Age of Exploration Quiz

Grade 7 · Social Studies · Quiz

How well do you know the Age of Exploration? Test yourself on the great voyages, explorers, and world-changing consequences of European expansion.

Questions

Which country led the early Age of Exploration, funding expeditions down the African coast?
1. Spain
2. England
3. Portugal
4. France
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Answer: Portugal
Portugal, led by Prince Henry the Navigator, pioneered systematic exploration of the African coast beginning in the early 1400s.
Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage was funded by:
1. Portugal
2. Spain
3. England
4. Italy
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Answer: Spain
Columbus's voyage was funded by the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella after Portugal rejected his proposal.
Columbus knew he had discovered a new continent when he arrived in the Americas in 1492.
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Answer: False
Columbus believed until his death in 1506 that he had reached islands near Asia. The Americas were recognized as a separate continent by others.
Vasco da Gama was the first European to:
1. Cross the Atlantic Ocean
2. Circumnavigate the globe
3. Sail from Europe to India around Africa
4. Reach the Pacific Ocean
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Answer: Sail from Europe to India around Africa
Da Gama's 1497-1498 voyage around Africa's Cape of Good Hope to India established the first direct sea route to Asia.
The Columbian Exchange refers to the transfer of which things between the Old and New Worlds?
1. Money and military technology only
2. Plants, animals, diseases, and people
3. Religious texts and languages
4. Maps and navigational tools
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Answer: Plants, animals, diseases, and people
The Columbian Exchange was the broad transfer of biological and cultural elements between the Americas and Eurasia/Africa.
Which animal, introduced from Europe, transformed life for many Native American peoples of the Great Plains?
1. Cattle
2. Pig
3. Horse
4. Sheep
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Answer: Horse
The horse, reintroduced to the Americas by Spanish explorers (they had been extinct there), transformed Plains cultures like the Comanche and Sioux.
Ferdinand Magellan survived to complete the first circumnavigation of the globe.
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Answer: False
Magellan was killed in the Philippines in 1521. His navigator Juan Sebastian Elcano completed the journey, returning to Spain in 1522.
What was mercantilism, the economic theory that guided European colonization?
1. The belief that free trade benefits all nations equally
2. The idea that colonies exist to provide raw materials and wealth to the mother country
3. A system of barter between colonies and native peoples
4. The theory that gold mines were the only source of national wealth
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Answer: The idea that colonies exist to provide raw materials and wealth to the mother country
Mercantilism held that a nation's wealth depended on accumulating gold/silver and maintaining a trade surplus, using colonies as resource suppliers.
The continents of North and South America were named after:
1. Christopher Columbus
2. Amerigo Vespucci
3. Ferdinand Magellan
4. Vasco da Gama
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Answer: Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci correctly argued that Columbus had reached a previously unknown continent. Mapmakers named the land 'America' after him.
Which crop from the Americas helped prevent famines in Europe, especially in Ireland?
1. Corn (maize)
2. Tomatoes
3. Potatoes
4. Tobacco
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Answer: Potatoes
The potato became a dietary staple in Europe, especially among the poor. Its failure caused the Irish Famine (1845-1852).

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