American History — 2008 Civics Questions

Not affiliated with or endorsed by USCIS or the U.S. government. Practice questions are for study only.

1. Question 58

   What is one reason colonists came to America?

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

2. Question 59

   Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?

   • • American Indians
   • • Native Americans

3. Question 60

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

   • • Africans
   • • people from Africa

4. Question 61

   Why did the colonists fight the British?

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

5. Question 62

   Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?

   • • (Thomas) Jefferson

6. Question 63

   When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?

   • • July 4, 1776

7. Question 64

   There were 13 original states. Name three.

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

8. Question 65

   What happened at the Constitutional Convention?

   • • The Constitution was written.
   • • The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.

9. Question 66

   When was the Constitution written?

   • • 1787

10. Question 67

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

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

11. Question 68

    What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?

    • • 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

12. Question 69

    Who is the “Father of Our Country”?

    • • (George) Washington

13. Question 70★ 65/20

    Who was the first President?

    • • (George) Washington

14. Question 71

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

    • • the Louisiana Territory
    • • Louisiana

15. Question 72

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

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

16. Question 73

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

    • • the Civil War
    • • the War between the States

17. Question 74

    Name one problem that led to the Civil War.

    • • slavery
    • • economic reasons
    • • states’ rights

18. Question 75★ 65/20

    What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?

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

19. Question 76

    What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?

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

20. Question 77

    What did Susan B. Anthony do?

    • • fought for women’s rights
    • • fought for civil rights

21. Question 78★ 65/20

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

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

22. Question 79

    Who was President during World War I?

    • • (Woodrow) Wilson

23. Question 80

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

    • • (Franklin) Roosevelt

24. Question 81

    Who did the United States fight in World War II?

    • • Japan, Germany, and Italy

25. Question 82

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

    • • World War II

26. Question 83

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

    • • Communism

27. Question 84

    What movement tried to end racial discrimination?

    • • civil rights (movement)

28. Question 85★ 65/20

    What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?

    • • fought for civil rights
    • • worked for equality for all Americans

29. Question 86

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

    • • Terrorists attacked the United States.

30. Question 87

    Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.

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