2. Why did many conquistadors decide to leave Spain and travel to the Americas?

1. They were forced by the king to become farmers at home and could not choose their own jobs or land.
2. They hoped to gain land, gold, and fame, and they thought the New World might give them chances they did not have in Spain.
3. They wanted to escape every kind of work and find a place where no one had to follow any rulers at all.
4. They believed the Americas were empty of people and had already been fully explored by other countries.

3. Which detail from the passage best explains how Cortés was able to defeat the Aztec Empire?

1. He used Spanish weapons and horses and made alliances with Native groups who were angry at the Aztecs and joined him in battle.
2. He decided to live peacefully on the coast and refused to enter the capital city of Tenochtitlan at any time.
3. He traveled without any Native allies and never spoke with people who lived in the region around the empire.
4. He chose to stay away from all fighting and let the Aztecs decide how to rule their lands without any help.

4. What happened when Francisco Pizarro met the Inca ruler Atahualpa in South America?

1. Pizarro and Atahualpa traded gifts and agreed that the Inca Empire would remain fully free and safe from Spain.
2. Pizarro was captured by the Inca army, paid a ransom in gold and silver, and then went back to Spain at once.
3. Pizarro gave up his weapons and asked Atahualpa to teach him how to build roads in the Andes Mountains.
4. Pizarro’s soldiers suddenly attacked, captured Atahualpa, demanded riches, and later killed him while taking over Inca lands.

5. How did European diseases affect Native peoples during the time of the conquistadors?

1. Diseases helped only the Native peoples, who already had strong immunity and stayed healthy during every war and siege.
2. Diseases spread only among Spanish sailors on their ships and never reached cities like Tenochtitlan or the Inca capital.
3. Diseases such as smallpox were new to Native peoples, killed many of them, and made it easier for Spanish and allied armies to win.
4. Diseases affected only farm animals and had no effect on battles or on the lives of human beings in the Americas.

6. Which sentence best describes one big effect of the Spanish conquistadors on the Americas?

1. They promised to keep every empire safe and never tried to change government, land, or religion anywhere they traveled.
2. They broke up strong Native empires, claimed large areas for Spain, and brought both new animals and crops and serious hardship to Indigenous peoples.
3. They refused to build any towns or roads, so life in the Americas stayed exactly the same as it had been before 1500.
4. They chose to live quietly in the mountains and never spoke with Native communities or Spanish leaders again.

7. Which idea from the 720L passage shows that the story of the conquistadors is complicated and not just good or bad?

1. “The story of the conquistadors is about daring and exploration, but it is also about loss, unfair treatment, and the long struggle of Indigenous peoples to keep their families and cultures alive.”
2. “In the early 1500s, ships from Spain crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.”
3. “Another conquistador, Francisco Pizarro, sailed farther south to the west coast of South America.”
4. “High in the Andes Mountains was the Inca Empire.”

2. According to the passage, why did “gold, God, and glory” motivate many conquistadors?

1. They wanted to avoid battle completely and believed that wealth, religion, and honor could only be gained by staying in Spain.
2. They hoped to gain riches and land, convert new peoples to Catholicism, and win personal honor and higher social status through conquest.
3. They believed that gold and glory were unimportant and that only peaceful farming in the New World was worth their effort.
4. They were trying to escape from the Catholic Church and prove that religion had no place in Spanish society.

3. Which quotation from the passage best explains how Spanish technology helped conquistadors in battle?

1. “Conquistadors carried steel swords, armor, and firearms that gave them an advantage over many Indigenous weapons.”
2. “After conquest, Spanish officials and settlers created new systems such as the encomienda…”
3. “Their actions helped Spain become a major global power, and silver from American mines poured into European markets.”
4. “In some regions, disease weakened empires, caused political chaos, and made conquest easier…”

4. How did Indigenous allies influence the outcome of Spanish conquests, according to the 920L passage?

1. They refused to join either side, so the conquistadors had to fight alone without any local support or information.
2. They forced the conquistadors to leave the Americas and helped restore full power to the Aztec and Inca rulers.
3. They insisted on fighting only at sea, which made it harder for the Spanish to reach cities in the interior of the continents.
4. They supplied large numbers of warriors and local knowledge, turning small Spanish forces into much larger armies that could challenge powerful empires.

5. Which development best shows how Spanish rule changed labor systems in the conquered territories?

1. The Spanish rejected all forms of tribute and insisted that Indigenous communities live without paying taxes or doing any work at all.
2. The Spanish allowed only European settlers to farm and banned Indigenous peoples from working on any land in the Americas.
3. The Spanish created systems such as the encomienda, which allowed colonists to demand labor and tribute from Indigenous communities in exchange for supposed protection and religious instruction.
4. The Spanish gave every Indigenous person a share of royal land and forbade colonists from owning farms or mines of their own.

6. Which idea from the passage best shows that the impact of the conquistadors is still important to understand today?

1. “Disease played a tragic role as well.”
2. “Studying the conquistadors means examining both the daring risks they took and the human costs of the empire they helped build.”
3. “In both cases, conquistadors used a mix of diplomacy, betrayal, and violence.”
4. “New cities, languages, and religions spread across the Americas…”

7. Based on the 920L passage, which statement best describes the overall legacy of the Spanish conquistadors?

1. Their legacy is entirely positive, because they brought wealth to every group they encountered and ended all forms of conflict in the Americas.
2. Their legacy is simple to judge, because conquest had no lasting effects on culture, religion, or power in the New World.
3. Their legacy is mixed, because they helped Spain grow rich and powerful while also causing warfare, forced labor, and lasting damage to Indigenous societies.
4. Their legacy is impossible to study, because there are no written records of their actions or their impact on the Americas.