American History & Government
Review Sheet
Early Colonies
1.
What was the Northwest Passage?
2.
What were the reasons for the difficulty in establishing Jamestown?
3.
What was the Virginia House of Burgesses?
4.
How were the French settlement patterns different from English?
5.
What was the purpose of the Mayflower Compact?
6.
What were the major differences between the 13 colonies?
7.
What were the Salem Witch Trials?
8.
What was the Great Awakening? What impact did it have?
9.
What was the significance of the Zenger trials?
10. Why did Britain institute a policy of mercantilism? Why did the colonists oppose it?
11. Why did the British follow the policy of salutary neglect?
12. What was carried aboard ships on each leg of the triangular trade?
13. Why did the slave trade grow in the colonies?
14. Who was Olaudah Equiano?
15. What was the Albany Plan of Union? Why did the colonists reject it?
Revolutionary War Period
16. What was the Proclamation Line of 1763? Why was it created and why did the colonists ignore it?
17. How were the Sugar and Stamp Acts different from previous colonial duties that came before them?
18. What did "no taxation without representation" mean? Why was it important for colonial legislatures to control taxes and government spending?
19. What was the Boston Massacre?
20. Why did the colonists gather at the First Continental Congress? What major decision was accomplished there?
21. What were the initial battles of the Revolutionary War?
22. What was "Common Sense" and why did it have such a profound impact on American colonists?
23. What was the Declaration of Independence and what was the major reason it was written?
24. Who had the biggest influence on Thomas Jefferson as he wrote the Dec. of Indep.? What is the theory of natural rights and how is it included in
the document?
25. Where do we see the ideas of popular sovereignty and limited government in the Dec. of Indep.?
26. Explain the italicized clauses in the following paragraph from the Dec. of Indep.:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that
among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People
to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes…"
27. What was the significance of the Battle of Trenton & the Battle of Saratoga?
Creation of the United States of America
28. What were the Articles of Confederation & what were the weaknesses in them? (define confederation)
29. Why were the individual states given the majority of power under the Articles?
30. What was the Land Ordinance of 1785?
31. What was the purpose of the Annapolis Convention?
32. What was the purpose of the Philadelphia Convention & why did it turn into the Constitutional Convention?
33. What was the chief issue debated at the Constitutional Convention? How did the VA and NJ Plans propose to settle this issue? What factions did
each plan represent? How did the "Great Compromise" help settle the issue? How did the 3/5 Compromise help settle the issue? Who benefited the
most from it?
34. Define the three powers of government: legislative, executive, and judicial
35. What are the delegated, concurrent, and reserved powers? What are examples of each of them?
36. What are the Six Constitutional Principles and what do they mean?
37. What are some examples of the system of checks & balances?
38. What was the purpose of the Preamble to the Constitution? How does it reinforce the idea of popular sovereignty?
39. What powers are given to Congress? What powers are denied to Congress?
40. Why is the House of Representatives given the sole power to tax?
41. What is the commerce clause and why is it so important?
42. What is the "elastic clause" or necessary and proper clause?
43. How does the presidential power of Commander-in-Chief differ from Congress' expressed power to declare war?
44. In Federalist No.68, how did Alexander Hamilton explain the justification for creating the Electoral College? What are the major flaws in the
Electoral College? What is the most popular proposed reform to the system
45. Who were the Federalists and Anti-federalists? What was their disagreement over? Why did the Federalists win? What were the Federalist Papers?
46. What protections are given to people by the Bill of Rights?
47. How does the 10th Amendment help establish the principle of limited government?
Early U.S.
48. What important precedents did Washington establish? How did US entry into the U.N. after WWII mark a shift in the traditional foreign policy
Washington established? Which precedent did Washington establish that went from being part of the unwritten constitution to a formal
constitutional amendment? What events led to the change?
49. Why did the government decide to build the nation's capital in the south?
50. What was the Whiskey rebellion? Why did Washington respond to the rebellion with such a large force?
51. What was the XYZ Affair? How did the Alien & Sedition Acts conflict with the protections in the Bill or Rights? What was the significance of the
Virginia & Kentucky Resolutions?
52. What was the major difference between strict & loose constructionists?
53. How did the first political parties develop?
54. What important principles did Washington put forth is his Farewell speech?
55. What were Jefferson's goals when he ascended to the presidency?
56. Why was Jefferson a supporter of westward expansion? What important advantages did the Louisiana Purchase have for farmers in the Northwest
Territory? How did the Louisiana Purchase mark a significant shift in the way Jefferson viewed interpretation of the Constitution?
57. Who were Meriwether Lewis and William Clark?
58. What impact did John Marshall have on the national government of the United States?
59. How did James Madison justify his belief that Congress should declare war in 1812?
60. Why did the U.S. issue the Monroe Doctrine? What were the provisions in the document? How did the Monroe Doctrine reiterate the foreign
policy created by George Washington?
61. How was the election of 1824 decided? Why did Adams believe in protective tariffs? Why was the South opposed to them? Why did the election of
1828 see such an increase in the voting roles?
62. What were the major differences between the Jacksonian Democrats and National Republicans?
63. What were the spoils system & patronage? What was the Nullification Crisis? How did Jackson use the power of the presidency to overpower the
legislative and judicial branches?
64. What was the Seneca Falls Convention? What were its goals? What was its significance?
65. What was Manifest Destiny? What was the biggest question facing the nation as they expanded westward?
66. Why did so many people move to California in 1849?
Growing Sectionalism and the Civil War
67. How did geography and climate help contribute to growing differences between the North & South? How did tariffs help exacerbate growing
sectionalism?
68. What were the causes behind the divisions in the abolitionist movement? How did the American Colonization Society propose to settle the issue?
69. Who were David Walker, William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, & Harriet Tubman? What was the Underground Railroad?
70. How did the South respond to anti-slavery movement and the increased threat of rebellion from the slave population?
71. Identify the following points and describe how the helped contribute to the growing divisions between north and south:
a. Missouri Compromise
d. Fugitive Slave Act
f. John Brown
b. Compromise of 1850
e. Uncle Tom's Cabin
g. Dred Scott decision
c. Kansas-Nebraska Act
72. What was Lincoln's message in his "A House Divided" speech?
73. What was the spark that set off secession? What was the spark that set off the Civil War?
74. How did the following help contribute to the Civil War: States rights, tariffs, slavery, sectionalism, geography and climate?
75. What important statements did Lincoln make in his first Inaugural Address?
76. What were the advantages and disadvantages of North and South during the Civil War?
77. What were the NYC Draft riots? What were the contributing factors that helped create them?
78. What was the Emancipation Proclamation? Why didn't it have much impact at the time?
79. What was Lincoln's message in the Gettysburg Address?
Reconstruction
80. What were the provisions of the 13th, 14th, & 15th Amendments? How did they attempt to create a social and political equality for AfricanAmericans? Why was only a limited political equality given by the 15th Amendment?
81. How did the Civil War and Reconstruction increase the power of the federal government?
82. What were the Black Codes? Why were they created?
83. What were Lincoln's major goals for reconstruction?
84. Why did Congress impeach Andrew Johnson?
85. What was the Freedmen's Bureau?
86. Who were the Radical Republicans? What was their view on Reconstruction and readmission of the southern states into the Union?
87. Who were the Carpetbaggers and Scalawags?
88. What was sharecropping and tenant farming?
89. What was the Solid South?
90. What was the Compromise of 1877? How did it mark the end of Reconstruction?
Jim Crow Era
91. What was the Jim Crow era? When did it begin? When did it start to end?
92. What were the purposes of grandfather clauses, poll taxes, & literacy tests?
93.
94.
95.
How do the philosophies of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois compare/contrast?
What were the facts behind the Plessy v. Ferguson case? What was the lasting impact of the decision in that case?
What is the NAACP and what was their stance on racial segregation and equality?
Westward Expansion, Rise of Big Business, Late 1800's Immigration
96. What were the transcontinental railroad, the Morrill Land Grant Act, the Homestead Act, and the Pacific Railway Act and how did they contribute
to the development of the west?
97. What was the primary policy the U.S. government took towards Native Americans prior to 1887? How did the Dawes Act change this and why did
the government what to change it?
98. How did the widespread hunting of the buffalo contribute to the reservation movement?
99. How did the shift to cash-crop farming indicate a new way of living for the farmers in the Midwest? What problem did this lead to?
100. Who were the Grangers and what was their primary platform?
101. Who were the Populists? What did they want the free coinage of silver? Why did they want the government to regulate the railroads? What was
the graduated income tax?
102. What has been the traditional importance of third-party politics in U.S. history?
103. Why did corporations become the dominant form of business in the post-Civil War era? How did their popularity impact the growth of big
business during this period?
104. What are monopolies, pools, and trusts and why did people try to create them? Why were small businesses opposed to them?
105. What was the “New South”?
106. What was the Interstate Commerce Act?
107. What were the Sherman and Clayton Anti-trust acts? Why was the Sherman Anti-trust act ineffective?
108. What was the debate regarding the terms “Robber Barons” and “Captains of Industry”?
109. What happened to the size of the middle class during the post-Civil War period?
110. What was Social Darwinism? How did monopolies and big business use the ideology to their advantage?
111. What is the ideology of laissez-faire?
112. What impact did big business have on the U.S. government during the mid to late 1800’s?
113. Who were the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor? What were their goals? How does this compare to the goals of similar
organizations today? Why were they ineffective during the 1800’s? What is collective bargaining?
114. Who were Terrence Powderly, Eugene Debs, and Samuel Gompers?
115. What were some of the labor strikes in the late 1800’s? To what extent were they violent? What effect did this have?
116. What is urbanization and what are the reasons for it?
117. What has been the single largest contributor to immigration into the U.S. throughout history?
118. What are the various push/pull factors of immigration?
119. What are political machines and why did they flourish in immigrant communities?
120. What is nativism and what were some of the causes behind it?
121. Who was Jacob Riis and what was his book How the Other Half Lives about?
122. Who was Jane Addams and what was Hull House?
123. Who were the “new” and “old” immigrants?
124. What were the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Gentleman’s Agreement of 1907, and the National Origin’s Act of 1924?
125. What does “E pluribus Unum” mean? What is the “melting pot” theory?
Progressivism
126. What were the goals of the progressives?
127. Who were the muckrakers? How did they get their message out to the public? What impact did they have?
128. Be familiar with the following people and the impact they had on society: Lincoln Steffens, Ida Tartabell, Upton Sinclair, Jane Addams and Florence
Kelley.
129. Who were the suffragettes? What marked the formal beginning and ending of their struggle? When did these events happen?
130. What was the Clayton Anti-trust Act and why was it created?
131. What is a graduated income tax and why did the progressives want it?
132. What is the 16th Amendment?
133. What usually causes the creation of a third political party? What has been the biggest role of third party politics in U.S. history?
134. How was the spoils system reformed in the U.S.?
135. What are the democratic reforms of: initiative, referendum, recall?
136. What are direct primaries?
137. What are the 17th and 19th Amendments and how did they increase democracy in the U.S.?
138. What was the Temperance Movement? How was the 18th Amendment the pinnacle of the movement? What was the reason for its' passage?
139. What impact did WWI have on the passage of the 19th Amendment?
140. How did Teddy Roosevelt change the way the government enforced the Sherman Anti-trust Act?
141. Explain T.R.'s trust-busting policies with the following quote:
"In short, our aim should be, not to destroy, but effectively… to regulate and control, in the public interest, the great instrumentalities of modern
business…" – T.R., 1913
142. What impact did T.R. have on environmental conservation?
143. What was the Square Deal?
144. What is the Federal Reserve? What do they control? How do they fight inflation or recessions?
145. How was Woodrow Wilson able to get elected? What was his promise during his reelection campaign?
Imperialism
146. What was Manifest Destiny? What were some of the contributing factors that helped the U.S. realize this goal?
147. What were the reasons causing the desire for colonies? How did the farmers and industrialists play a role?
148. What were Social Darwinism and the White Man's Burden and how did they play a role in U.S. imperialism?
149. What was the primary cause of the Spanish-American War? How did the ending of the war mark a shift in the traditional U.S. foreign policy?
150. What was Yellow Journalism? Who were William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer?
151. What was the Platt Amendment?
152. What were the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary to it?
153. What was the Open Door Policy and why was it created?
154. What was T.R.'s Big Stick policy?
155. How and why did the U.S. promote influence in Latin America?
156. How did Hawaii formally become a part of the U.S.?
157. How did the U.S. gain the right to build the Panama Canal and why was it built?
158. What was Dollar Diplomacy and why was it created?
WWI and its Aftermath
159. What was the initial foreign policy of the United States once WWI broke out in Europe?
160. How can we compare the foreign policy of George Washington and Woodrow Wilson? Why did the U.S. regard their policy as being violated?
161. What was the immediate cause of U.S. entry into WWI? How did Wilson sell the war to the American people?
162. Describe the relations between the U.S. and Mexico in the period leading up to WWI.
163. What was the Great Migration? How did U.S. involvement in WWI open up opportunities for woman and minorities in the workplace?
164. How did the U.S. move away from the laissez-faire policy during WWI? What evidence can we point to for this?
165. Why was there a decline of progressivism during WWI?
166. What was the purpose of the Alien and Sedition Acts? How did it uphold the idea that national security receives greater priority over individual civil
liberties during wartime?
167. What was the significance of the "clear and present" danger standard in Schenck v. U.S.? How did it illustrate the idea that are constitutional rights
are not absolute?
168. What evidence do we have that there was an increase of nativism in the U.S. in the post-WWI period? Why were the "new" immigrants targeted?
169. How did the Sacco & Vanzetti case provide evidence of a threat to civil liberties in the post war period?
170. How did the Red Scare in the post-WWI period lead up to the Palmer Raids?
171. Why did Wilson write his Fourteen Points? What was the idea of self-determination that he referred to?
172. Why was the U.S. Senate opposed to signing the Treaty of Versailles? (give several reasons) How did their rejection of the treaty illustrate the
constitutional principle of checks and balances?
173. What was the idea of collective security?
174. How did the U.S. refusal to join the League of Nations impact that institution?
175. Why did the U.S. emerge from the war in great financial standing?
176. What was the return to normalcy? What was the foreign policy of isolationism?
177. What was the purpose of the Washington naval Conferences and the Kellogg-Briand Pact? Why weren't they effective?
Roaring Twenties
178. What were the "Roaring Twenties"? Who were the flappers? How did they illustrate the new challenge to traditions of dress, conduct, and
conformity?
179. What were some of the new consumer goods widely available in the 1920's? How did the auto industry have a dramatic impact on industry
throughout the U.S.?
180. What was the Harlem Renaissance?
181. Why was the 18th Amendment overturned?
The Great Depression and the New Deal
182. What was the Great Depression? What were the factors that caused it?
183. Why did European demand decline for U.S. products during the 1920's?
184. What was the "Great Crash"? What were the factors that caused it?
185. How was the global spread of the depression evidence of worldwide financial interdependence?
186. What are protective tariffs and why did the U.S. government increase them during the Great Depression?
187. Why did some people believe the Great Depression was a threat to democracy?
188. What economic actions did Hoover take to relieve pressure from the Great Depression? What were his beliefs on federal relief programs?
189. Explain how the following factors combined to bring about the economic collapse of the Great Depression.
a. over expansion of industrial production
f. decline in U.S. consumer demand
b. uneven distribution of wealth
g. over expansion of credit
c. mechanization and overproduction on farms
h. unsound banking policies
d. Dust Bowl
i. speculation and buying on margin
e. decline of European demand for U.S. products
j. Great Crash
190. How did the global spread of the Great Depression indicate evidence of worldwide financial interdependence?
191.
192.
193.
194.
195.
196.
197.
198.
199.
200.
201.
202.
203.
204.
205.
Why did the U.S. resort to high protective tariffs during the Great Depression? How effective were they?
What was the Republican belief about government involvement in the economy during the Great Depression?
What was the “trickle down theory”? How do we see a link between Hoover and Reagan’s economic policies?
What was “rugged individualism” and why did people feel that government social welfare programs would destroy this?
How did the New Deal indicate a new role for the U.S. government?
What is deficit spending and why did the government use it during the Great Depression?
What was Roosevelt immediate goal when elected to office?
How did Roosevelt restore public confidence in the banking system? Why was he so interested in doing this?
How did the government address the overproduction of farm goods?
What were the various new governmental agencies created during the New Deal? How did these agencies affect the size and power of the federal
government?
What is the SEC and what is its purpose?
What was the Wagner Act and how did it help protect labor unions? What happened to the membership of labor unions as a result of this?
What was the SSA and why was it created?
What was the court-packing scheme and why did Roosevelt attempt to do this? What was the public's reaction?
Why did movies and literature go through rejuvenation during the Great Depression?
WWII
206. Why did the U.S. pursue the isolationist policy leading up to WWII?
207. Why did tensions rise between the U.S. and Japan prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor?
208. Why did the U.S. pass the Neutrality Act of 1935? What were the laws created with that act?
209. How did the U.S. slowly progress from neutrality to involvement in WWII?
210. What were the Lend-Lease Act, the Destroyer for Bases Deal, and the Arsenal for Democracy speech? Why were they significant?
211. What was the immediate cause of U.S. involvement in WWII? How did this act affect public opinion within the U.S.?
212. Why had the U.S. already given limited support to the Allied powers prior to entry into WWII?
213. How did the war impact the election of Roosevelt to a 3rd and 4th term?
214. What part of the unwritten constitution formally became part of the written constitution with the 22 nd Amendment?
215. How did the war effort help end the Great Depression in the U.S.?
216. What impact did the war have on the national debt? How was the government able to raise the money for the war?
217. How was the president’s authority increased as a result of the events surrounding WWII?
218. How did the government justify the relocation of Japanese-Americans during WWII? How did this illustrate the idea that constitutional liberties
can be restricted during wartime in the interest of national security? What other Supreme Court case from WWI illustrates this idea?
219. How did the role of women change during the war effort? What similarities can be made to the WWI era?
220. Why did the U.S. government decide to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
221. What precedence did the Nuremberg trials establish?
Post WWII Era and Cold War
222. What was the initial reaction in regards to U.S. foreign policy following the war?
223. How did the role of the U.S. change after the war? Why did it change?
224. What was the idea behind Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech?
225. Why did the Cold War develop?
226. Why was the United Nations created? Why did the United States join?
227. What was NATO and why was it created? Why did it mark an important change in US foreign policy?
228. What is collective security?
229. What impact did the launching of Sputnik have?
230. What was the major foreign policy followed by the U.S. after WWII?
231. What countries were being helped by the Truman Doctrine? How were they being helped?
232. What was the Marshall Plan and why was it created?
233. What was the Berlin Airlift and how did it illustrate the Cold War?
234. What was the Eisenhower Doctrine and who did it aid?
235. Why was the Korean War fought? Why was it a first for the UN?
236. How did the GI Bill help returning soldiers?
237. Why did suburbanization grow after WWII? What was the impact of the interstate highway system on suburbanization?
238. Who are the baby boomers and how have the impacted the U.S. economy as they have increased in age?
239. What was McCarthyism? How can this be compared to the Red Scare of the 1920’s? What was HUAC?
1960's and Civil Rights Movement
240. What was the decision and impact of Brown v. Board of Ed.? How did this case illustrate the ability of our constitution to adapt to the changing
values of society?
241. How did Eisenhower’s initial reaction to school integration impact the events of Little Rock, Arkansas? Why did he eventually send in federal
troops?
242. What is civil disobedience? What are some examples of it?
243. How did Kennedy react to the riots in Birmingham in 1963?
244. Why was the March on Washington organized?
245. What was the impact of the Civil Rights Act of 1964? How has the original list of discriminatory categories been modified since 1964? What is the
EEOC?
246. What is "judicial activism"? How did the Supreme Court under Earl Warren (the Warren Court) expand the rights of individuals?
247. What important statements did Kennedy make in his inaugural address?
248. Why did the Bay of Pigs invasion mark a failure of foreign policy for Kennedy?
249. How did Kennedy respond to the threat of nuclear weapons in Cuba?
250. What was the Warren Commission?
251. What was Lyndon Johnson's Great Society?
252. How did the Civil Rights movement impact the Women's Rights movement?
253. Who was Betty Friedan?
254. What was the purpose of NOW?
255. What policies did Cesar Chavez institute to protest the treatment of Mexican farm workers?
256. What were the issues that the Native American movement founded upon?
257.
Vietnam War Era
258. What was the domino theory?
259. What was the Gulf of Tonkin resolution?
260. How was the power of the presidency increased during the Vietnam War era?
261. How did public opinion on the Vietnam War begin to shift during the late 60's? What impact did this have on the war effort?
262. Why were people questioning the role of the United States as an international police power?
263. What were the Pentagon Papers and how did the Supreme Court rule in New York Times v. U.S. (1971)?
264. What was the War Powers Act and why was it passed after Vietnam?
Nixon, Carter, & Ford
265. What was détente?
266. How did the SALT agreement indicate a turning point in nuclear build-up?
267. How did the Watergate scandal and subsequent resignation of Nixon re-establish the idea that we are "a government of laws, and not of men"?
What impact did this have on public opinion towards elected officials?
268. What impact did the 1970's oil embargo have on the U.S. economy?
269. What were the Camp David Accords brokered by Carter?
270. Why was the United States reluctant to take a strong stand against apartheid in South Africa?
Reagan, Bush, Sr., and Clinton
271. What was the Iran-Contra Affair?
272. Why did Reagan pursue the supply-side economic theory?
273. What impact did the Reagan tenure have on the size of the U.S. national debt?
274. How did immigration patterns shift from WWII to the present-day?
275. What was the symbolic ending of the Cold War?
276. What were some of the causes of the failure of the USSR?
277. Why were relations strained between the U.S. and Japan in the 80's and 90's?
278. Why did the U.S. lead the effort in the Gulf War (1991)? How was UN action similar to the actions in Korea?
279. Why did Clinton involve U.S. military forces in Bosnia and Kosovo?
280. How did the strong economy of the 1990's help Clinton?
281. What was the purpose of NAFTA?
Supreme Court cases
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Gibbons v. Ogden (1824)
Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857)
Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
Schenck v. United States (1919)
Powell v. Alabama (1932)
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1943)
Korematsu v. United States (1944)
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954)
Mapp v. Ohio (1962)
Engel v. Vitale (1962)
Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
Escobedo v. Illinois (1964)
Miranda v. Arizona (1966)
Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969)
New York Times v. United States (1971)
Roe v. Wade (1973)
United States v. Nixon (1974)
Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)
New Jersey v. TLO (1985)
Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)
Texas v. Johnson (1989)
United States v. Eichman (1990)
Vernonia School District v. Acton (1995)
Bush v. Gore (2000)