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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. The Giant Leap Forward occurred when?

2. What weapon was used by the Incas?

3. The axis of a continent does not affect the spread of what?

4. What is typically necessary for a society to have non-food specialists beyond kings and bureaucrats?

5. What is a factor that influenced a group to adopt agriculture?

Short Essay Questions

1. What happened in the encounter between the Incas and the Spanish?

2. Why did food production not occur earlier in history?

3. What was the biggest difference between the histories of Old World Europe and the New World Americas? Why was this important?

4. What is one new piece of information that has come to light since Diamond's work was first published?

5. How do inventions spread between societies?

6. Why are the societies of Asia and the Pacific important according to Diamond?

7. How is climate used as an explanation for the uneven distribution of wealth and power?

8. Why were Europeans able to conquer Africans according to Diamond?

9. What are the three basic strategies for writing systems?

10. Why did Eurasia have an advantage in the domestication of animals?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Why does Diamond use the Polynesian Islands as a test of his theory? What conclusions does Diamond get from his examination of these societies?

Essay Topic 2

What effect does population growth have on societies? What advantages did societies gain as their population grew?

Essay Topic 3

Why were Europeans able to conquer many of the groups in the Americas? Give specific examples of the advantages that the Europeans had and address why they had these advantages.

(see the answer keys)

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