history exam study

UNIT 1 – COLONIAL AMERICA & REVOLUTION

Flashcard 1
Q: How did the Enlightenment influence the American colonists?
A: It promoted ideas of natural rights, reason, equality, and the belief that people could govern themselves. Thinkers like John Locke inspired colonists to challenge monarchy and demand representation.

Flashcard 2
Q: Who was Thomas Paine and why was he important?
A: Author of Common Sense, which argued for independence using simple language. It convinced many colonists that breaking from Britain was logical and necessary.

Flashcard 3
Q: Who was George Washington before becoming president?
A: A military leader with limited formal experience who unified colonial forces during the Revolutionary War and later became the first U.S. president.

Flashcard 4
Q: Who were John Smith and John Rolfe?
A: John Smith helped Jamestown survive through leadership. John Rolfe introduced tobacco as a cash crop, making Jamestown profitable.

Flashcard 5
Q: Who was Nat Turner?
A: An enslaved preacher who led the largest slave rebellion in U.S. history in 1831, resulting in stricter slave laws.

Flashcard 6
Q: Who were the Sons of Liberty?
A: A radical group of colonists who protested British taxes through boycotts and violence (tar and feathering tax collectors).

Flashcard 7
Q: What were the Salem Witch Trials?
A: A period of mass hysteria in 1692 where people were accused and executed for witchcraft, showing fear and religious extremism in Puritan society.

Flashcard 8
Q: What does “City Upon a Hill” mean?
A: A Puritan belief that their society should be a moral example to the world.

Flashcard 9
Q: What was Plymouth Colony?
A: A settlement founded in 1620 by Pilgrims seeking religious freedom; governed by the Mayflower Compact.

Flashcard 10
Q: Who were the Quakers?
A: A religious group believing in equality and peace; founded Pennsylvania under William Penn.

Flashcard 11
Q: Why was Jamestown important?
A: First permanent English settlement (1607), focused on profit rather than religion.

Flashcard 12
Q: What was the Sugar Act (1764)?
A: A tax on sugar to help Britain pay war debt; led to smuggling and protests.

Flashcard 13
Q: What was the Stamp Act (1765)?
A: Tax on paper goods; caused outrage over “taxation without representation.”

Flashcard 14
Q: What were the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts?
A: Punitive laws closing Boston Harbor and removing self-government after the Boston Tea Party.

Flashcard 15
Q: What British policies led to the Revolutionary War?
A: Mercantilism, taxation without representation, military occupation, restriction of westward expansion, and denial of colonial self-rule.

UNIT 2 – EXPANSION, SECTIONALISM & CIVIL WAR

Flashcard 1
Q: Who was John Brown?
A: A radical abolitionist who attempted to start a slave rebellion at Harpers Ferry.

Flashcard 2
Q: Who was Stephen Austin?
A: Led American settlement in Texas under Mexico; key figure in Texas independence.

Flashcard 3
Q: Who was Harriet Beecher Stowe?
A: Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which exposed the brutality of slavery.

Flashcard 4
Q: Who was Sam Houston?
A: Leader of Texas independence and first president of the Republic of Texas.

Flashcard 5
Q: Why was Andrew Jackson important?
A: Expanded democracy for white men, supported states’ rights, enforced Indian Removal.

Flashcard 6
Q: Who was Abraham Lincoln?
A: President during the Civil War; sought to preserve the Union and later ended slavery.

Flashcard 7
Q: What was the Emancipation Proclamation?
A: 1863 order freeing slaves in Confederate states to weaken the South and give moral purpose to the war.

Flashcard 8
Q: What was the Gettysburg Address?
A: Lincoln’s speech redefining the war as a fight for equality and democracy.

Flashcard 9
Q: What was the House Divided Speech?
A: Lincoln argued the nation could not survive half slave and half free.

Flashcard 10
Q: What was the Monroe Doctrine?
A: Declared the Americas closed to European colonization.

Flashcard 11
Q: What was the Missouri Compromise?
A: Balanced slave and free states and set the 36°30′ line.

Flashcard 12
Q: What happened at Fort Sumter?
A: First battle of the Civil War; Confederates attacked a Union fort.

Flashcard 13
Q: What is the Star-Spangled Banner?
A: U.S. national anthem written during the War of 1812.

Flashcard 14
Q: What was the Era of Good Feelings?
A: Period of political unity after the War of 1812.

Flashcard 15
Q: What caused the War of 1812?
A: British impressment of sailors, trade restrictions, and desire for expansion.

UNIT 3 – RECONSTRUCTION & CIVIL RIGHTS

Flashcard 1
Q: What is segregation?
A: Legal separation of races, enforced through Jim Crow laws.

Flashcard 2
Q: Who were the Black Panthers?
A: A militant group promoting self-defense and community programs.

Flashcard 3
Q: What did the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments do?
A: Ended slavery, granted citizenship, and gave Black men the right to vote.

Flashcard 4
Q: What was the Freedmen’s Bureau?
A: Helped formerly enslaved people with education, jobs, and housing.

Flashcard 5
Q: Who was W.E.B. Du Bois?
A: Advocated immediate equality and higher education for African Americans.

Flashcard 6
Q: Who was Booker T. Washington?
A: Supported vocational training and gradual progress.

Flashcard 7
Q: Who was Emmett Till?
A: A Black teenager murdered in Mississippi; his death energized the civil rights movement.

Flashcard 8
Q: Who was Rosa Parks?
A: Refused to give up her seat, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Flashcard 9
Q: Who was Martin Luther King Jr.?
A: Civil rights leader advocating nonviolent resistance.

Flashcard 10
Q: Who was Earl Warren?
A: Chief Justice who led desegregation rulings.

Flashcard 11
Q: Who was Joseph Simmons?
A: Revived the Ku Klux Klan in 1915.

Flashcard 12
Q: What was Plessy v. Ferguson?
A: Supreme Court case legalizing segregation under “separate but equal.”

Flashcard 13
Q: What was Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg?
A: Upheld busing to achieve school desegregation.

Flashcard 14
Q: What was the Military Reconstruction Bill?
A: Divided the South into military districts to enforce civil rights.

Flashcard 15
Q: What was the Harlem Renaissance?
A: A cultural rebirth of Black art, music, and literature.

UNIT 4 – WORLD WARS & COLD WAR

Flashcard 1
Q: Who was Ho Chi Minh?
A: Communist leader of North Vietnam.

Flashcard 2
Q: Who was Senator Joseph McCarthy?
A: Led anti-communist witch hunts during the Red Scare.

Flashcard 3
Q: What was the Truman Doctrine?
A: Policy of containing communism worldwide.

Flashcard 4
Q: Who was Richard Nixon?
A: President during Vietnam and Watergate; resigned in 1974.

Flashcard 5
Q: Who was Robert Kennedy?
A: Attorney General and civil rights supporter; assassinated in 1968.

Flashcard 6
Q: What was Wilson’s neutrality?
A: Initial U.S. policy to stay out of WWI.

Flashcard 7
Q: What was the Bay of Pigs?
A: Failed U.S.-backed invasion of Cuba.

Flashcard 8
Q: What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
A: 1962 nuclear standoff between the U.S. and USSR.

Flashcard 9
Q: How did Americans protest the Vietnam War?
A: Protests, draft resistance, counter-culture movements.

Flashcard 10
Q: What was the hippie movement?
A: Youth counterculture opposing war and authority.

Flashcard 11
Q: What chemical weapons were used in Vietnam?
A: Napalm and Agent Orange.

Flashcard 12
Q: What was the Tet Offensive?
A: Surprise North Vietnamese attack that shifted U.S. public opinion.

Flashcard 13
Q: Why are Okinawa and Mount Suribachi important?
A: Showed brutal fighting in the Pacific and justified atomic bomb use.

Flashcard 14
Q: Why did the U.S. drop atomic bombs?
A: To end WWII quickly and save American lives.

Flashcard 15
Q: Who was Deep Throat?
A: Informant who exposed Watergate.

Flashcard 16
Q: What was the Red Scare?
A: Fear of communism leading to persecution.

Flashcard 17
Q: What was the Potsdam Conference?
A: Post-WWII meeting shaping Europe and tensions with the USSR.

Flashcard 18
Q: What was the Marshall Plan?
A: U.S. aid to rebuild Europe and stop communism.

Flashcard 19
Q: What was 1960s activism?
A: Movements for civil rights, peace, and social change.

Flashcard 20
Q: Why did America enter both World Wars?
A: WWI: economic ties and attacks on ships. WWII: Pearl Harbor.