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AP U.S. History — Period 1 (1491–1607) — Drill 1

Drill 1 · Multiple Choice · Period 1: 1491–1607

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About This Drill

AP U.S. History — Period 1 (1491–1607) — Drill 1 is a Multiple Choice practice drill covering Period 1: 1491–1607. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.

This AP U.S. History Period 1 drill is based on an adapted excerpt from Bartolomé de las Casas's A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies (1542). Questions test historical context, authorial argument, rhetorical choices, sourcing, and the broader significance of Spanish colonization and Indigenous resistance.

Passage

The following is adapted from A Brief Account of the Destruction of the Indies, written by Spanish friar Bartolomé de las Casas in 1542 and submitted to King Charles I of Spain. Into these gentle lands, these peaceful, innocent nations, the Spaniards entered as soon as they had learned of them, like wolves, tigers, and lions who had gone many days without food or nourishment. They have done nothing these forty years but massacre and murder and afflict, torment, and destroy them with strange and new inventions of cruelty, never before seen, nor heard of, nor read of. The land is full of ruins and desolation. Of the above three million souls that were once here in the isle of Hispaniola, there are today not two hundred of the native people remaining. All the rest are dead. And what was the cause of this? Was it not greed alone, the great thirst of gold and silver that drove them on, the desire to grow wealthy quickly, and to climb to high estate?

Questions in This Drill

  1. Bartolomé de las Casas's use of the phrase "wolves, tigers, and lions" to describe Spanish conquistadors primarily serves to
  2. The argument made by de las Casas in this passage is best described as
  3. The historical context most directly relevant to de las Casas's 1542 account was
  4. De las Casas's criticisms of Spanish colonial practices most directly contributed to which of the following developments?
  5. The population decline described by de las Casas on the island of Hispaniola was part of a broader pattern that historians associate most directly with