Name:
Unit 4 – Forming a Government Study Guide
Know the following vocabulary words:
1. Constitution – the law and plan of a country‘s government
2. Amendment – a change or addition to a document
3. Bill – an idea for a law
4. Ratify – to approve or accept
5. Veto - reject
Know the following facts/events:
1. The most important aspect of the Articles of Confederation was: it was the
first national government of the United States, which was established in
1781 towards the end of the Revolutionary War
2. One weakness of the Articles of Confederation was that most power was
held by the states
3. Under the Articles of Confederation, all of the following were true: could
not draft an army, could not raise taxes, and each state was printing
its own money
4. The purpose of the Land Ordinance of 1785 was to set up a system for
surveying and dividing territory
5. The main cause of Shays’ Rebellion was the Massachusetts policy that
forced farmers to pay taxes on land that they could not afford
6. Following Shays’ Rebellion, most Americans called for establishing a
stronger central government
7. In response to the uprising known as Shays’ Rebellion, the American
government responded by planning to hold a convention in Philadelphia to
revise the Articles of Confederation to better meet the nation’s needs
8. At the Constitutional Convention:

55 delegates met in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to discuss how to fix
the Articles of Confederation

George Washington was elected the leader
9. In the debate over the Constitution, Federalists favored a strong national
government
10. In the debate over the Constitution, Anti-Federalists were against a strong
national government
11. The Federalist Papers tried to assure Americans that the new federal
government created under the Constitution would not overpower the states
12. Small states objected to the Virginia Plan because they feared that large,
populated states would outvote them
13. Both the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan included three branches of
government
14. The Great Compromise resolved the debate over state representation in the
federal government by creating a two-house legislature, where in one
house state population determined the number of representatives (House
of Representatives), and in the other house (Senate), the number of
representatives were equal
15. In order to prevent any one branch of government from gaining too much
power, the Constitution created a system of checks and balances
16. The Constitution of the United States has all of the following:

Three branches of government

An intricate system of checks and balances which keep each branch
from becoming too powerful

Can be changed through an amendment
17. Some people opposed the Constitution because they believed that it gave
the federal government, especially the President too much power
18. The Federalist Papers were a series of newspaper essays written to
persuade people to support the Constitution
19. Federalism is the sharing of power between the states and central
government
20. The Bill of Rights was a document added to the Constitution to protect
basic citizens’ rights
Know the following bold words to fill in the chart:
Branch
Person/group in
charge?
JOB
Place they
work/conduct their
business
Executive
President
Legislative
Speaker of the
House – House of
Representatives
Judicial
Supreme Court
Vice President Senate
Carries
out/enforces laws
Makes laws
Interprets
laws/settles
disputes
White House
Capitol Building
Supreme Court
Justice Building