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Junior Cycle · Junior Cycle History

Junior Cycle History: Exploration and conquest

How often Exploration and conquest comes up on the History papers, every year it was asked, and questions to try.

CL Asked on 3 of the last 5 Common Level papers, most recently in 2026. most years

Exploration and conquest, Common Level(8 marks)

Quick ones on Exploration and conquest.

(a)Why did Portugal and Spain want a sea route to Asia in the 1400s?
  1. To spread the Protestant faith
  2. To trade directly for spices and silk
  3. To escape the Black Death in Europe
(b)Why was the caravel so useful to explorers?
  1. It could carry a thousand people
  2. It was driven by a steam engine
  3. It could sail into the wind
(c)Sailors in the Age of Exploration used the astrolabe to work out their…
  1. Latitude, from the sun or stars
  2. Longitude, using a clock
  3. Speed through the water
Show the answers

(a) To trade directly for spices and silk

(b) It could sail into the wind

(c) Latitude, from the sun or stars

Your turn: Common Level questions on Exploration and conquest.

Common Level

Asked on 3 of the last 5 Common Level papers, most recently in 2026. most years

Every paper, year by year

YearWhere it came up
2026Q2
2025Not asked
2024Q3
2023Not asked
2022Q3

Links open the State Examinations Commission’s paper for that year.

More Exploration and conquest questions

Exploration and conquest, 2 marks

Why were enslaved Africans shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas?

  1. To fight as soldiers in European wars
  2. To build castles in Spain
  3. To work on plantations and in mines
Show the answer

To work on plantations and in mines

As native workers died, Europeans forced millions of Africans across the Atlantic to grow sugar, tobacco and cotton. Many died on the crossing.

Other History topics

All of Junior Cycle History