The Safavid and Mughal empires fell more than 100 years before the late 1800s when economic dependence on oil emerged, so (D) is correct. The Byzantine Empire held Constantinople, a city which was heavily fortified and considered impregnable. The utilization of firearms such as cannons, however, shifted the advantage to the side of the Ottomans, and Constantinople fell to the Turks. Similarly, the Safavid and Mughal empires conquered territories using similar techniques. Thus, (A) is incorrect. (B) and (C) are incorrect because all three empires were known for politically supporting Islam in addition to fostering artistic innovations and achievements.
All three empires (Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal) were controlled by Muslim rulers. However, the Ottomans practiced the Sunni branch of Islam while the Safavids believed in the Shi’ite branch of Islam. Therefore, (B) is correct. The Ottoman and Safavid empires contained religious minorities, namely Christians and Jews. Thus, (A) is incorrect. As all three empires were both dominated by the military classes and experienced warfare during times of succession, (C) and (D) are incorrect.
(D) is correct; neither China nor Europe focused resources on reconnaissance in the Pacific Ocean during this period. The Indian Ocean region (India, the Middle East, and the coast of Africa) was explored by Chinese maritime reconnaissance voyages, especially under Ming Admiral Zheng He. Thus, (A) is incorrect. The Portuguese set up trading post empires in West Africa; (B) is incorrect. The Spanish colonized large territories in South America; (C) is incorrect.
Ming rulers were not afraid of Europeans. Rather, they believed China to be superior to the West, with nothing to gain from the rest of the world. Therefore, (D) is correct. Ming leaders feared the impacts technological innovation would have on social order; (A) is incorrect. Confucian officials did argue against commercial activity; (B) is incorrect. The surviving Yuan Mongols did raid western China, demanding attention and resources. Thus, (C) is incorrect.
In order to demonstrate the subjugation of the Han Chinese people, the invading Manchus of the Qing dynasty decreed that all Chinese men should shave their heads and adopt the queue hairstyle of the Manchu and other northern cultures. This most visible indignity aroused great resistance among the Chinese across all classes and regions. Thus, (B) is correct. However, the new style was enforced ruthlessly, becoming a common characteristic of Chinese men until the twentieth century. The other answers are incorrect: the Manchus did not attempt to restrict foreign trade (A), compel intermarriage between the cultures (C), or remove the Confucian bureaucracy it had inherited from the Ming dynasty (D). On the contrary, the Confucian bureaucracy of Ming China was preserved and used to administer the empire as efficiently as ever.
The Manchus’ imposition of a distinctive hairstyle on the Chinese was in order to change their traditional appearance and make them look more like the conquering or elite culture. The closest event to this is the elimination of the turban (and robed clothing style) in favor of a fez hat (and more Western-cut clothes) by the Turkish elites of the Ottoman Empire, who wished to Westernize their empire’s various Islamic subcultures. Thus, (C) is correct. As with the queue, the fez became identified with Turkish appearance so much that its later abandonment was as difficult and revolutionary as its initial adoption. What is different is that this decree was not due to a conquest but to an internal conflict on how to respond to outside pressure. (A), (B), and (D) are all instances of elites using dress, appearance, and classification to separate and control, rather than integrate and unify, subordinate classes or hierarchies.
The early Spanish settlers in the Caribbean needed a large labor force to exploit the area’s resources. Europeans saw the inhabitants of useful land as part of the land’s value. No thought was given to transplanting Spanish peasants to a New World which had a thriving native population. Instead, under the encomienda system that had been used during the reconquest of Muslim territories in Spain, the King gave Spanish colonists the right to compel the labor of local native peoples in their newly developed mines and plantations. Therefore, (C) is correct. Although the result of this system, combined with introducing foreign diseases, was to decimate the native populations within a few decades, that was certainly not the purpose of encomienda but instead a result. Thus, (A) is incorrect. The slave trade from Africa resulted from the attrition of native labor; the Spanish had no ethical concerns about limiting its increase. Thus, (B) is incorrect. Finally, it should be clear that encomienda’s purpose was to exploit the Native Americans, not give them economic opportunities. Therefore, (D) is incorrect.
Reading the passage closely and eliminating the other answer choices will lead you to the correct answer, (A). (B) incorrectly assumes that the institution of African slavery was the result of a single royal decree in response to de las Casas’s expose of the encomienda’s cruelty. (C) is incorrect, as the Church did not take on such a role. (D) is incorrect because while de las Casas’s report resulted in the New Laws of 1542, whereby the King decreed better treatment of natives and restricted the colonists’ encomienda privileges, the answer incorrectly credits these reforms to the colonists themselves, who actually resisted the New Laws vigorously. (A) identifies the other and longer-lasting historical impact (beside the New Laws) of this book: it is one of the earliest works of the modern era to agitate for universal human rights and the dignity of slaves, laborers, and other oppressed classes of all cultures and races.
The Italian Renaissance (from the Latin word for “rebirth”) was a period of social, political, and cultural learning and awareness that lasted from approximately from 1300 to 1600 C.E. During this time, wealthy families like the Medicis ruled city-states and funded artists like Leonardo da Vinci. The geography of Italy enabled its city-states to take advantage of trading routes in the Mediterranean; (D) is correct. Ideas and goods from Italy spread into Northern Europe, sparking the Northern Renaissance there; however, artists and writers from that region include Rembrandt, Jan van Eyck, and Erasmus; therefore, (A) is incorrect. The Protestant Reformation is one of the outcomes of the Northern Renaissance, not the Italian Renaissance, as it began in Germany with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses in 1517. Therefore, (B) is incorrect. The Enlightenment was a continuation of ideas that originated during the Italian and Northern Renaissances; however, it occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—much later than the lives of da Vinci and the Medici family. Therefore, (C) is incorrect.
Art and literature reflected the developments of the Italian Renaissance, which was characterized by an appreciation for realism and nature, an interest in the human body and its beauty, and an emphasis on reason and logical thought. Therefore, (A) is correct. During the Italian Renaissance, artists and writers did not focus strictly on religious imagery and influences. Thus, (B) is incorrect. While much of the artwork was religious in nature, artists also worked to revive ancient classics from the Greek and Roman civilizations. Though it is counterintuitive, women did not gain any new rights or freedoms during the Italian Renaissance; thus, (C) is incorrect. The Italian Renaissance drew inspiration from Ancient Greece and Rome, as well as the Islamic world. (D) is incorrect.