaning money at interest
37) Tambos were
A) labor turns exacted by the Inca authorities
B) knotted strings used for record keeping
C) local rulers
D) way stations along roads in the Inca empire
E) mountain passes
38) Which of the following represents a cultural difference between the Incas and Aztecas?
A) monumental architecture
B) no practical use of the wheel
C) lack of a writing system
D) beautiful pottery and cloth
E) relative isolation
39) What was the nature of the Aztec administration of subject territories?
A) The Aztecs placed members of the Aztec nobility as rulers over subject peoples
B) All territories conquered by the Aztecs became part of a singular administration run by a
trained bureaucracy located in Tenochtitlan – much like the Byzantine Empire
C) Conquered territories were often left relatively unchanged under their old rulers as long
as they recognized Aztec supremacy and paid tribute
D) The Aztecs established a military administration with subject territories controlled by
regional generals
E) Aztecs rarely collected tribute from subject territories
40) While the position of Aztec women in many ways paralleled that of women in other
civilizations at a similar stage of development, what was the significant difference between
the life of women in Mesoamerica and in the Mediterranean world?
A) Women in Mesoamerica participated fully in the military
B) There was no polygamy practiced in Mesoamerica
C) Aztec women were unable to inherit or to pass property on to heirs
D) The limited technology of Mesoamerica confined women to many more hours grinding
grain for food
E) Peasant women were more highly educated in Mesoamerica