SAT Subject Test in United States History - SAT Subject Test in United States History

Prior to King Phillip’s War there had been little existence of an American identity, one distinct from British. In the early seventeenth century, colonies had been established primarily as a means of shipping religious dissidents three thousand miles away, where they could not affect English heterodoxy. The colonists tended to see themselves as religiously separate, but culturally and nationally identical to the British; however, in King Phillip’s War the colonists were provided with very little assistance by the British Empire. Forced to fight and die together, the war fostered a new identity, an American identity that would continue to build, particularly in New England, for the next hundred years.

“Letters from a Pennsylvania Farmer” was, in fact, written by a lawyer in opposition to the British imposition of the Townshend Acts. The tract argued that the British government did have ultimate authority over the external affairs of the colonies, but that the colonies had the right to internal government. It declared that taxes made solely for the purpose of raising revenue for the Empire were abhorrent and against the British legal system. The tract was widely read and encouraged anti-British feeling throughout the colonies.

In early 1692, many town in the northern part of Massachusetts colony underwent a mass hysteria where various townspeople accused others of being practicing witches. Such accusations had a long history in European culture, and were well established in the colonists' own deeply held Calvinism. Witchcraft was a capital offense, and the ensuing trials became more convoluted by recent changes and disputes over Royal authority in the colony. In all, hundreds were accused and convicted, with dozens being executed in a variety of manners. This was also the last instance of a widespread witch trial, and made royal authority finally preeminent in Massachusetts.

The experience of the colonial militia fighting the French-Indian war would prove invaluable when it came time to call in the militias for the Revolution. Without this conflict they might have remained disorganized and unaccustomed to battle. Furthermore, it helped embolden many, who might have otherwise erred, that the British could be beaten in battle. The French would come to the colonists’ aid in the Revolutionary War, but it was not due to this conflict – where they fought bloodily opposite one another. Native Americans were co-opted as part of the struggle, but hardly found themselves included in the political or social discourse after peace had been made. The British government, far from repealing harsh taxes and tariffs, imposed significantly more obtrusive ones in order to recoup the money lost in war. Finally, the French did lose the Louisiana territory, but it was ceded to the Spanish, not the British, who remained as much an obstacle to Western expansion as had the French.

The key argument for Columbus' voyage west across the Atlantic Ocean was to find a shorter route to the Far East, which was importing spices and precious metals across the Eurasian landmass to Western Europe. The Catholic Church was also attempting to missionize into Asia. Most learned people in the late fifteenth century believed the earth was round. Where Columbus disagreed with the consensus was in his belief the Earth was much smaller. Many scholars at the time knew just how big the earth was, but did not believe there was a landmass between Japan and Western Europe. Columbus believed he had reached Indonesia when he landed in the Caribbean, and never thought he had discovered a new Continent.

During British colonial rule many Americans living on the frontiers were forced to house British soldiers. This practice was particularly common during the French-Indian Wars in the middle of the eighteenth century. The economic and social strain of this situation was one of the motivating factors behind the outbreak of revolution. After colonial rule was overthrown, the new United States government sought to prohibit forced quartering in the Constitution. This was achieved with the passage of the Third Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects United States citizens from unreasonable search and seizure of property. In practical application it requires law enforcement to provide a warrant and valid cause before any invasion of privacy can take place. The Fourth Amendment was added to the Bill of Rights in response to British abuses of writs of assistance, which, in pre-Revolutionary America, allowed British colonial officials to inspect property whenever they pleased.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits the use of “cruel and unusual punishment” when dealing with criminal practice. The Amendment has its roots in British common law and later the British Bill of Rights. The terms "cruel and unusual" are somewhat vague and open to interpretation. As a result, throughout American history, legal and judicial theorists have offered competing definitions of cruel and unusual; however, it is generally considered to prohibit mental and physical torture, as well as dehumanizing and humiliating treatment.

Gold was found at Sutter’s Mill in Northern California in January of 1848, weeks before the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made California an American territory. The ever present desire for gold led people to endure brutal travel either overland in stagecoaches or wagon trains, or by sailing to Panama and crossing the Isthmus by foot.

Before the invention of the cotton gin, cotton was notoriously difficult to profitably produce. Cotton is encased in a hard shell - extracting it and removing excess material was a time consuming and costly process. The cotton gin, by mechanizing the process, dramatically increased the amount of cotton that a plantation owner could produce and made the cash crop extremely profitable again. However, in order to process the cotton it first needed to be picked - which called for an influx of a massive number of forced laborers (slaves). More than one of the answers presented here are true, however the key component is "most significant". The massive importation of slaves to harvest cotton probably prolonged the death of slavery by several years in the South and has ramifications for the economic, social and political make-up of America to this day.

Samuel Colt, of Colt 45 fame, is the inventor credited with mass-producing the revolver for the first time.

It was the establishment of the telegraph that rendered the Pony Express obsolete.

The cotton gin (short for engine) was invented by the Connecticut born Eli Whitney in 1793, and quickly the model spread throughout Southern plantations. The cotton gin was able to separate the cotton fibers from the seeds extremely quickly and efficiently, and allowed the production of cotton to increase exponentially. This meant that Southern plantation owners also increased their importation and trade of slaves, leading to a boom in the Southern slave population.

The Panic of 1873 was one of the worst world wide economic depressions until the Great Depression occurred in 1929. The Panic began after widespread railroad speculation in the post Civil War era overstretched financial resources throughout the country. After the failure of a handful of railroads, banks themselves failed causing widespread unemployment, inflation, and bank runs. The depression would last until 1879, covering all of Ulysses S. Grant's second term in office.

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was a period of drought which caused massive dust storms and failed crops throughout the Great Plains. As a result of unproductive farmland, many people moved from Oklahoma, Texas, and California. If the Dust Bowl is unfamiliar, the 1930s should be a good clue that increased productivity or investment of any sort would be a wrong answer.

FDR's New Deal program was a massive economic undertaking that focused on three major areas (called the three R's, for simplicity): Relief, for the poor and unemployed; Recovery, for the depressed economy; Reform, of the financial and political system to ensure there would not be a repeat of the Great Depression. It is generally considered a turning point in American history when the bulk of the American people began to believe that Government direct intervention in the economy was a positive, not a negative. For the Democratic Party it ushered in an unprecedented level of popularity - propelling them to victory in seven of the next nine elections. For the Republican Party, it caused fracturing and realignment. It greatly expanded Social Security programs, but what it did not do is turn America into a welfare state. Most historians agree that America is too ruggedly "individualistic" for a true welfare state to govern - as has been evidence in the recent debate over health care in the Twenty-First Century.

The immediate cause of the Great Depression was the stock market crash of Black Tuesday, October 24, 1929. Many factors contributed to the worldwide crisis, but World War I debts were paid off as scheduled and the years following the 1919 Armistice were actually an economic boom time.

The El Niño–Southern Oscillation is a band of warm ocean water that develops off the western coast of South America and has been known to cause climatic change across the Pacific Ocean, but not the plains of America and Canada.

Historians generally find it impossible to identify just one or two causes for the Stock Market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. So a simple explanation is difficult, however the following factors were all relevant and need to be understood for the test: A weak banking system that did not garner consumer confidence caused many Americans to rush to the banks to withdraw their money the moment the crisis began causing rapid deterioration; A crippling tariff system that was closing the United States off to profitable trade with Europe; Far too much stock and property purchased on margin or credit (similar reasons to our modern recession); A complete lack of diversity in the American economy, as the industrial and car manufacturing industries were dwindling their was nothing rising to fill the gap, leading to widespread unemployment; Overproduction of crops causing prices to drop and farmers to be unable to make ends meet. Therefore we understand that there was no shortage of crops nor rapid food price inflation, quite the opposite. It is important to remember that there was no one single cause of the Great Depression, but rather it was a combination of several factors.