8th Grade Social Studies Vocabulary Practice

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Exploration

• state sponsored settlement of people to new territories

• Charter

• traveling to new territories for the purpose of discovery

• Colonization

• political system where policies are created by representatives selected by the people

• Representative Government

• a contract given to someone to establish a colony

• Mercantilism

• economic policy where colonies serve as a source of raw materials to increase the wealth and maintain a favorable balance of trade for the “mother” country

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Plantation

• large agricultural enterprise where crops are grown for sale

• Boycott

• changing from one governmental structure to another 

• Region

• process of collecting money from citizens in order to fund government expenses

• Taxation

• a geographic area that share similar characteristics

• Political Revolution

• refusal to buy something as a form of protest

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Confederation

• an alliance of states created for a common purpose

• Loyalists

• a complaint

• Patriots

• American colonists who did not support independence from Great Britain

• Grievance

• American colonists who supported independence from Great Britain

• Civil Disobedience

• refusal to obey laws as a form of protest

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Compromise

• document outlining the fundamental principles and structures of a government

• Natural Rights

• approval of a document or policy

• Ratification

• basic rights people are born with, also called unalienable rights

• Amendment

• an addition to a document

• Constitution

• an agreement between opposing parties

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Political Party

• political system in which power is shared between a national centralized government and a collection of smaller state governments

• Impressment

• groups of people sharing a common political philosophy and support for candidates with that philosophy

• Republic

• forcing someone into service for an organization or government

• Soveriegnty

• political system in which representatives are responsible for governing

• Federalism

• independent power

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Isolationism

• the practice of public officials giving jobs or favors to supporters

• Foreign Policy

• remaining independent and not taking sides in an issue

• Nullification

• policy of separating and not participation in international relationships

• Neutrality

• government actions in relations to other countries

• Spoils System

• the idea that states can refuse to follow federal laws

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Suffrage

• powers given to the states as interpreted in the U.S. Constitution, generally seen as a check to federal powers

• Manifest Destiny

• market system operating free from government intervention  

• Free Enterprise

• idea that the United States should expand to include the territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean

• Pioneers

• the right to vote

• States' Rights

• someone who is first to settle a region or enter into a project

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Innovation

• legally ending of the practice of enslaving people

• Urbanization

• the process of economic development based on factory production

• Industrialism

• creating new ideas, products or methods

• Abolition

• the process of migration to large, densely populated areas, generally cities

• Mechanization

• using machines in the production process

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Sectionalism

• an alliance formed for a common purpose

• Confederacy

• refusing to obey laws believed to be unjust

• Reconstruction

• the withdrawal of a state from a union

• Civil Disobedience

• concern for regional needs and interests

• Secession

• process of rebuilding the Union with the readmission of the southern states

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Scalawag

• the practice of receiving a portion of the crops in exchange for living and farming on a large estate

• Homestead

• a tract of land with a home on it

• Sharecropping

• referred to Northerners who moved to the South following the Civil War to take advantage of the unsettled political situation

• Carpetbagger

• referred to Southerners who cooperated with federal authorities during Reconstruction, often gaining an advantage