What did Washington's Farewell Address warn against?
Answer: Permanent foreign alliances and political parties (factions).
Explanation
Shaped US foreign policy for over a century.
Explore · Flashcard deck
US History: Colonial Era to the Civil War (High School)
New nationCivil WarSectional crisisExpansionColonial AmericaRevolutionRoad to revolution
Shared from Quizcard. Flip through the cards below, or copy the deck to edit and study it in your own account — free.
Space flips · arrows move · Esc exits
New nation
What did Marbury v. Madison (1803) establish?
Answer: Judicial review — the Supreme Court's power to declare laws unconstitutional.
Explanation
Chief Justice John Marshall wrote the decision.
Federalists vs Anti-Federalists: what divided them?
Answer: Federalists supported ratifying the Constitution and a strong central government; Anti-Federalists feared it and demanded a Bill of Rights.
Explanation
The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791.
What was the Three-Fifths Compromise?
Answer: Three-fifths of the enslaved population counted toward representation and taxation.
Explanation
Gave Southern states more power in the House.
What was the Great Compromise?
Answer: It created a bicameral Congress: a House based on population and a Senate with two members per state.
Explanation
Resolved the dispute between large and small states at the 1787 convention.
What were the main weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation?
Answer: No power to tax, no executive, no national court system, and amendments required unanimous consent.
Explanation
Shays' Rebellion exposed these weaknesses.
Civil War
How did the Civil War end?
Answer: Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.
Explanation
Lincoln was assassinated days later.
Why was Gettysburg (1863) a turning point?
Answer: The Union victory stopped Lee's invasion of the North and the Confederacy never recovered the initiative.
Explanation
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address followed in November.
What did the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) do?
Answer: Declared enslaved people in Confederate-held territory free and made ending slavery a war aim.
Explanation
Did not apply to border states; the 13th Amendment ended slavery in 1865.
Where did the Civil War begin?
Answer: Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in April 1861.
Explanation
Confederate forces fired on the Union fort.
Sectional crisis
Why did Southern states secede after the 1860 election?
Answer: Abraham Lincoln won without Southern support, and they feared he would end slavery.
Explanation
South Carolina seceded first in December 1860.
What did the Dred Scott decision (1857) rule?
Answer: That enslaved people were not citizens and Congress could not ban slavery in the territories.
Explanation
Outraged the North and deepened sectional divisions.
What was the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854)?
Answer: It let settlers in Kansas and Nebraska decide on slavery by popular sovereignty, repealing the Missouri Compromise line.
Explanation
Led to 'Bleeding Kansas' and the rise of the Republican Party.
What were the key parts of the Compromise of 1850?
Answer: California entered as a free state; a stricter Fugitive Slave Act; popular sovereignty for Utah and New Mexico; slave trade banned in Washington, DC.
Explanation
Temporarily eased tensions but the Fugitive Slave Act angered the North.
What did the Missouri Compromise (1820) do?
Answer: Admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state, and banned slavery north of 36°30' in the Louisiana Territory.
Explanation
Kept the Senate balanced between free and slave states.
Expansion
What did the US gain from the Mexican-American War (1846–48)?
Answer: The Mexican Cession — present-day California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of other states — via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Explanation
Reopened the question of slavery in new territories.
What was the Indian Removal Act (1830)?
Answer: A law that forced Native American nations in the Southeast to move west of the Mississippi.
Explanation
Led to the Trail of Tears, in which thousands of Cherokee died.
What was Manifest Destiny?
Answer: The belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent to the Pacific.
Explanation
Used to justify the Mexican-American War and westward settlement.
What was the Monroe Doctrine (1823)?
Answer: A policy warning European powers not to colonize or interfere in the Western Hemisphere.
Explanation
Became a cornerstone of US foreign policy.
What was the Louisiana Purchase (1803)?
Answer: The US bought the Louisiana Territory from France, roughly doubling the nation's size.
Explanation
Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore it.
Colonial America
Why was Jamestown (1607) significant?
Answer: It was the first permanent English settlement in North America.
Explanation
Survived through tobacco cultivation; established the House of Burgesses in 1619.
What was the Great Awakening?
Answer: A religious revival in the 1730s–40s that emphasized personal faith and challenged established churches.
Explanation
Preachers included Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.
What was mercantilism?
Answer: An economic system in which colonies existed to enrich the mother country by supplying raw materials and buying its goods.
Explanation
Enforced by the Navigation Acts.
What was the Mayflower Compact (1620)?
Answer: An agreement by Plymouth colonists to form a self-governing community under majority rule.
Explanation
An early example of self-government in the colonies.
Revolution
What ended the Revolutionary War?
Answer: The British surrender at Yorktown (1781) and the Treaty of Paris (1783), which recognized American independence.
Explanation
The treaty set the western boundary at the Mississippi River.
Why was the Battle of Saratoga (1777) a turning point?
Answer: The American victory convinced France to ally with the United States.
Explanation
French aid was decisive at Yorktown.
Road to revolution
What did the Declaration of Independence (1776) argue?
Answer: That people have natural rights, government rests on consent of the governed, and the colonies were free of Britain.
Explanation
Drafted mainly by Thomas Jefferson; drew on John Locke.
What happened at the Boston Tea Party (1773)?
Answer: Colonists dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest the Tea Act.
Explanation
Britain responded with the Intolerable (Coercive) Acts.
What was the Stamp Act (1765) and why did colonists oppose it?
Answer: A tax on printed materials; colonists objected to taxation without representation in Parliament.
Explanation
Repealed in 1766 but followed by the Declaratory Act.
What did the Proclamation of 1763 do?
Answer: It forbade colonial settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Explanation
Angered colonists who wanted western land.
What was the French and Indian War and its main result?
Answer: A 1754–1763 war between Britain and France in North America; Britain won but was left deeply in debt.
Explanation
The debt led Parliament to tax the colonies.
Make your own deck like this
Upload a PDF, Word doc, or slides and Quizcard writes the cards for you, or build them by hand. Free to start, no credit card required.