8th Grade U.S. History – Units 1-8 Review

A comprehensive set of 100 question-and-answer flashcards covering key events, people, terms, and concepts from Units 1-8 of 8th Grade U.S. History, designed to aid exam review.

What is the difference between a continent and a country?

A continent is a natural landmass; a country is a man-made political unit.

Which landmass is both a continent and a country?

Australia.

What geographic line measures how far north or south you are from the Equator?

Latitude.

What geographic line measures how far east or west you are from the Prime Meridian?

Longitude.

What do historians call the time before the invention of writing?

Prehistory.

What field studies past cultures by examining the things people left behind?

Archaeology.

What term refers to a people’s shared values, traditions, institutions, beliefs, and behaviors?

Culture.

What do we call people who move from place to place without settling permanently?

Nomadic.

What term describes people who build permanent structures and live in one place?

Sedentary.

Name the Ice-Age land bridge that once connected Asia to North America.

Beringia.

What is the earliest formally recognized culture in the New World, named after a New Mexico town?

Clovis Culture.

What word means the methods and tools used to accomplish a task?

Technology.

Which Portuguese explorer first sailed around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope in 1488?

Bartolomeu Dias.

Which Portuguese sailor first reached India by sea in 1498?

Vasco da Gama.

Which Italian explorer’s 1492 voyage across the Atlantic opened sustained contact with the New World?

Christopher Columbus.

Who led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe?

Ferdinand Magellan.

What were the Spanish soldier-explorers who conquered much of the New World called?

Conquistadors.

What three motives drove most Spanish explorers in the New World?

Gold, God, and Glory.

Who conquered the Aztec Empire in 1521?

Hernán Cortés.

Which empire centered on Tenochtitlán dominated central Mexico before 1521?

The Aztec Empire.

What Spanish word meaning “town” names both a sedentary culture along the Rio Grande and its settlements?

Pueblo.

Which conquistador explored the American Southwest in search of the Seven Cities of Gold?

Francisco Coronado.

What term describes the exchange of goods, ideas, and people between the Old and New Worlds?

The Columbian Exchange.

Which lost English colony vanished from the coast of present-day North Carolina after 1585?

Roanoke Island.

What was the first permanent English settlement in North America (1607)?

Jamestown.

What was the lower house of Virginia’s colonial legislature, first example of representative government?

The House of Burgesses.

What group of religious separatists founded Plymouth Colony in 1620?

The Pilgrims.

What 1620 document established self-government for Plymouth Colony?

The Mayflower Compact.

What do we call a written plan for organizing and running a government?

A constitution.

Which 1675-76 conflict between the Wampanoag and New England colonists was the bloodiest per capita in U.S. history?

King Philip’s War.

What 18th-century system shipped goods to Africa, exchanged them for slaves, and brought slaves to the Americas?

Triangular Trade.

Which alliance of six nations is famed as one of the world’s oldest participatory democracies?

The Iroquois Confederacy.

What North American theater of the Seven Years’ War pitted Britain against France and their Native allies?

The French and Indian War.

Which 1765 British law taxed all printed materials in the colonies?

The Stamp Act.

What term means refusing to buy goods as a form of protest?

Boycott.

What is information spread to influence opinion called?

Propaganda.

Which colonial protest dumped British tea into Boston Harbor in 1773?

The Boston Tea Party.

What punitive British laws of 1774 were called by colonists the Intolerable Acts?

The Coercive Acts.

What nickname was given to colonial militiamen ready to fight at a minute’s notice?

Minutemen.

What were the first two battles of the American Revolution in 1775?

Lexington and Concord.

Which 1776 document, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, announced American independence?

The Declaration of Independence.

Name the five parts of the Declaration of Independence.

Preamble, Declaration of Natural Rights, Purpose of Government, List of Grievances, Resolution of Independence.

What was the first U.S. constitution that created a weak central government?

The Articles of Confederation.

What is a government where religious leaders rule as representatives of a deity called?

A theocracy.

What term describes a government ruled by a king or queen?

Monarchy.

What form of government has power exercised by the people through elected representatives?

Republic (Representative Democracy).

What 1786 uprising in Massachusetts highlighted flaws in the Articles of Confederation?

Shays’ Rebellion.

Which plan for Congress based representation on state population?

The Virginia Plan.

Which plan called for equal representation for every state?

The New Jersey Plan.

What compromise created a bicameral Congress with proportional House and equal Senate?

The Great (Connecticut) Compromise.

What constitutional compromise counted each slave as a fraction of a person for representation?

The Three-Fifths Compromise.

Which branch of U.S. government makes the laws?

The Legislative Branch.

Which branch enforces the laws?

The Executive Branch.

What body actually elects the U.S. president?

The Electoral College.

Which branch interprets the laws?

The Judicial Branch.

What is the Supreme Court’s power to declare laws unconstitutional called?

Judicial Review.

What is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the Constitution?

The Bill of Rights.

What system divides power between national and state governments?

Federalism.

What principle holds that government derives its authority from the people?

Popular Sovereignty.

What constitutional system gives each branch power over the others?

Checks and Balances.

What word means a formal change to the Constitution?

Amendment.

What is the difference between civil rights and civil liberties?

Civil rights involve equality among groups; civil liberties are protections from government.

Name three civic duties or responsibilities discussed in class.

Any three: obey the law, pay taxes, serve on a jury, defend the country, vote, respect others’ rights.

Who were the first three U.S. presidents, in order?

George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson.

What 1803 purchase doubled the size of the United States?

The Louisiana Purchase.

What 1804-06 expedition is now called the Lewis and Clark Expedition?

The Corps of Discovery expedition.

Which explorer’s name is on a Colorado mountain and surveyed the Southwest?

Zebulon Pike.

Who was the 16-year-old Shoshone guide for Lewis and Clark?

Sacagawea.

Which early-19th-century conflict was partly caused by British impressment of U.S. sailors?

The War of 1812.

What 1823 policy warned Europe against further colonization in the Americas?

The Monroe Doctrine.

What 1820 compromise admitted Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state?

The Missouri Compromise.

Which modern U.S. political party began with Andrew Jackson’s 1828 campaign?

The Democratic Party.

What 1830 law authorized U.S. removal of Native peoples east of the Mississippi?

The Indian Removal Act.

What was the Cherokee’s deadly forced march to Oklahoma called?

The Trail of Tears.

What phrase expressed the U.S. belief in expansion from Atlantic to Pacific?

Manifest Destiny.

What treaty ended the Mexican-American War in 1848?

The Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo.

What name is given to the five laws intended to resolve slavery disputes in 1850?

The Compromise of 1850.

What term describes the shift from agriculture to factory-based economies?

The Industrial Revolution.

How did Northern and Southern economies differ in the 1800s?

The North was industrial and urban; the South was agricultural with smaller cities.

What do we call a person strongly opposed to slavery?

An abolitionist.

Which African nation was founded by the American Colonization Society?

Liberia.

Which escaped slave became an influential abolitionist and edited The North Star?

Frederick Douglass.

Name the secret network helping slaves escape—and its most famous conductor.

The Underground Railroad; Harriet Tubman.

What 1848 New York meeting launched the organized women’s rights movement?

The Seneca Falls Convention.

What is the right to vote called?

Suffrage.

What 1850 law penalized anyone aiding runaway slaves?

The Fugitive Slave Act.

What term means peacefully refusing to obey unjust laws?

Civil Disobedience.

Which political party formed on an anti-slavery platform and elected Lincoln?

The Republican Party.

Which slave’s 1857 Supreme Court case denied citizenship to enslaved people?

Dred Scott.

Which abolitionist led the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry?

John Brown.

Who was the 16th U.S. president during the Civil War?

Abraham Lincoln.

What 1863 proclamation freed slaves in rebelling states?

The Emancipation Proclamation.

Which African-American regiment became famous for its bravery in the Civil War?

The 54th Massachusetts Regiment.

Which 1863 three-day battle is seen as the Civil War’s turning point?

The Battle of Gettysburg.

Who commanded Confederate forces during the Civil War?

General Robert E. Lee.

Who led Union forces to final victory in the Civil War?

General Ulysses S. Grant.

What was the post-Civil War effort to rebuild the South called?

Reconstruction.

Which group’s rights were protected by the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments?

African Americans.

What name was given to Southern segregation laws after the Civil War?

Jim Crow Laws.

Which 1896 Supreme Court case established the “separate but equal” doctrine?

Plessy v. Ferguson.