Social Studies STAAR Review

1. Social Studies STAAR Review Vocabulary & Content

2. Republic, Representative Government, Representative Democracy • Power is held by the people and exercised through the efforts of representatives chosen by the people

3. 1776 • On July 4th of this year, fifty-six representatives from the thirteen colonies met and unanimously approved the Declaration of Independence

4. Federalists • Those in favor of ratification of the Constitution and a strong central (federal) government

5. Declaration of Independence • This document was adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. It established the 13 colonies as independent states, free from rule by Great Britain.

6. Thomas Jefferson • Author of the Declaration of Independence

7. 1861-1865 • The American Civil War was fought during these years.

8. Fort Sumter, SC • Civil War began here

9. Appomattox Court House • Civil War ended here; Lee surrendered to Grant

10. Anaconda Plan • Lincoln’s plan to conquer the South and win the Civil War for the Union

11. Northwest Ordinance • Enacted in 1787, it is considered one of the most significant achievements of the Articles of Confederation. It established a system for setting up governments in the western territories so they could eventually join the Union on an equal footing with the original 13 states.

12. Quote from Declaration of Independence • “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . .

13. To protect people’s rights • The purpose of government according to the Declaration of Independence

14. The people • According to the Declaration of Independence, where a government gets its power from (“consent of the governed”)

15. Emancipation Proclamation • Taking effect in January of 1863, it declared that all slaves in rebellious Confederate states would be free

16. Magna Carta • This document, signed by King John of England in 1215, is the cornerstone of English law and justice. It declared that the king and government were bound by the same laws as other citizens of England.

17. Founding Fathers • Men who played a major role in declaring U.S. independence, fighting the Revolutionary War, or writing and adopting the U.S. Constitution. They include Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and James Madison.

18. Mercantilism • A set of economic principles based on policies which stress government regulation of economic activities to benefit the home country. This was one cause of the American Revolution.

19. Plantation System • A system of agricultural production based on large-scale land ownership and slave labor. This system focused on the production of cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane.

20. Industrial Revolution • During this rapid period of industrial growth, more and more countries adopted mass production. Handmade goods were quickly replaced by machine-made goods. Factory laborers replaced craftsmen and home production.

21. Anti-Federalist • Those who were opposed to (against) the ratification of the Constitution because they feared the power of the national government in the new federal system, and because they favored states’ rights.

22. Unalienable rights • These rights are fundamental or natural guaranteed to people naturally instead of by the law. They include life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

23. Articles of Confederation • This document was the nation’s first plan of government adopted by the Second Continental Congress in 1781. This document gave most of the government power to the states, not the federal government.

24. Marbury v. Madison • This was the first judgement by the Supreme Court which supported the federal system of government. In 1803, Chief Justice John Marshall, a Federalist, strengthened the powers of the court by establishing the principle of judicial review (the power to of the courts to declare laws unconstitutional).

25. Federalist Papers • A series of essays written by three leading Federalists - James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay - to promote the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

26. Limited Government • In this type of government everyone, including all authority figures, must obey laws. Constitutions, statements of rights, and other laws define the limits of those in power so that rulers cannot take advantage of their elected, appointed, or inherited positions.

27. Abolitionist movement • This movement concentrated on ending slavery in the United States.

28. Battle of Vicksburg • The Union gained control of the Mississippi River in this turning point battle of the Civil War.

29. Abraham Lincoln • President of the Union during the Civil War, believing his main goal was to save the Union (although he added the abolition of slavery to Union goals when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation).

30. Ulysses S. Grant • Most important Union general during the Civil War.

31. Jefferson Davis • President of the Confederate States of America.

32. Robert E. Lee • Most important Confederate general

33. Increased • Effect a British blockade had on American manufacturing during the War of 1812

34. Battle of Gettysburg • Union victory turned back a Southern invasion of Pennsylvania; this battle in 1863 marked a turning point in the Civil War because the South would never again be able to take the offensive.

35. Samuel Adams • Leader of the Sons of Liberty in Boston, responsible for protests leading to the American Revolution

36. Benjamin Franklin • Helped with the Declaration of Independence, negotiated the French alliance, negotiated the Treaty of Paris, 1783 following the American Revolution, and helped write the Constitution of the United States.

37. George Washington • Commander of the Continental Army (American army) during the American Revolution.

38. Thomas Paine • Wrote Common Sense, a pamphlet that inspired the Declaration of Independence, and The Crisis, encouraging Americans to keep fighting during the American Revolution.

39. Free enterprise system • An economic system in which individuals depend on supply and demand the profit margin to determine what to produce, how to produce, how much to produce, and for whom to produce. (The opposite to government control such as mercantilism.)

40. Fundamental Orders of Connecticut • This document was the first written constitution in America.

41. Federalism • The division of power between the federal or central government and the states within a country.

42. Constitutional Convention • This meeting was held for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, but instead resulted in a new plan of government. 39 of the 55 delegates who attended signed the new document - the U.S. Constitution.

43. Philadelphia • The location where the Second Continental Congress met to sign the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention met.

44. 1787 • The year the Constitutional Convention met and proposed the U.S. Constitution.

45. Gold Rush of 1849 • Event responsible for the great growth in population of California; by 1850 California was ready to be admitted as a state.

46. Fugitive Slave Law • Part of the Compromise of 1850 that required slaves caught anywhere in the United States to be returned to their owners in the South.

47. Missouri Compromise of 1820 • First compromise dealing the expansion of slavery; Maine became a free state and Missouri became a slave state; slavery was outlawed in the remaining northern part of the Louisiana Purchase.

48. “Bleeding Kansas” • Event describing the fighting when a territory in the Louisiana Purchase was allowed to decide slavery by popular sovereignty (letting the voters decide); both sides cheated in the election and violence ensued.

49. Uncle Tom’s Cabin • Anti-slavery novel written by Harriet Beecher Stowe describing the evils of slavery.

50. Raid on Harper’s Ferry • Abolitionist John Brown tried to capture the United States army arsenal here to get guns to arm slaves in Virginia for a slave uprising.