Drill 5 · Multiple Choice · Unit 2: Networks of Exchange
AP World History Unit 2 Drill 5 is a Multiple Choice practice drill covering Unit 2: Networks of Exchange. It contains 5 original questions created by Brian Stewart, a Barron's test prep author with over 20 years of tutoring experience.
This drill focuses on the integrated Indian Ocean trading network from c. 1200 to c. 1450, with attention to the monsoon winds, the roles of Malaccan, Arab, Swahili, and Gujarati merchants, and the cultural and biological consequences of long-distance exchange. Read the passage carefully, then answer all five questions.
Adapted from a modern historian's account.
"The Indian Ocean world of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was not a collection of isolated civilizations but an integrated system in which people, goods, ideas, and pathogens moved with striking regularity. The monsoon winds, predictable, reversible, and seasonally reliable, provided the natural infrastructure that made this integration possible. What emerged was a network in which no single power dominated: the Sultanate of Malacca controlled the straits between the Indian and Pacific Oceans; Arab and Swahili merchants managed the East African coast; Gujarati merchants from western India served as indispensable middlemen across the whole basin. When trade flourished, it brought not only silk and spices but also crop varieties, religious practices, and epidemic diseases, binding distant peoples together in ways that were simultaneously enriching and devastating."
Question 1. Which of the following best summarizes the historian's central argument?
Explanation: B is correct. The historian argues the Indian Ocean was "an integrated system," that "no single power dominated," and that its effects included goods, ideas, crop varieties, religious practices, and epidemic diseases, simultaneously "enriching and devastating." This captures decentralization, integration, and multidimensional consequences. A is wrong, the historian specifically states "no single power dominated." C is wrong, the historian explicitly names non-luxury consequences including crop varieties, religious practices, and diseases. D is wrong, the historian describes monsoons as "predictable, reversible, and seasonally reliable," the opposite of unpredictable.
Question 2. The historian's argument that no single power dominated the Indian Ocean network would be most directly challenged by evidence that
Explanation: B is correct. If Zheng He's voyages systematically coerced Indian Ocean states into a tributary relationship backed by military force, this would directly challenge the claim that "no single power dominated." It would suggest Ming China came close to hegemonic control. The strengthened wording, "systematically coerced" and "military reprisal", makes this more plausible as a challenge than a vague reference to the voyages alone. A is tempting, if Gujaratis drove out Arab merchants from key markets, that could suggest one group was dominant, but merchant competition between communities is consistent with a decentralized multi-actor system, not a single power controlling the whole network. C is wrong, plague transmission along trade routes supports the historian's argument about the network's integrative effects; it does not challenge the claim about power distribution. D is wrong, a regional tariff at one strait exemplifies distributed power, not unified dominance.
Question 3. The historian's reference to "crop varieties" moving across the Indian Ocean network is best illustrated by which example?
Explanation: B is correct. The spread of bananas to East Africa and Champa rice to China are canonical AP World History examples of agricultural diffusion through Indian Ocean trade networks in this period, with significant effects on food supply and population growth. A is wrong, American crops spread after the Columbian Exchange, beginning after 1492, well outside the period described (1200–1450); this is a chronology trap. C is wrong; Portuguese Atlantic sugar cultivation began after 1450 and involves the Atlantic, not the Indian Ocean network. D is wrong; Neolithic crop diffusion occurred thousands of years before this period and involved entirely different networks.
Question 4. The historian describes the Indian Ocean network as "simultaneously enriching and devastating." Which pair of developments best illustrates this dual character?
Explanation: B is correct. The key requirement is that both consequences flow from the Indian Ocean network itself. Swahili city-states grew wealthy through Indian Ocean commerce; the plague traveled through trade networks into the Indian Ocean basin and beyond. Both outcomes, prosperity and pandemic, are products of the same connectivity the historian describes. A is wrong, the Mongol destruction of Baghdad was an overland military event, not an Indian Ocean consequence. C is wrong, the Portuguese conquest occurred after 1450, outside the period, and trans-Saharan decline involves a different network. D is wrong, the Grand Canal and the fall of Rome are unconnected to the Indian Ocean network and to each other.
Question 5. Which development after 1450 best represents a continuity of the pattern described in this passage?
Explanation: A is correct. Despite Portuguese arrival after 1498, the existing network proved resilient. Arab, Indian (particularly Gujarati), and Malay merchants continued operating across the Indian Ocean, maintaining the decentralized, multi-actor character the historian describes. The network was restructured but not destroyed, a direct continuity of the pattern. B is wrong, the Atlantic slave trade was a new Atlantic network; Indian Ocean commerce remained significant throughout the early modern period. C is wrong, the Protestant Reformation had minimal direct effect on Indian Ocean trade; Jesuit missionaries actually expanded Catholic activity in Asia after the Reformation. D is wrong, the Ming Haijin restricted official Chinese maritime commerce but did not end Indian Ocean trade; non-Chinese merchants continued operating and China eventually relaxed restrictions.