Unit 18: Paper 3 (HL) — History of Europe
Topic 18.5: The Age of Exploration and its impact (1400–1550) Questions
Practice 20 exam-style questions for IB History Topic 18.5. Review the question stems below, then unlock the full Question Bank to access markschemes, model answers, and AI grading.
1Choose1 mark
2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q12
Choose the person most associated with founding and funding the research and voyage programme based at Sagres.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.2 - Q14
Choose the port city that Vasco da Gama reached in India in 1498.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.2 - Q12
Choose the explorer who accidentally reached Brazil in 1500 while sailing to India.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q11
Choose the event that gave Portuguese merchants the strongest immediate commercial incentive to seek a sea route to Asia.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.2 - Q11
Choose the correct year in which Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q13
Choose the technological development that allowed caravels to sail against the prevailing Atlantic winds on the return voyage from West Africa.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q14
Choose the year in which Gil Eanes rounded Cape Bojador, breaking the psychological barrier that had stopped earlier sailors.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q15
Choose the African kingdom that exchanged ambassadors with Portugal and converted to Christianity following contact established by Diogo Cão.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.2 - Q15
Choose the explorer whose 1497 voyage for England reached Newfoundland.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.2 - Q13
Choose the distance used to fix the final Tordesillas line in 1494.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q2
Evaluate the importance of technological developments in enabling European overseas exploration before 1500.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.2 - Q10
To what extent did the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) succeed in preventing conflict between European states over new discoveries?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q6
Analyse the consequences of Portuguese exploration of West Africa for Portugal and for the Ottoman Empire.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q9
Examine the reasons why Portugal, rather than another European state, took the lead in overseas exploration during the fifteenth century.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q10
To what extent did Portuguese exploration of West Africa permanently shift the balance of commercial power away from the Ottoman Empire and Arab traders by 1500?
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.2 - Q8
Evaluate the claim that the Columbian Exchange was the most significant consequence of European exploration for Europe itself before 1550.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q1
Examine the reasons why European states began overseas exploration in the fifteenth century.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q3
Discuss the role of Prince Henry the Navigator in the development of Portuguese exploration.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.2 - Q1
Examine the causes of European voyages of exploration to the New World and the Indian Ocean before 1500.
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2026• Aimnova original vault - 18.5.1 - Q4
To what extent was economic gain the most significant motive behind Portuguese exploration of West Africa in the fifteenth century?
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