Regents Review Unit 1

Which fundamental political idea is expressed in the Declaration of Independence?

• The government should guarantee every citizen economic security
• The central government and state governments should have equal power
• If the government denies its people certain basic rights, that government can be overthrown
• Rulers derive their right to govern from God and are therefore bound to govern in the nation's best interest

During the Revolutionary War period, Thomas Paine's Common Sense was important because it

• described a military plan for the defeat of England
• convinced many Americans who had been undecided to support independence
• contained a detailed outline for a new form of government
• argued for the addition of a bill of rights to the Constitution

Which heading completes the partial outline below? 
_______________________
A. Committees of Correspondence
B. Non-importation Agreements
C. Boston Tea Party
D. First Continental Congress

• Protests Against Slavery in the American Colonies
• British Parliamentary Actions to Punish Colonial Americans
• Colonial Responses to British Mercantile Policies
• Colonial Attempts to End the British Policy of Salutary Neglect

A major argument for American independnece found in the Declaration of Independence was that the British

• deprived Americans of their natural rights
• stopped participating in the slave trade
• refused to sell products to Americans
• censored American representatives to Parliament

The social contract theory as used in the Declaration of Independence was most directly influenced by the writings of 

• John Locke
• Adam Smith
• Thomas Paine
• Benjamin Franklin

The years between the end of the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution are sometimes called the "critical period" because

• the western territories were left ungoverned
• the United States fought a war with France
• Spain refused to sell Florida to the United States
• the central government failed to solve many economic problems

In the Colonial Era, developments such as the New England town meetings and the establishment of the Virginia House of Burgesses represented

• colonial attempts to build a strong national government
• efforts by the British to strengthen their control over the colonies
• steps in the growth of representative democracy
• early social reform movements

The British system of mercantilism was opposed by many American colonists because it

• placed limits on immigration
• discouraged the export of raw materials to England
• encouraged colonial agriculture
• placed restrictions on trading

The Mayflower Compact of 1620 is considered an important step in the development of democracy in America because it

• expressed the importance of self-government
• established freedom of religion
• created the first colonial judicial system
• granted all males the right to vote

The British benefited from their mercantilist relationship with the American colonies primarily by

• supporting the growth of colonial industries
• prohibiting colonists from fishing and fur trading
• taking large amounts of gold and silver from the southern colonies
• buying raw materials from the colonies and selling them as finished products