Average Middle School U.S History Quiz

Answer: India

Queen Isabella of Spain recruited Columbus to find a shorter route to India where spices, jewels, and silk could be found in abundance. Columbus, believing that the world was round, set off in a westerly direction and landed on an island in the Bahamas.

Answer: Santa Maria

Columbus managed to get three ships from Queen Isabella. They were very small by modern standards. It is thought that they were no larger than seventy feet long.

Answer: They were seeking freedom for their religion

In 1620 everyone in England was required to attend the Church of England which was considered to be the church of the king. This small group of people, who we today call the Pilgrims, took sixty five days to reach America.

Answer: A tax imposed on the colonists by the British which taxed almost everything made of paper

In 1765 the British imposed one of many unfair laws on the colonists. The Stamp Act was one of these laws and said that the colonists had to pay tax on paper items such as mail, newspapers, stamps, and even playing cards.

Answer: 1954

The court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education, originated in Topeka, Kansas. A black child lived only seven blocks from a "white only" school and her school bus passed several other white schools before it arrived at her "black school". Her case was taken up by the NAACP and reached the Supreme Court in 1954.

Answer: The Battle of the Alamo

The Alamo was a mission (or church) in the middle of nowhere. The Mexican army was determined to defeat the Americans who had taken refuge there or who had come there to help defend this place. The Mexican army eventually attacked the Alamo, broke down the front gate, climbed the walls, and killed every American defender inside.

This battle led to the battle cry, "Remember the Alamo" and later at the Battle of the San Jacinto River the Mexicans were driven from Texas.

Answer: A system of roads, swamps, and houses that slaves could use while escaping to the North

There were many people who were sympathetic to the plight of the slaves. They allowed slaves to hide in their homes, barns, or outbuildings during the day. The slaves also used roads that were known to be safe and swamps and woods where they could hide. This entire system was a haphazard path to freedom. Some of the homes are still in existence.

Answer: The Allied Powers

The United States, France, Great Britain, Portugal, Italy, Russia, and other smaller countries were called the Allied Powers, or simply Allies. Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey were the Central Powers.

Answer: An area of the United States in the Great Plains where severe drought during the Great Depression caused farmers to lose the topsoil on their farms

The Dust Bowl was in the mid-United States where, during the Great Depression of the 1930's, hardly any rain fell causing the soil to turn to dust and sand. Much of the area had been 'over-farmed' harming the soil. Many farmers deserted their farms, and incredible dust storms swept across the Great Plains during this time.

Answer: California

In 1848 Joseph Marshall found some pieces of gold in a stream on the property of a man named Joseph Sutter. No one could keep a secret and by 1849 people were leaving their jobs and homes in the east and travelling to California in the hopes of finding some gold. Some estimate that over 300,000 people came to California. They were given the name, the "49'ers".