American History

Question 1

What is one reason colonists came to America?

Answer 1

▪ freedom
▪ political liberty
▪ religious freedom
▪ economic opportunity ▪ practice their religion ▪ escape persecution

Question 2

Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?

Answer 2

▪ American Indians ▪ Native Americans

Question 3

What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?

Answer 3

▪ Africans

▪ people from Africa

Question 4

Why did the colonists fight the British?

Answer 4

▪ because of high taxes (taxation without representation)
▪ because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering)
▪ because they didn’t have self-government

Question 5

Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

Answer 5

▪ (Thomas) Jefferson

Question 6

When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

Answer 6

▪ July 4, 1776

Question 7

There were 13 original states. Name three.

Answer 7

▪ New Hampshire 
▪ Massachusetts 
▪ Rhode Island
▪ Connecticut
▪ New York
▪ New Jersey
▪ Pennsylvania
▪ Delaware
▪ Maryland
▪ Virginia
▪ North Carolina 
▪ South Carolina ▪ Georgia

Question 8

What happened at the Constitutional Convention?

Answer 8

▪ The Constitution was written.

▪ The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.

Question 9

When was the Constitution written?

Answer 9

▪ 1787

Question 10

The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.

Answer 10

▪ (James) Madison
▪ (Alexander) Hamilton
▪ (John) Jay
▪ Publius

Question 11

What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?

Answer 11

▪ U.S. diplomat
▪ oldest member of the Constitutional Convention ▪ first Postmaster General of the United States
▪ writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
▪ started the first free libraries

Question 12

Who is the “Father of Our Country”?

Answer 12

▪ (George) Washington

Question 13

Who was the first President?*

Answer 13

▪ (George) Washington

Question 14

What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?

Answer 14

▪ the Louisiana Territory

▪ Louisiana

Question 15

Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.

Answer 15

▪ War of 1812
▪ Mexican-American War
▪ Civil War
▪ Spanish-American War

Question 16

Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.

Answer 16

▪ the Civil War

▪ the War between the States

Question 17

Name one problem that led to the Civil War.

Answer 17

▪ slavery
▪ economic reasons
▪ states’ rights

Question 18

What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?*

Answer 18

▪ freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation)
▪ saved (or preserved) the Union
▪ led the United States during the Civil War

Question 19

What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

Answer 19

▪ freed the slaves
▪ freed slaves in the Confederacy
▪ freed slaves in the Confederate states
▪ freed slaves in most Southern states

Question 20

What did Susan B. Anthony do?

Answer 20

▪ fought for women’s rights

▪ fought for civil rights

Question 21

Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.*

Answer 21

▪ World War I
▪ World War II
▪ Korean War
▪ Vietnam War
▪ (Persian) Gulf War

Question 22

Who was President during World War I?

Answer 22

▪ (Woodrow) Wilson

Question 23

Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?

Answer 23

▪ (Franklin) Roosevelt

Question 24

Who did the United States fight in World War II?

Answer 24

▪ Japan, Germany, and Italy

Question 25

Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?

Answer 25

▪ World War II

Question 26

During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?

Answer 26

▪ Communism

Question 27

What movement tried to end racial discrimination?

Answer 27

▪ civil rights (movement)

Question 28

What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?*

Answer 28

▪ fought for civil rights

▪ worked for equality for all Americans

Question 29

What major event happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States?

Answer 29

▪ Terrorists attacked the United States.

Question 30

Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.

Answer 30

▪ Cherokee
▪ Navajo
▪ Sioux
▪ Chippewa 
▪ Choctaw 
▪ Pueblo
▪ Apache
▪ Iroquois 
▪ Creek
▪ Blackfeet 
▪ Seminole 
▪ Cheyenne
▪ Arawak
▪ Shawnee 
▪ Mohegan 
▪ Huron
▪ Oneida
▪ Lakota 
▪ Crow 
▪ Teton 
▪ Hopi
▪ Inuit