World History Modern 2020

Section I PART A: MULTIPLE-CHOICE Questions 1–3 refer to the passage below. “To the most holy father, the Pope: Most of our kingdom of Hungary was reduced to a desert by the scourge of the Mongols’ invasion. Now, we receive news every day that the Mongols have again unified their forces and will soon send their countless troops against all of Europe. We are afraid that we will be unable to withstand the Mongols’ ferocity in battle unless the Pope is able to persuade other Christian rulers to send us aid to fortify our kingdom. When the Mongols invaded in 1241, we sent requests for military aid to the papacy, the Holy Roman Emperor, the king of France, and others. But from all of them we received only words of support. We, for shame, resorted to inviting pagan Cumans* into our kingdom. If, God forbid, our kingdom fell to the Mongols, the door would be open for them to invade the other regions of the Catholic faith from the Hungarian steppes. So, the people in our kingdom cannot cease to be amazed that you offer substantial help to the Christian territories overseas, which if they were lost would not harm the inhabitants of Europe more than if our kingdom fell.” *apeoplewhodwelledalongthesteppesoftheBlackSeaandinCentralAsia King Béla IV of Hungary, letter to Pope Innocent IV, circa 1250 1. Which of the following features of Europe in the period circa 1200–1450 most directly contributed to the fact that the king of Hungary did not receive the military assistance that he requested in 1241, as mentioned in the third paragraph? (A) The existence of numerous feudal states that were frequently in conflict with one another (B) The development of parliaments that could check royal authority (C) The growing political power of regional trade organizations such as the Hanseatic League (D) The religious divisions of Europe into Protestants and Catholics as a result of the Reformation 2020 2. Béla IV’s statement in the fourth paragraph that the Hungarian people “cannot cease to be amazed” by the actions of the papacy most directly refers to the papacy’s failure to aid the Hungarians while (A) sending missionaries to China (B) supporting Christian conquests in the Iberian Peninsula (C) initiating European military campaigns in the Middle East (D) encouraging maritime exploration in the Indian Ocean 3. All of the following statements are factually accurate. Which would best explain Béla IV’s reasoning for inviting the Cumans into Hungary as mentioned in the third paragraph? (A) Cumans had settled in Hungary and had been granted local autonomy. (B) Cuman slave soldiers had become the rulers of the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. (C) Cumans were ethnic Turks who spoke a language intelligible to the Mongols. (D) Cumans were nomadic warriors and were familiar with the Mongols’ military tactics. 2020 Questions 4–6 refer to the following two maps. Map 1 Navigational Map Produced by Albino De Canepa, Genoese Mapmaker, 1489 The History Collection/Alamy Stock Photo The map shows a number of cities and places, including Genoa, Venice, Paris, the Muslim emirate of Granada, Algiers, Cairo, Jerusalem, Damascus, and several cities along the Danube River. Map 2 World Map, Produced By Henricus Martellus, A German Cartographer Working in Florence, Italy, Early 1490s The Picture Art Collection/Alamy Stock Photo 4. Which of the following historical developments most strongly contributed to the mapmaker’s depiction of West Africa and the southern half of the world in Map 2? (A) Portugal’s development of maritime technology and navigational skills (B) China’s naval expeditions in the Indian Ocean basin (C) The limited geographical knowledge of western European mapmakers as a result of the region’s commercial isolation (D) The decline of Mediterranean powers such as Genoa and Venice and the rise of Atlantic powers such as England, France, and the Netherlands 2020 5. A historian would most likely use Map 1 to research which of the following developments in the period 1450–1750 ? (A) The efforts of wealthy Renaissance patrons to encourage the fine arts and scientific research (B) The ways that European cartography drew on earlier knowledge from the Islamic world and merchant activity in the Mediterranean (C) The influence of Crusades against the Ottoman Empire on the commercial expansion of Italian city-states (D) The consolidation of the Russian Empire, its expansion into Siberia, and its challenge to imperial China 6. Which of the following factors would contribute most to future revisions of Map 2? (A) Western Europeans’ discovery of geographical scholarship from the Mongol khanates (B) The experiences of European merchants transporting Asian goods in the Indian Ocean (C) Spanish sponsorship of trans-Atlantic and trans-Pacific maritime exploration (D) Qing China’s resumption of maritime expeditions to expand its tribute system 2020 Questions 7–9 refer to the passage below. “Concerning his greatest project, the Selimiye imperial mosque, Sinan himself said this: ‘Sultan Selim II [reigned 1566–1574] ordered the building of a great mosque in the city of Edirne. I, Sinan, his humble servant, prepared for him a design showing four minaret towers, each standing at one of the four corners of an enormous central prayer hall topped by a great dome. Each of the four minarets had three balconies, with separate staircases leading to each balcony. Previously only one Ottoman mosque had a minaret with three balconies, and its one minaret is like a thick tower. But the minarets I designed for Sultan Selim’s mosque are slender and elegant. The difficulty of putting three staircases in such slender structures should be obvious to anyone. Those among the Christians* who consider themselves architects used to say that no building can ever be covered by a dome that is larger than that of the Christian church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. They used to claim that no Muslim architect would ever be able to build a mosque whose dome even approaches in size that of the Hagia Sophia. Yet in the Selimiye mosque, with the help of God and with the support of His Majesty the Sultan, I was able to build a dome that is about 10 feet higher and 6 feet wider than the dome of the Hagia Sophia.’” *SinanhimselfwasbornintoanOttomanGreekChristianfamily,butwasconvertedtoIslamwhenhe began training for government service as a young boy. Sai Mustafa Chelebi, Ottoman court official, biography of the famous Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan, written circa 1600 7. Which of the following characteristics of the Ottoman Empire best explains why Sinan was determined to match the dimensions of the Hagia Sophia church, as discussed in the third paragraph? (A) The Ottoman dynasty was descended from Turkic pastoralist nomads who did not have their own tradition of monumental architecture. (B) Ottoman art often illustrated the historical and spiritual connections between Islam and other monotheistic religions, such as Christianity and Judaism. (C) By the time the Ottoman Empire began to expand, the Byzantine Empire had already been dramatically reduced in size and geopolitical importance. (D) Bringing Constantinople, with its imperial traditions, under Islamic rule was one of the central pillars of Ottoman rulers’ claims to political legitimacy. 2020 8. Based on the intended purpose of Sinan’s biography, it is most likely that the information in the passage might be (A) overstating the extent of the architectural challenges Sinan faced in building the mosque (B) understating the extent of Ottoman royal support for the building of the mosque (C) overstating Christian architects’ achievements and their contributions to the building on the mosque (D) intentionally attributing the building of the mosque to Sinan even though he was not the architect 9. Sinan’s service to the Ottoman state best illustrates the fact that land-based empires in the period 1450–1750 often relied on (A) appointed bureaucrats to break the power of entrenched landed aristocracies (B) mass conscription of soldiers to carry out their territorial expansion (C) methods of recruitment of officials that made use of the ethnic and religious diversity of their subjects (D) members of the clergy to perform religious services, administer religious law, and oversee public order 2020 Questions 10–12 refer to the passage below. “Imagine that Chinese ships were to start importing arsenic* into England, advertising it as a harmless, foreign and fashionable luxury. Next, imagine that after a few years of arsenic being all the rage, with hundreds of thousands using it, the British government were to ban its use because of its bad effects. Finally, imagine again that, in opposition to this ban on arsenic, Chinese ships were to be positioned off the coast of England, making occasional raids on London. Advocates of the opium-smuggling profession argue that it is immensely profitable and that supplying opium in bulk as they are doing is not immoral and it only becomes vulgar when the opium is sold in small portions, to individual users. What admirable logic with which one may shield oneself from reality, satisfied that the opium trade is nothing more than ‘supplying an important source of revenue to British companies operating in India.’ The trade may be a profitable one—it may be of importance to the Indian government, and to individuals—but to pretend that it can be defended as harmless to health and morals is to argue the impossible. Anyone who seriously thinks about the subject cannot defend what is, in itself, manifestly indefensible.” *apoisonoussubstance “Remarks on the Opium Trade,” letter to a British magazine from an anonymous English merchant in Guangzhou (Canton), China, published in 1836 10. The trade described in the passage is best seen as an early example of which of the following? (A) The economic decline of Asian states resulting from the importation of cheap consumer goods from Europe (B) The growing economic influence of European immigrants in China (C) The declining political power of European joint-stock companies in Asia because of states assuming direct imperial control (D) The use of economic imperialism by European merchants and states 11. As described in the second paragraph, the arguments made by the supporters of the opium trade were most similar to the arguments made in the early nineteenth century by supporters of the continued use of (A) artisanal and craft production, as opposed to the factory system (B) mercantilist trade practices, as opposed to free trade (C) African slave labor on sugar plantations in the Americas (D) women’s and children’s labor in the production of luxury goods in Chinese households 2020 12. A historian might argue that the trade described in the passage reflected a turning point in world history primarily because the opium trade (A) shifted the pattern of historic European trade imbalances with China (B) marked the transition from mercantilist trade toward capitalist free trade (C) was the first time that Europeans used migrant labor to grow crops for global distribution (D) relied upon industrial techniques of production and modern consumer marketing 2020 Questions 13–15 refer to the following two passages. Source 1 “I have long dreamed of buying an island owned by no nation whatsoever and of establishing the World Headquarters of the Dow company there, on the truly neutral ground of such an island, beholden to no nation or society. If we were located on such truly neutral ground, we could then operate in the United States as U.S. citizens, in Japan as Japanese citizens, and in Brazil as Brazilians rather than being governed primarily by the laws of the United States. We could even pay any native workers handsomely to move elsewhere.” Carl A. Gerstacker, chairman of the Dow Chemical Company, a United States corporation, speech before the White House “Conference on the Industrial World Ahead,” 1972 Source 2 “I was asked the other day about United States competitiveness in the world economy. I replied that I don’t think about it at all. We at NCR think of ourselves as a globally competitive company that happens to be headquartered in the United States.” Gilbert Williamson, president of NCR Corporation, a United States technology company, interview with the New York Times, 1989 13. The views expressed in the two passages were most directly enabled by which of the following economic trends in the late twentieth century? (A) Many of the defeated countries in the Second World War received generous economic assistance from the United States after the war. (B) Governments in newly independent postcolonial states sought to limit their countries’ economic reliance on the former colonial powers. (C) The governments of many developed Western countries adopted policies of economic liberalization and deregulation. (D) Governments in Asia cooperated with private businesses in an effort to maximize exports and acquire foreign currencies from Europe and the United States. 14. The corporate philosophy reflected in the two passages most directly contributed to which of the following? (A) The inability of the Soviet-planned economy to compete successfully with the economies of the United States and other Western countries (B) The shift of manufacturing capacity from the postindustrial countries of the West to the new manufacturing centers in Asia and Latin America (C) The passage of stronger measures to safeguard workers’ and consumers’ rights in many developed countries (D) Increased popular hostility toward economic migrants and migrations in many countries 2020 15. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, which of the following was most directly a response to the business philosophy expressed in the two passages? (A) Trade unionism (B) Liberation theology (C) International Socialism (D) Antiglobalization activism 2020