GED and HiSET social studies — the Revolution and the early republic

The United States history material in this category touches the Revolution in one question and the Constitutional Convention in another, then moves on to the nineteenth century. This material slows down on the years in between, from 1754 to 1823, because the founding period is where much of the social studies test's reading is set: its documents, its arguments and its compromises.

It begins with a paradox. Britain won the French and Indian War, and the victory itself caused the break: a huge war debt that Parliament tried to pay with colonial taxes, and a Proclamation of 1763 that closed the land west of the Appalachians to settlers who had fought for it. The questions follow the escalation step by step: boycotts of the Townshend duties as economic pressure on British merchants, the Coercive Acts after the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress that answered them, and Thomas Paine's Common Sense, quoted in its own words, turning grievance into a case for independence.

The war itself is covered through its turning points rather than its battles one by one: why the Loyalists stayed loyal, told fairly and including the enslaved people who joined the British side for the freedom it promised; Saratoga and the French alliance it won; and the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which recognized independence and set the western boundary at the Mississippi.

The early republic closes the set. The Northwest Ordinance created the path to statehood and barred slavery north of the Ohio River, while the Three-Fifths Compromise counted enslaved people for representation and taxes. Hamilton and Jefferson disagreed over a national bank, loose against strict construction, and that disagreement grew into the first political parties. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the country despite Jefferson's own constitutional doubts, and impressment and trade restrictions led to the War of 1812.

The flashcards cover eighteen events and terms, from the Stamp Act to the Monroe Doctrine. The written work asks for fuller explanations: the chain of events from 1763 to 1775, Paine's argument, the Loyalist and Patriot choice, the Articles-era West, Hamilton's and Jefferson's cases each as its author made it, and the Monroe Doctrine. The oral exam walks through the period by asking why one event led to the next.

Zestly is an independent study tool, not affiliated with GED Testing Service or the HiSET program.

• Explain how the outcome of the French and Indian War led to new taxes, the Proclamation of 1763 and colonial resistance
• Describe the forms of colonial resistance and the steps from protest to independence
• State fairly why some colonists became Loyalists and others Patriots
• Explain why Saratoga was a turning point and what the Treaty of Paris of 1783 settled
• Describe the Northwest Ordinance and the Three-Fifths Compromise
• Explain the Hamilton-Jefferson dispute, the first parties, the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812 and the Monroe Doctrine

Practice material written by Zestly on the American Revolution and the early republic (1754-1823), based on the published descriptions of the GED Social Studies test (United States history) and the HiSET Social Studies subtest. The quotation from Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776) is public domain.