Ch. 24 MCQs
Answer the following questions using the sources and your knowledge of world history.
Group 1
Questions 1-3 refer to the map below
Ottoman & Russian Empires, 1829-1914
Question 1a
Based on the map, which of the following is an accurate description of the Ottoman Empire leading up to 1800?
The Ottoman Empire had most of its ports on the Indian Ocean.
The Ottoman Empire tried to avoid land possessions that included Islamic holy sites.
The Ottoman Empire attempted to avoid having extensive borders with other Muslim states.
The Ottoman Empire pursued a policy of expansion, growing dramatically in size.
Question 1b
Which of the following was the greatest threat to the stability of the Ottoman Empire?
The Qing Dynasty
The Russian Empire
The Italian city-states
France
Question 1c
As was true with other states, the pressures felt by the Ottoman Empire led to which of the following?
Creating a completely land-based empire.
Relying on religious elites to maintain state bureaucracies.
Attempting to modernize their economies and militaries.
Compelling large portions of the population into agrarian jobs.
Group 2
Questions 4-6 refer to the passage below
“Yet we are shamefully humiliated by the four nations, not because our climate, soil, or resources are inferior to theirs, but because our people are inferior...Now, our inferiority is not due to our allotment from heaven [i.e., our inherent nature], but is rather due to ourselves...Why are the Western nations small and yet strong? Why are we large and yet weak? We must search for the means to become their equal, and that depends solely upon human effort.”
Essay of Feng Guifen, a scholar and official in the Qing dynasty, 1861
Question 2a
According to Feng Guifen, what is the source of China’s humiliation?
The Qing dynasty is larger but much weaker than the European nations.
The Qing dynasty does not have access to fertile farmland and waterways.
The Qing dynasty rejected its Confucian traditions for European values.
The Qing dynasty persecuted religious and ethnic minorities.
Question 2b
Which of the following proved Feng Guifen’s view of the Qing Empire correct?
British and French forces assisting the Qing in putting down the Taiping Rebellion.
Britain and France expanding their influence through the Opium Wars.
The Qing dynasty sharing its bureaucratic institutions and Confucian examinations with Western powers.
European powers sharing new technologies with the Qing and profiting off of finished goods.
Question 2c
Similar to other regions, how did the more traditional segments of the Chinese population react to the presence of the West?
They moved to more remote regions to avoid contact with Westerners.
They used their traditions and belief systems to form resistance movements.
They embraced Western music but not Western dress.
They adopted the religion of the imperialists.
Group 3
Questions 7-8 refer to the passage below
“All the world knows that since the first days of the Ottoman state, the lofty principles of the Qur’an and the rules of the Shari‘a were always perfectly preserved. Our mighty sultanate reached the highest degree of strength and power, and all its subjects reached the highest degree of ease and prosperity. But in the last one hundred and fifty years, because of a succession of difficult and diverse causes, the sacred Shari‘a was not obeyed nor were the beneficent regulations followed; consequently, the empire’s former strength and prosperity have changed into weakness and poverty. It is evident that countries not governed by the Shari‘a cannot survive.
Full of confidence in the help of the God, and certain of the support of our Prophet, we deem it necessary and important from now on to introduce new legislation in order to achieve effective administration of the Ottoman government and provinces.”
Mustafa Reshid Pasha, Ottoman Foreign Minister, imperial decree announcing the Tanzimat reforms, 1839.
Question 3a
A historian interpreting the decree would best understand the purpose of the “new legislation” referred to in the second paragraph as an attempt to
establish the Ottoman Empire as a European power by conquering territory in southern Europe
establish Ottoman colonies in sub-Saharan Africa to extract natural resources for factories
allow the Ottoman government to reconquer territories lost to the Safavid and Mughal empires
allow the Ottoman government to compete against industrializing European powers
Question 3b
The decree’s statement regarding the change in the situation of the Ottoman Empire, as described in the first paragraph, is a viewpoint that would most likely have been shared by members of which of the following governments in the nineteenth century?
The Russian Empire in the aftermath of its victory in the Napoleonic War
The Qing Empire in the aftermath of the signing of the unequal treaties
The Japanese Empire in the immediate aftermath of the Sino-Japanese War
The Mughal Empire in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion against the British
Group 4
Questions 9-10 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.”
*a poisonous substance
“Remarks on the Opium Trade,” letter to a British magazine from an anonymous English merchant in Guangzhou (Canton), China, published in 1836.
Question 4a
The trade described in the passage is best seen as an early example of which of the following?
The economic decline of Asian states resulting from the importation of cheap consumer goods from Europe
The growing economic influence of European immigrants in China
The declining political power of European joint-stock companies in Asia because of states assuming direct imperial control
The use of economic imperialism by European merchants and states
Question 4b
A historian might argue that the trade described in the passage reflected a turning point in world history primarily because the opium trade
shifted the pattern of historic European trade imbalances with China
marked the transition from mercantilist trade toward capitalist free trade
was the first time that Europeans used migrant labor to grow crops for global distribution
relied upon industrial techniques of production and modern consumer marketing
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