REA CLEP American Government
Study Guide Q&As with complete
solutions
In the Mayflower Compact, we see the emergence of two important concepts:
1. ________________________
and
2. _______________________ - Correct answer-government by consent a
willingness to live under the rule of law
The _____________ __________________ were laws passed by the British
government that sharply restricted American trade with the Dutch, French, and Spanish, with the
goal of keeping as much wealth as possible in British hands. - Correct answer-Navigation Acts
____________ ___________________ was the policy of the British, who were trying to
manage a global empire, of not enforcing parliamentary laws in the American colonies before
the French and Indian War. - Correct answer-Salutary neglect
The Americans benefited from Britain's ____________ ____________ in that it taught
them how to manage their own affairs in a self-governing manner. - Correct answer-
salutary neglect
Following the costly French and Indian War in America, the era of _____________
_______________ was over, in that Britain wanted the Americans to become more
obedient to the mother country and better contributors to the empire. - Correct answer-salutary
neglect
,The Revolutionary War is deemed as a civil war because it pitted _____________,
Loyalists living in America who did not see that revolution was justified, against others
who wanted to achieve independence from Britain. - Correct answer-Tories
The ___________ ______________ was a 1764 British law that imposed taxes on
colonists for the importation of foreign sugar, wine, coffee, and other goods, and was
designed to help pay the costs of the French and Indian War as well as to fund the
British government's operations. - Correct answer-Sugar Act
The Sugar Act established ____________ ________________, in which smugglers
were tried without the benefit of a jury of their peers. - Correct answer-admiralty courts
The __________ _____________ was a 1765 British law that imposed taxes on the
colonists for many paper goods, such as newspapers, marriage announcements, playing
cards, and so on. - Correct answer-Stamp Act
Against the Stamp Act did the colonists raise the slogan "___ _____________
___________ ____________________." - Correct answer-no taxation without
representation
To the slogan "no taxation without representation" did the British preach ____________
________________, the notion that every member of Parliament had the whole British
Empire's interests at mind. - Correct answer-virtual representation
The __________________ ______________/________________ were 1767 British
laws that imposed taxes on the colonists for goods directly imported from England, such as tea. -
Correct answer-Townshend Acts/Duties
The _____________________/________________ ______________ were 1774 British
laws, passed in response to the Boston Tea Party, that imposed greater British control of the
government of Massachusetts, prevented British officials accused of crimes from being tried in
Massachusetts, and provided for the housing of British soldiers in private homes. - Correct
answer-Coercive/Intolerable Acts
The _____________ _____________ _____________ was a 1773 act of political and
economic protest against the authority of the British government to impose taxes upon
American colonies, in which a mob of colonists cast British tea into Boston Harbor. -
Correct answer-Boston Tea Party.
Place the following events in order from earliest to latest in history:
1. Boston Tea Party
2. Coercive Acts
3. Stamp Act
4. Sugar Act
5. Townshend Duties - Correct answer-1. Sugar Act
,2. Stamp Act
3. Townshend Duties
4. Boston Tea Party
5. Coercive Acts
In the twelfth century, the Englishman ___________ of ___________ argued that law a
gift from God and that if a monarch placed himself above the God-given law, then his
subjects could revolt against him - even kill him. - Correct answer-John of Salisbury
___________ _____ was the King of England from 1760 to 1820; his changes in
English policies created many conflicts with American colonists, which eventually led to the
American Revolutionary War. - Correct answer-George 111
Using John of Salisbury's ideas, the colonists suggested that the king of England had
placed himself above the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," in the
__________________ ___ _________________. - Correct answer-Declaration of
Independence
The __________ ________ was a thirteenth-century British document that limited the
English monarch's power - Correct answer-Magna Carta
List the three important principles of the Magna Carta.
1. The king could not levy taxes without the consent of his _____________.
2. A person could be imprisoned only after being tried by a jury via the _________
________ _______ ________.
3. The king himself was under the _______. - Correct answer-councilmen
due process of law
law
The _____________ ________ _____ ____________ was a 1688 British document
requiring that "freedom of speech" be allowed in parliamentary proceedings and that
"excessive bail ought not to be required not excessive fines imposed nor cruel and
unusual punishments inflicted"; framework for the American Bill of Rights. - Correct
answer-English Bill of Rights
The ____________ ________ ____ __________ is the first ten amendments to the
U.S. Constitution. - Correct answer-American Bill of Rights
The greatest single philosophical influence on the leaders who would advocate the
break with England was the work of English philosopher _________ ________. -
Correct answer-John Locke
In Locke's _________ __________ ____ _________ _________, he argued that
everyone should be held accountable to just laws, including rulers; the purpose of laws was
to promote "the good of the people"; the people's property and wealth should not
, be taken from them, chiefly through taxation, without their consent; the people possessed an
inherent right to "life, liberty, and property"; and the people possessed the right to overthrow a
government that held itself above the law, that passed unjust laws, or that confiscated people's
property without their consent. - Correct answer-Second Treatise on Civil Government
The phrase "....it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to
provide new Guards for their future security" in the Declaration of Independence
represents the ideas of ________ _________. - Correct answer-John Locke
The __________ ___________ _______ was a 1774 convention in Philadelphia of
delegates from twelve of the thirteen colonies (Georgia was the exception) in response the
the Intolerable Acts - Correct answer-First Continental Congress
The ______________, created by the First Continental Congress and an alliance of
colonies, called for a complete boycott of British goods. - Correct answer-Association
The ___________ ___________ ___________ was a group of delegates that convened
in 1775 that adopted a resolution calling on the Congress to determine that "these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states" and, with some
members wanting a document that would evoke inspiration, later resulted in the Declaration
of Independence. - Correct answer-Second Continental Congress
The resolution of the Second Continental Congress was penned by ______ ______ of
Virginia. - Correct answer-Henry Lee
Congress' first national constitution was the __________ ___ ___________, which was
written before independence was formally declared. They were adopted by the Second
National Congress in 1777 and ratified by all the states in 1781. - Correct answer-Articles of
Confederation
The suspicion of centralized power manifested itself in the Articles of Confederation, which
made the _________ government weak. - Correct answer-central
______________ is the quality of having supreme, absolute authority over a nation or
territory. - Correct answer-Sovereignty
A(n) ____________ is a form of government in which the confederating parties retain
their sovereignty in all matters not directly delegated to the national government. -
Correct answer-confederation
Under the Articles of Confederation, the government's Congress was ____________,
meaning that it had one house, unlike the later __________ Congress, which comprises
two houses: a(n) __________ ___ ___________ and a(n) _______. - Correct answer-
unicameral
bicameral
