Practice Test 10 - AP World History

20 questions. Answer them in any order, then submit to see your score and every explanation.

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1. Between the 1300s and 1600s, the Majapahit Empire in the Indonesian archipelago relied on maritime trade, port cities, and alliances with local rulers. Over time, Islamic sultanates such as Malacca gained influence along key sea-lanes, and Muslim merchants and scholars became prominent in coastal communities. Which factor most directly contributed to the rise of Islamic states in Southeast Asia?
2. In the eighteenth century, Britain expanded its naval presence and commercial reach, using Navigation Acts to channel colonial trade through British ships and ports. The state supported shipbuilding, protected merchants with a powerful navy, and collected customs revenues that helped finance further imperial expansion. Colonies supplied raw materials and served as markets for manufactured goods, reinforcing a mercantilist framework. Which of the following best describes the relationship between mercantilism and the maintenance of Britain's maritime empire?
3. After 1945, Western Europe expanded trade through institutions and agreements that reduced tariffs, while Japan rebuilt an export-oriented economy emphasizing automobiles and electronics. In the same decades, many newly independent states in Africa and South Asia exported primary commodities and imported manufactured goods, often facing unfavorable terms of trade. Which comparison best captures a key difference in postwar economic exchange patterns?
4. In a 75–125 word excerpt from a 19th-century Caribbean newspaper, an editor describes how emancipation ended legal slavery but left plantation owners controlling land, credit, and courts. The editor notes that freedpeople formed mutual-aid societies, negotiated wages, and moved to marginal lands, while elites used vagrancy laws and contract enforcement to compel labor. The editor argues that "freedom" changed social rank less than expected because economic dependence replaced legal bondage. Which development most directly reflects the changing social hierarchies described in the excerpt?
5. Austria-Hungary was a multiethnic empire including Germans, Hungarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Serbs, and others. Nationalist movements challenged imperial cohesion, and leaders feared that concessions would encourage further demands. How did this internal situation contribute to World War I?
6. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany used ghettos, mass shootings, forced labor, and extermination camps to murder millions of Jews and other targeted groups. Which feature most distinguishes the Holocaust from many earlier mass atrocities?
7. A 1950 memoir by an African veteran of World War II recalls fighting for a European empire, then returning home to face discriminatory wages, land seizures, and restricted political rights. The author describes how veterans used their military experience to organize unions and nationalist parties, arguing that the war weakened imperial authority. Which factor most directly contributed to the decline of European empires after 1900 as described in the memoir?
8. In the late nineteenth century, European colonial states in Southeast Asia expanded tin and copper mining for global industrial markets. Mining operations diverted rivers, dumped tailings, and created pits that filled with contaminated water; nearby farmers complained of reduced fish and damaged rice paddies. Which of the following best explains the environmental consequence of this mineral extraction?
9. European mariners in the 1400s–1500s increasingly used the magnetic compass, astrolabe, and lateen sails to travel farther from coastlines. Portolan charts and improved knowledge of winds and currents supported longer voyages. These technologies spread through interactions among Mediterranean, Islamic, and Asian seafaring traditions. Which broader historical process best explains the diffusion of these navigational innovations into Western Europe?
10. In 1975, Portugal's African colonies gained independence quickly after political change in Portugal. The abrupt transition left administrative gaps and competing armed movements. Which factor most directly explains why rapid decolonization sometimes produced instability?
11. An Andean empire in the 1400s incorporates many ethnic groups by building roads, storing surplus in state warehouses, and requiring labor service for public works. Officials move loyal populations into newly conquered areas and allow local leaders to retain some authority if they deliver quotas. Which policy most directly illustrates how the empire managed expansion and integration?
12. A 17th-century Spanish administrator describes a rigid social hierarchy in colonial society, categorizing people by ancestry and legal status, affecting taxation and rights. Which system is being described as part of the post-Columbian colonial order?
13. A 1900s factory introduces interchangeable parts and a moving assembly line, reducing the time needed to build a car and lowering its price. Which broader economic effect is most likely?
14. In the 19th-century Russian Empire, emancipation of the serfs in 1861 ended legal bondage but required many peasants to make redemption payments and left land in the hands of nobles and village communes. Urban industrialization created new factory workers and professionals. Which outcome best reflects changing social hierarchies after emancipation?
15. In the early Cold War, U.S. officials worried that poverty and instability could make countries vulnerable to communist movements. Programs like the Point Four Program and later development aid aimed to promote growth and modernization. Which assumption most directly underpinned these policies?
16. A Mughal court historian describes Emperor Akbar inviting Muslim, Hindu, Jain, and Christian scholars to debates, abolishing the jizya tax on non-Muslims, and promoting a policy of sulh-i kul (universal peace). Which outcome best reflects how this belief-policy could support imperial rule?
17. Why were Sufi missionaries, not armies, central to Islam's spread in SE Asia?
18. In the nineteenth century, the United States expanded westward across North America through purchases, treaties, warfare, and settlement. The ideology of Manifest Destiny framed expansion as inevitable, while railroads and the Homestead Act encouraged migration. Indigenous peoples were displaced through forced removals and reservation policies. Which development most directly facilitated U.S. territorial expansion and settlement in the West after 1860?
19. In the Achaemenid Persian Empire, kings used satraps to govern provinces, while royal inspectors and a courier system helped monitor officials. The empire standardized coinage and supported major roads, yet allowed many conquered peoples to keep local customs and religions. Which administrative practice best illustrates how the Achaemenids balanced central control with local autonomy?
20. A government report from 1906 describes a new policy of "assimilation" in an overseas colony: colonial subjects can become citizens if they adopt the metropole's language, legal code, and schooling. In practice, very few qualify, and most remain under separate "customary" courts and forced-labor rules. Which broader imperial ideology is best illustrated by this policy?

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