Home › Certifications › US Citizenship › American History: Colonial Period and Independence
40 multiple-choice questions and 18 flashcards on American History: Colonial Period and Independence, about 13% of the US Citizenship bank. Every one carries a written rationale.
American History: Colonial Period and Independence is one of 9 chapters in CoStudy's US Citizenship (Naturalization) bank, and it holds 40 of the bank's 300 multiple-choice questions — roughly 13% 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.
5 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.
An applicant is asked why colonists came to America. Which answer would an officer accept?
Answer: A — To gain religious and economic freedom
A) Correct — accepted answers include freedom, religious freedom, political liberty, economic opportunity, and escape from persecution. B) tempts because Britain did tax the colonies, but collecting taxes was a Crown function, not a reason settlers migrated. C) reverses the timeline: the Civil War came almost 300 years later. D) colonists had no seats in Parliament — that lack is why they protested, not why they came.
What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
Answer: C — The Constitution was written
C) Correct — the accepted answers are that the Constitution was written and that the Founding Fathers wrote it. A) the Declaration was signed eleven years earlier at a different gathering. B) the Bill of Rights was ratified afterward by the states, not drafted at that convention as its purpose. D) the Louisiana Purchase was an 1803 event under President Jefferson.
The Federalist Papers were written to:
Answer: D — Support ratification of the Constitution
A) That was the Anti-Federalist position. D) Correct — they argued for ratification in newspapers (1787-88). C) Bill of Rights came after the essays. B) Parties were not their topic.
The Declaration of Independence was adopted on:
Answer: A — July 4, 1776
A) Correct — July 4, 1776. B) Lexington & Concord battles. C) Constitution signed. D) First Congress convened.
How many original states were there?
Answer: C — 13
A) Too few. B) Too few. C) Correct — 13 original colonies became the 13 original states. D) Current count.
4 cards from the 18 in this chapter.
Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Thomas Jefferson.
Alexander Hamilton is famous for many things. Name one. (2025 pool)
First Secretary of the Treasury; one of the writers of the Federalist Papers; helped establish the First Bank of the United States; aide to General George Washington.
There were 13 original states. Name THREE.
Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Rhode Island, Maryland.
Why did the colonists come to America?
Freedom; political liberty; religious freedom; economic opportunity; escape persecution.
These are a sample. The full American History: Colonial Period and Independence chapter runs 58 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.
Open US Citizenship in CoStudy →