Study Guide for the Review Test & SOL Exam

Benson

U.S. History

Study Guide for the Review Test & SOL Exam

Exploration and Colonization:

1.  Motives: The English came to the New World for wealth and religious freedom; the French came to establish a fur trade; the Spanish came for wealth and to spread Catholicism

2.  Colonial economies: The Southern colonies were based on agriculture whereas the New England colonies were based on commercial fishing and shipbuilding

3.  John Rolfe: discovered how to grow a strain of tobacco which saved the colony of Jamestown

4.  The Mayflower Compact: a rudimentary written constitution that established majority rule for the Plymouth colony

5.  Virginia House of Burgesses: first representative assembly in the colonies

6.  Direct democracy: used in the New England colonies where male colonists could walk to town hall meetings

7.  Proclamation of 1763 banned settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains after the French and Indian War

8.  The Enlightenment: a religious revival in the colonies

The Revolutionary and Early Federal Period:

9.  Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense which contributed to the growing sentiment for independence

10.  George Mason: wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights which protected individual rights-- influenced the First Amendment; he was an AntiFederalist

11.  Thomas Jefferson: Wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom; he was influenced by John Locke’s idea of natural rights of man

12.  John Locke: an Enlightenment philosopher whose ideas about the rights of man and self government influences the American revolution

13.  Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre is an example of propaganda that was used to raise support for colonial independence

14.  Patrick Henry: a patriot who gave the famous “Give me liberty, or give me death!” speech; AntiFederalist

15.  Richard Henry Lee: Virginia delegate to the 2nd Continental Congress. He made the proposal for independence

16.  George Washington: Commander of the Continental army, Chairman of the Constitutional Convention, 1st president

17.  Ben Franklin: negotiated the Treaty of Alliance with France during the Revolutionary War following the turning battle at Saratoga

18.  Battle of Yorktown (VA): surrender of the British in the Revolutionary War

19.  James Madison: known as the father of the Constitution because of the Virginia Plan he created, 4th president and part of the Virginia Dynasty, wrote the Bill of Rights

20.  Federalists believed in a strong national government that would regulate trade and currency

21.  Antifederalists believed in strong states’ rights, the protection of individual rights, and an economy based on agriculture

The Antebellum Period (before the Civil War)

22.  President Jackson was known for creating the spoils system (appointing loyal supporters to political positions), destroying the national bank, and removing the Cherokee Indians through the Trail of Tears

23.  Nat Turner led an attempted slave revolt in Virginia

24.  The Missouri Compromise in 1820 maintained a balance of free and slave states

25.  The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state, but then created popular sovereignty (the people will vote) for the remaining territories

26.  The Dred Scott decision stated that slaves are property, and property cannot be taken away from its owner. This decision favored the Southern states and prevented compromise on the issue of slavery

The Civil War and Reconstruction

27.  Lincoln was elected in Nov., 1860; South Carolina and six other states seceded after his election; Lincoln rejected the idea of secession in his 1st inaugural address; the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter; four more states (including Virginia) seceded after Ft. Sumter

28.  Gettysburg, PA: the turning point battle of the Civil War

29.  Atlanta and Richmond were destroyed during the Civil War

30.  Appomattox Court House, VA: Surrender of Lee to Grant in the Civil War

31.  Harriet Beecher Stowe: wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Lincoln called her “the little lady that stared the Civil War”

32.  Jefferson Davis: President of the Confederate States of America

33.  Robert E. Lee: led the Confederate army—after the Civil War he urged reconciliation and became the president of Washington College

34.  Ulysses S. Grant: led the Union army—later became President of the U.S. during Reconstruction

1877 – 1942

35.  Muckrakers were journalists who exposed bad conditions and corruption

36.  Booker T. Washington was a civil rights leader who encouraged vocational skills; W.E.B. Dubois started the NAACP

37.  The sinking of the Lusitania was a major cause of U.S. entry to WWI

38.  A Great Migration of Africans from the South to the North took place during WWI

39.  The League of Nations was rejected by the U.S. Senate after WWI

40.  The radio was introduced in the 1920s and popularized jazz music

World War II

41.  The Lend Lease Act: allowed the U.S. to lend $40 million in supplies to the Allies prior to entering the war

42.  Rosie the Riveter: labor shortages during the war led thousands of women to take industrial jobs

43.  Battle of Midway was a turning point battle in WWII in the South Pacific

44.  Defeat Hitler First was the strategy of the Allies during WWII, meaning we focused most of our resources on Europe

45.  D-Day was the Allied invasion of Normandy, France—the beginning of the liberation of Europe

46.  The Nuremberg Trials convicted Nazi war criminals and led to an increased demand for a Jewish homeland (Israel)

47.  The Geneva Convention established rules for the treatment of prisoners of war

The Post WWII Era

48.  Oliver Hill led the Virginia chapter of the NAACP during school desegregation in the 1950s; he helped Thurgood Marshall in the Brown v. Board of Education case

49.  Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Immigration Act: led to increased immigration from Latin America and Asia

50.  The Cold War was good for the Virginia economy as the Department of Defense, the CIA, and military spending created many jobs

51.  President Reagan challenged Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” during the 1980s. He called the USSR the “evil empire.”

52.  Glasnost (openness) and perestroika (economic reconstruction) were the reforms that Gorbachev instituted in the USSR in the 1980s

53.  John Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth and Neil Armstrong was the first man to step on to the moon

54.  Modern changes to work & schooling include telecommuting, growth of the service sector and outsourcing

55.  Sally Ride (first female astronaut) and Sandra Day O’Connor (first female Supreme Court Justice) are example of women breaking through the proverbial “glass ceiling”

56.  Fiscal policy is determined by the U.S. Congress whereas monetary policy is controlled by the Federal Reserve

57.  Germany was reunified during President George H. W. Bush’s presidency

58.  President Clinton: passed NAFTA, helped to end apartheid in South Africa, and normalized relations with Vietnam