The people who were already there: what colonisation did

Tests: 5 of 11 right · Exam: 0 of 4 right · Kind: ★★ · Understood: 6 of 15 · Run: 2026-10-18, commit f3c23ea72

Lesson 36 of the geography course of Mova's primary school, as Mova's small model took its tests: it had read this lesson and the ones before it and learned from their exercises. Each test shows the options in the order the student saw them, its choice, the right answer, the score of every option and why it chose. The lesson itself, sentence by sentence with trees and pragmatics: the lesson in the corpora.

Every question of this lesson and each of its options parsed by Mova, with trees and pragmatics: the lesson's questions in the corpora.

Test 1 · ★★ · wrong ✗

In EU5 you "colonise an empty province" in North America. What really happened in such places?

1. Colonists took land that was already someone's home — ✓ the right answer · no support
2. Colonists bought every acre at a fair price — no support
3. Indigenous peoples asked to be ruled — no support
4. The land was truly empty, with no one living on it — ← Mova's choice · score 6

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 4 with score 6, the only option with support. Its support: lesson 24, line 8: «Most people live in fairly small parts of the land: river valleys, coastal plains and fertile lowlands, while deserts, high mountains and polar lands are nearl…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same doer «river valleys» (+3); the same property (+2); the same light verb (be, have, do, get, go) (+1). The right option, 1, found no support in what it remembers. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 2 · ★★ · right ✓

my mate says the Spanish won cos guns are op. that the main reason?

1. No, disease killed far more, and they had many Indigenous allies — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. Yes, guns alone killed nearly everyone, there was no other reason at all — no support
3. Yes, Indigenous peoples had no weapons at all — no support
4. No, the Indigenous peoples simply left — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 3 · ★★ · wrong ✗

If American peoples had lived for centuries with smallpox, what would most likely have been different?

1. Columbus would have turned back — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Nothing at all would have changed — no support
3. Far fewer would have died after 1492 — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Europeans would have caught smallpox instead — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 4 · ★★ · right ✓

A Cherokee family in Georgia in 1838 is forced to march west by soldiers. What is this?

1. The Trail of Tears — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. The encomienda system — no support
3. The devshirme levy — no support
4. The Columbian Exchange — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 5 · ★★ · right ✓

A friend says Australia's history starts in 1788. What is wrong?

1. Aboriginal peoples had lived there for tens of thousands of years — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · no support
2. It started in 1492 with Columbus — no support
3. Australia was only found in 1900, by ships from Japan and China — no support
4. Nothing, nobody lived there before — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 6 · ★★ · wrong ✗

A Māori chief signed a text saying chiefs keep their authority, while the English text said the Crown got sovereignty. What problem does this cause?

1. Each side believed it had agreed to something different — ✓ the right answer · score 1
2. The chiefs could not sign at all — ← Mova's choice · score 8
3. The treaty was about Australia — no support
4. None, both texts said exactly the same thing in two languages — score 8

Why: It took the question to ask what is done. It chose option 2 with score 8, tied with another option at 8 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 36, line 16: «In 1840 many Māori chiefs and the British Crown signed the Treaty of Waitangi, but the English and Māori texts said different things about who held power.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+6); the same action «sign» (+4); the same doer «many māori chiefs» (+4). Against it: one says «not», the other does not (counts against) (-6). The right option, 1, scored 1. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 7 · ★★ · right ✓

ugh, history's all done n dusted, Indigenous peoples aren't around anymore, right?

1. Wrong, but only in Europe — no support
2. Wrong, about 476 million live today in about 90 countries — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 4
3. Right, only a few hundred are left, all of them in museums — no support
4. Right, they all died out by 1900 — score 3

Why: It took the question to ask which statement is true. It chose option 2 with score 4, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 36, line 5: «But this is not only history: about 476 million Indigenous people live today, and many are bringing back their languages, rights and lands.», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «live» (+3); the same property (+2). Against it: a different doer (counts against) (-1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 8 · ★★ · wrong ✗

Why did diseases travel mostly from Europe to the Americas and not back?

1. Germs cannot live in the Americas — score 1
2. American peoples were cleaner and never got ill — no support
3. Ships could only carry germs one way, from east to west with the trade winds — ← Mova's choice · score 6
4. Many came from living near farm animals and crowded towns, more common in Europe — ✓ the right answer · score 2

Why: It took the question to ask why something happens (its cause). It chose option 3 with score 6, against 2 for the next best. Its support: lesson 30, line 7: «Ships sailed from Europe to West Africa with goods such as cloth, guns and metal, carried enslaved Africans to the Americas, and brought back sugar, tobacco an…», reached through the option's own match among the sentences about the question's things. What matched: the same action «carry» (+3); the same doer «ships» (+2); a different thing acted on (counts against) (+1). The right option, 4, scored 2. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 9 · ★★ · right ✓

Which nations did the Haudenosaunee Confederacy join?

1. Five, later six, Indigenous nations — ← Mova's choice · ✓ the right answer · score 11
2. Spain and Portugal in one Catholic alliance — score 3
3. All thirteen of the British colonies — score 3
4. The Aztec and Inca empires of the south — score 3

Why: It took the question to ask what it is done to. It chose option 1 with score 11, against 3 for the next best. Its support: lesson 36, line 11: «The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also called the Iroquois, joined five, later six, nations in a lasting alliance.», reached through the remembered sentence the question matched. What matched: the same action «join» (+4); it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same thing acted on «five nations» (+2); the same doer «haudenosaunee confederacy» (+1). · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 10 · ★★ · wrong ✗

A Spanish settler is given a village whose people must work for him. Which system is this?

1. The devshirme levy — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. The encomienda — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. The Commonwealth — no support
4. The Treaty of Waitangi — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Test 11 · ★★ · wrong ✗

If the Congo Free State had been run for its people, not for rubber profits, what would most likely have been different?

1. The Congo River would have dried up — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Africa would have had no borders — no support
3. Millions of deaths from forced labour might not have happened — ✓ the right answer · no support
4. Leopold II would have ruled Spain and Portugal as well as Belgium — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 1 · formal language · wrong ✗

Which of the following statements most accurately characterises the Americas at the time of European arrival in 1492?

1. The continents were wholly uninhabited — ← Mova's choice · score 7
2. The continents were inhabited by tens of millions of persons in numerous nations — ✓ the right answer · score 5
3. The continents were already Spanish possessions — score 7
4. The continents were peopled solely by itinerant hunters numbering some hundreds — no support

Why: It took the question to ask who or what does it. It chose option 1 with score 7, tied with another option at 7 (the first shown, or the one claiming less beyond what it knows, wins). Its support: lesson 36, line 1: «Europa Universalis 5 often paints the Americas, Australia and much of Africa as empty land waiting for colonists, but every valley and coast already had people…», reached through the same lesson line as the sentence the question matched. What matched: it fills the role the question asks for (+4); the same doer «empty land» (+3). The right option, 2, scored 5. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 2 · formal language · wrong ✗

Identify the principal cause of the collapse of the Indigenous population of the Americas subsequent to 1492.

1. Voluntary emigration to Europe — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Introduced diseases, compounded by warfare and forced labour — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. An extended period of drought, without any other cause — no support
4. A decline in the birth rate unconnected with conquest — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 3 · formal language · wrong ✗

Ascertain the significance of the Mabo decision rendered by the High Court of Australia in 1992.

1. It ratified the Treaty of Waitangi — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. It rejected the doctrine that the land had belonged to no one — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. It established the Commonwealth of Australia — no support
4. It abolished the Australian monarchy and established a republic — no support

Why: Nothing it remembers matched the question, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

Exam question 4 · formal language · wrong ✗

State the approximate present number of Indigenous persons in the world.

1. Approximately four hundred and seventy-six thousand — ← Mova's choice · no support
2. Approximately four hundred and seventy-six million — ✓ the right answer · no support
3. Approximately four billion — no support
4. None whatsoever — no support

Why: No option found support in what it remembers, so it guessed: it took the first option shown. · the question and its options parsed, with trees and pragmatics

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/geography/36-the-people-who-were-already-there/