Practice question · Multiple choice
Bronze needs tin from far away while iron ore is nearly everywhere. What did that difference do to political power?
Hints
- Ask who can be cut off from bronze, and who from iron.
- The metallurgy is the smaller half of the story.
Show the answer
C. Bronze concentrated power in the trade; iron dispersed it
Why
Control of a scarce input is political power. Iron's ubiquity removed that chokepoint, which is part of why the palace systems that managed bronze networks did not survive into the Iron Age.
Practise The Bronze Age and Metallurgy
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on The Bronze Age and Metallurgy
- What did the Uluburun shipwreck (c. 1300 BCE) carry?
- Iron ore is far commoner than tin. Why did iron come second?
- A Bronze Age chief in Denmark could be cut off from weapons by events in Afghanistan. What does that…
- Bronze arms an aristocracy; iron can arm a village.
- Complete the recipe and its politics.
- Bronze is copper plus tin. What percentage tin makes good bronze?