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8th Grade Final Study Guide
Land Bridge- A strip of land that connects two continents together
Mayas: 250-900 AD
Mayans developed- arts, system of government, a written language,
observed stars, and created a calendar
Aztecs: 900s-1400s
Tenochtitlan- Aztecs great city capital in present day Mexico city, a
group of islands connected by stone roadways

Incas: 1400s- ?
Inca Achievements- Greatest Empire in the 1400s, It was stretched
along the Coast of South America

Powhatan- Local Chief who helped supply food to Jamestown

John Smith- Sent from London to lead Jamestown with strict new rules
He who works not, eats not
Starving Time- terrible winter of 1609-1610 where the settlers ran out
of food. Smith was gone and Powhatan decided to drive the English
away
House of Burgesses- Virginas first law making body that used a
representative government
Mayflower Compact- First document which Americans claimed the
right to govern themselves. Created on the journey from Netherland to
Virginia and called for just and equal laws

First Thanksgiving- Celebration thanking the Squanto and the Native

Americans for helping them get through the winter of 1620-1621
Puritans- Group who wanted to reform the Church of England
John Winthrop- Puritan Leader that was a respected landowner

Anne Hutchinson- Boston woman put on trial because she questioned

for some of the Puritan teachings
Separatists- People who separated from the Church of England, they
were also known as Puritans and Pilgrims
Habeas corpus- the principle that a person cannot be held on prison
without being charged with a specific crime.
Indentured Servants- signed a contract to work from 4 to 10 years in
the colonies for anyone who would pay for his or her ocean passage to
the Americas.
Jonathan Edwards- a preacher wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God and was a driving force behind the Great Awakening.
Great Awakening (what did it lead to)- Religious Movement that led to
new churches and democratic beliefs
Quartering Act- - Act from the British Parliament to force colonist to
house soldiers from Britain
Stamp Act- Act from the British Parliament to add tax on stamps

British East India Company- an important British business that sold tea
from India

Boston Tea Party- An act of defiance against the Tea Act by the colonist
where the disguised as Indians and threw tea in the Boston Harbor
Fort Ticonderoga- Fort captured during the Revolutions by Benedict
Arnold and Ethan Allen
Green Mountain Men- Group of men that captured Fort Ticonderoga
and got supplies
Battle of Saratoga- The battle of Saratoga was the turning point in the
Revolutionary War. It lifted the patriots spirit and showed Europe that
America could win

John Paul Jones- Navy officer that fought on the coast during the
Revolution, famous for saying I have not yet begun to fight

Battle of Cowpens- The final battle of the revolutionary war- America

defeated Cornwallis and the British

(Duplicate) Fort Sumter- After South Carolina seceded, the

Confederates tried to starve the troops into surrendering. On April 12,
1861, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter. This attack marks the
start of the Civil War.

Shot Heard Round the World- Start of the American Revolution, no one
knows what side fired the first bullet

Minutemen- citizen soldier that could be ready at a minutes notice

Shays Rebellion (what did it lead to)- government leaders to revise the
Articles of Confederation
Land Ordinance 1785- A policy created so that settlers and investors
could buy formerly public lands.
How many states were needed to sign the constitution? 9/13 states
were needed

Wilmot Proviso Representative David Wilmot from Pennsylvania

proposed a ban on slavery in all Mexican Cession territories. (1846)
The bill passed in the House but not in the Senate. Still, it angered
Southerners, who viewed the bill as an attack on slavery by the North.
Kansas Nebraska Act (who signed it)- A law passed by Congress in
1854 that divided the territory west of the states of Missouri and Iowa
and the territory of Minnesota into two new
territories, Kansas and Nebraska and was signed by Steven Douglas.
Missouri Compromise- Issue that stated that the United States needed
an equal number of free states and slave states divided by the 36 30 N
parallel
Bleeding Kansas- After the Kansas Nebraska, thousands of proslavery
and antislavery settlers immediately poured into Kansas trying to hold
a majority vote on slavery. Violence broke out and this was called
Bleeding Kansas.
Why did South Carolina secede from the Union? They didnt like the
outcome of the election and they had the most slave states

Fort Sumter- After South Carolina seceded, the Confederates tried to

starve the troops into surrendering. On April 12, 1861, Confederate
forces attacked Fort Sumter. This attack marks the start of the Civil
War.

Border states- Slave states that remained in the Union during the Civil
War

Ironclads- a warship covered with protective iron plates, both sides

used these during the Civil War.
Ulysses S. Grant- Union general during the Civil War and president
after Andrew Johnson

John Wilkes Booth- Actor that assassinated Abraham Lincoln

Andrew Johnson- President that took office after Lincolns

assassination. He proposed a lenient plan on reconstruction and
radicals tried to impeach him but he escaped removal.
Impeachment- the process of bringing official charges against a public
official

Plessey vs. Ferguson- Supreme Court decision where the Court ruled
that a law can remain Separate as long as it is Equal