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Colonial America and the Road to Revolution (1607-1763) — High School U.S. History practice questions

15 multiple-choice questions and 10 flashcards on Colonial America and the Road to Revolution (1607-1763), about 6% of the High School U.S. History bank. Every one carries a written rationale.

Written and maintained by Nick Burton · last updated 2026-08-22 · how we write and review questions

What this chapter covers

Colonial America and the Road to Revolution (1607-1763) is one of 13 chapters in CoStudy's High School U.S. History bank, and it holds 15 of the bank's 270 multiple-choice questions — roughly 6% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.

Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.

Free Colonial America and the Road to Revolution (1607-1763) practice questions

8 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.

Which principle, established in Marbury v. Madison (1803), gives the Supreme Court its power to strike down laws?

  1. Federalism
  2. Separation of powers
  3. Judicial review
  4. Habeas corpus

Answer: C — Judicial review

Marbury v. Madison established judicial review — the Court's authority to invalidate laws and executive actions that violate the Constitution.

The New England colonies were founded primarily for what reason?

  1. Religious reasons — dissenting Protestant groups seeking to practice their faith
  2. Cash crops of tobacco and rice
  3. To trade fur with Native peoples along the Great Lakes
  4. To serve as a penal colony for English debtors

Answer: A — Religious reasons — dissenting Protestant groups seeking to practice their faith

Puritans and Pilgrims drove New England settlement. Tobacco was Chesapeake, fur was more Middle Colonies/New France, and Georgia was the debtor colony — students frequently apply Southern motives to New England.

Stamp Act protests in 1765 introduced which slogan?

  1. "Give me liberty or give me death"
  2. "No taxation without representation"
  3. "Don't tread on me"
  4. "All men are created equal"

Answer: B — "No taxation without representation"

B) Codified colonial objections to Parliament's direct taxes. A) Patrick Henry, 1775. C) Gadsden flag motto. D) Declaration of Independence, 1776.

The Southern colonial economy was most dependent on:

  1. Wheat exports to the West Indies
  2. Whaling and rum distilling
  3. Cash-crop plantation agriculture — tobacco (Chesapeake) and rice/indigo (Lower South) — powered by enslaved labor
  4. Small artisan manufacturing

Answer: C — Cash-crop plantation agriculture — tobacco (Chesapeake) and rice/indigo (Lower South) — powered by enslaved labor

The plantation economy defined the South. A is more Middle Colonies, B is New England, D describes no colonial region well.

In what year did the French and Indian War end, and which treaty concluded it?

  1. 1754, Treaty of Utrecht
  2. 1760, Treaty of Fontainebleau
  3. 1763, Treaty of Paris
  4. 1775, Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle

Answer: C — 1763, Treaty of Paris

The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the war. 1754 was the war's start, Utrecht was 1713, Aix-la-Chapelle ended the earlier War of Austrian Succession in 1748 — students confuse the imperial-war treaty sequence.

'Salutary neglect' refers to:

  1. Britain's informal pre-1763 policy of loose enforcement of trade and administrative laws in the colonies
  2. A Puritan doctrine of predestination
  3. The Board of Trade's decision to ignore Bacon's Rebellion
  4. Colonial refusal to enforce the Navigation Acts

Answer: A — Britain's informal pre-1763 policy of loose enforcement of trade and administrative laws in the colonies

Salutary neglect allowed colonial self-government to develop and made post-1763 enforcement feel like a violation of long-standing practice. The other options are unrelated concepts students sometimes attach to the phrase.

The Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled U.S. territory and was negotiated under which president?

  1. George Washington
  2. John Adams
  3. Thomas Jefferson
  4. James Madison

Answer: C — Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson acquired the Louisiana Territory from France (Napoleon) for $15 million, doubling the size of the United States.

The Great Awakening of the 1730s-40s is most closely associated with which preacher, whose sermon 'Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God' became iconic?

  1. Cotton Mather
  2. Jonathan Edwards
  3. Roger Williams
  4. Anne Hutchinson

Answer: B — Jonathan Edwards

Edwards preached the Angry God sermon in 1741. Cotton Mather was a generation earlier (Salem-era), Williams founded Rhode Island in the 1630s, and Hutchinson was a 1630s antinomian dissenter — time-swap traps.

Colonial America and the Road to Revolution (1607-1763) flashcards

4 cards from the 10 in this chapter.

What were the three colonial regions of British North America?

New England, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern Colonies.

What was the headright system?

A Virginia policy granting 50 acres of land per person to anyone who paid for an immigrant's passage; encouraged labor immigration.

Who were the Puritans?

English Protestants who settled Massachusetts Bay (1630) seeking to 'purify' the Church of England, establishing a religious community focused on covenant.

What was salutary neglect?

Britain's pre-1763 informal policy of loose enforcement of trade laws on the colonies, which fostered colonial self-government.

Practise the full chapter

These are a sample. The full Colonial America and the Road to Revolution (1607-1763) chapter runs 25 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.

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