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Eighth Grade Social Studies Final Exam Study Guide
2012
Colonizing the New World (A.D. 1000-1500)
Indians/Vikings (A.D. 1000)
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Vikings - Norsemen, or Scandinavians, who discovered the Northwest
coast of America in A.D. 1000
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Erik the Red - Viking who founded Greenland
European Exploration (A.D. 1000-1500)

Renaissance – the movement, which started in 13th century Italy, and led to a
“rebirth of learning
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Reformation- the movement which began to question and to reform the
Catholic Church

Vasco da Gama - the Portuguese explorer who reached India
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Americus Vespucci – America is named in his honor
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Vasco Nunez De Balboa – Admiral and founder of the Pacific Ocean
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Christopher Columbus – the Italian explorer who sailed for Spain and is
credited to finding the New World
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Henry Hudson – Dutch/English explorer who founded the Hudson Bay and
River
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Ferdinand Magellan –first European considered to circumnavigate the world
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Jamestown – the first English settlement
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Colonial America (1500-1770)
The New England Colonies

NE Colonies: New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island & Massachusetts

Industry - the most important economic activity; fishing, whaling and shipbuilding
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The Pilgrims – the settlers of Plymouth Colony; wrote the Mayflower Compact
The Middle Colonies
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Were called the “Bread Colonies”
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William Penn - the proprietor of Pennsylvania; also a Quaker
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Philadelphia – the city of brotherly love
The Southern Colonies

Agriculture - the most important economic activity
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John Smith - the leader of Jamestown, Virginia; colony started in 1607
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James Olgethorpe - the leader of Georgia Colony; started for debtors
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George Calvert – the proprietor of Maryland
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Pre-Revolutionary War (1700-1774)

George III
- the King of Great Britain

Patrick Henry - leader of the Sons of Liberty in Virginia; says “Give me liberty or give me
death”
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James Otis – the colonist who coined the phrase “no taxation without representation”

Thomas Paine - writer of Common Sense and the Crisis

Thomas Jefferson – was the writer of the Declaration of Independence
Revolutionary War (1700-1774)

Parliament – the government of England

George Washington – The commander of the Continental Army

John Jay – the New York Representative at the Continental Congress

Charles Cornwallis – British General who surrendered to George Washington at the battle of
Yorktown, Virginia

Marquis de Lafayette – French nobleman who spent the winter at Valley Forge, PA;
trained the American Troops

Benjamin Franklin – an American who helped negotiate the Treaty of Paris to
end the Revolutionary War

Boston Tea Party – the event in which the Boston Sons of Liberty boarded three British tea
ships and dumped the tea into the Boston Harbor

Hessians – German Soldiers hired by King George III to fight against American Colonists
during the Revolutionary War

Boycott – when a country refuses to buy something

The Sons of Liberty – a group of patriots that protested the unfair treatment by King George
III

Loyalists – American colonists who remained loyal to Great Britain and opposed the war for
Independence

Patriots – American colonists who were determined to fight the British until American
independence was won; the patriots won the Revolutionary War
Revolutionary War Major Battles (1700-1774)

First battles: Lexington and Concord (Massachusetts)
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American Government (1788 to 1800)

John Dickinson - wrote the Articles of Confederation

Ben Franklin – the “Peacemaker” at the Constitutional Convention
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George Washington – President of the Constitutional Convention
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James Madison – “Father of the US Constitution”

William Paterson – proposed the New Jersey Plan (1 house with equal representation for
every state)

Thomas Jefferson – Washington’s Secretary of State; later became president
Articles of Confederation (1788 to 1800)

weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation
The Confederation Congress did not have the power to tax.
It also did not have the power to regulate commerce, or trade.
There were no executive or judiciary branches of government.
Amendments to the Articles of Confederation had to be agreed upon unanimously.
Constitution (1788 to 1800)

The purpose was to create a stronger national government to replace the weak government
of the Articles of Confederation


Legislative Branch – makes the laws; two parts

House of Representatives – members are elected according to population (435)
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Senate – two delegates from each state; 100 total senators
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Veto – to reject a bill
Executive Branch – executes, or enforces, the laws

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cabinet – gives advice to the President
Judicial Branch – interprets the laws

Supreme court – highest Court in the US

There are nine members to the Supreme Court
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Marbury v. Madison – gave the United States Supreme Court the right to judicial review
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Bill on Rights – first 10 amendments
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There are 27 amendments of the Constitution
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Preamble – introduction to the Constitution
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The Democratic-Republican Era (1801-1825)
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George Washington – first president of the United States; 2 terms
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John Marshall – second Chief Justice of Supreme Court
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Thomas Jefferson – third president; purchased Louisiana from France
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James Madison – fourth president; president during War of 1812
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James Monroe - fifth president; during the Era of Good Feelings
The Jacksonian Era (1828-1850)
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John Quincy Adams – secretary of state who helped write Monroe Doctrine; fifth president
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Andrew Jackson – first democratic president and also dismantled the National Bank
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Martin Van Buren – the democratic president during the Panic of 1837
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William Henry Harrison – the Whig president who died of pneumonia just after being elected
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James Knox Polk – the democratic president who annexed Texas into the Union
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Millard Fillmore – the president who accepted the Compromise of 1850
Westward Expansion (1783 – 1853)
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The Treaty of Paris, 1783 – the territory that extended west to the Mississippi River
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The Louisiana Purchase – the territory west of the Mississippi; purchased from France

The Cession of Florida – Adams-Onis treaty that gave us Florida
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The Annexation of Texas – this state was admitted in John Tyler’s administration
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The Gadsden Purchase – the purchase of Arizona and New Mexico
Civil War Major Battles (1850-1869)
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Fort Sumter – first battle of the Civil War
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Appomattox – the South surrendered here
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Gettysburg – major Union Victory in Pennsylvania
Civil War Major Participants (1850-1869)
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Ulysses S. Grant – Commander of the Union Army; later became president
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Robert E. Lee – Commander of the Confederate Army
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Abraham Lincoln – US President during the Civil War

Thomas Jackson – Confederate General nicknamed “Stonewall” after forcing the Union Lines to
break at the First Battle of Bull Run
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Jefferson Davis – President of the Confederate States

North known as Union, Yankees

South Known as Confederate, Rebels
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Civil War Results (1850-1869)
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Slavery was abolished
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Saved the Union
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The Federal Government became stronger
Reconstruction (1850-1869)
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Andrew Johnson – President of the United States during the period of Reconstruction

Carpetbaggers – name given to Northern whites who moved South after the war and supported
the Republicans
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Jim Crow Laws – laws passed that discriminated against African Americans
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13th Amendment – abolished slavery in the United States

14th Amendment – granted full citizenship to all individuals in the United States

poll tax – a fee that requires people to pay before voting
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Lincoln – offered first plan for accepting the southern states back into union; assassinated by
John Wilkes Booth
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Wade – Davis – Second plan to readmit the southern states into the union.

segregation – separation of the races; a prominent feature of life in the South.