Free AP® United States History Practice Test (2026)

Question 1

Why was the Louisiana Purchase (1803) a difficult decision for Thomas Jefferson?

Accepted Answer

The Constitution did not clearly give the federal government the power to buy new territory, and Jefferson favored a strict reading of the Constitution.

Answer

Congress had already voted to declare war on France.

Answer

Spain refused to recognize American claims to the Mississippi River.

Answer

The purchase required ending the Atlantic slave trade at once.

Question 2

What was the Great Migration of the early twentieth century?

Accepted Answer

The movement of millions of African Americans from the rural South to cities in the North and Midwest

Answer

The movement of farmers from the East to the Great Plains under the Homestead Act

Answer

The arrival of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe through Ellis Island

Answer

The forced relocation of Native Americans to Indian Territory

Question 3

Which was a major weakness of the national government under the Articles of Confederation?

Accepted Answer

Congress could not levy taxes or regulate trade between the states.

Answer

The president could veto any law passed by Congress.

Answer

The national courts could overturn state laws at will.

Answer

Small states had less power than large states in Congress.

Question 4

Which was a major effect of the Columbian Exchange on the Americas?

Accepted Answer

Diseases such as smallpox killed a large share of the Native American population.

Answer

Maize and potatoes were brought to the Americas from Europe.

Answer

Horses, which Native peoples had long raised, disappeared from the Americas.

Answer

Native American populations grew quickly because of new European crops.

Question 5

Which part of the Compromise of 1850 most angered many Northerners?

Accepted Answer

A stronger Fugitive Slave Act that required citizens to help capture people who had escaped slavery

Answer

The admission of California as a free state

Answer

The end of the slave trade in the District of Columbia

Answer

The settlement of the Texas border dispute

Question 6

What was the main purpose of the Truman Doctrine (1947)?

Accepted Answer

To give aid to countries such as Greece and Turkey to help them resist communist pressure

Answer

To rebuild Japan’s economy after its surrender

Answer

To create the United Nations

Answer

To end the military draft after World War II

Question 7

Compared with the New England colonies, the Chesapeake colonies of the 1600s were known for

Accepted Answer

an economy based on tobacco grown for export, worked by indentured servants and, increasingly, enslaved Africans

Answer

small family farms and close-knit towns organized around Puritan churches

Answer

an economy based mainly on the fur trade with Native American partners

Answer

a population made up mostly of families that came for religious reasons

Question 8

Andrew Carnegie owned iron mines, railroads and steel mills so that his company controlled every stage of making steel. This strategy is called

Accepted Answer

vertical integration

Answer

horizontal integration

Answer

collective bargaining

Answer

laissez-faire regulation

Question 9

What did the Monroe Doctrine (1823) declare?

Accepted Answer

The Western Hemisphere was closed to further European colonization, and the United States would stay out of European affairs.

Answer

The United States would annex Cuba and Mexico.

Answer

The United States would join European alliances to defend Latin America.

Answer

Slavery would be banned in all territories north of 36°30′.

Question 10

Which program created by the Social Security Act of 1935 is still in place today?

Accepted Answer

Old-age pensions paid from payroll taxes

Answer

A federal job for every adult who wanted one

Answer

Government ownership of the nation’s banks

Answer

A ban on all child labor

Question 11

At the Constitutional Convention, how did the Great Compromise settle the dispute between large and small states?

Accepted Answer

It created a Congress with representation by population in the House and equal representation for each state in the Senate.

Answer

It counted three-fifths of the enslaved population for representation.

Answer

It gave each state one vote in a single-house Congress.

Answer

It let the largest states choose the president.

Question 12

What did the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) do?

Accepted Answer

It let settlers decide on slavery by popular sovereignty, which in effect repealed the Missouri Compromise line.

Answer

It admitted Kansas as a free state and Nebraska as a slave state.

Answer

It banned slavery in all western territories.

Answer

It ended the internal slave trade.

Question 13

Which set of policies is most closely associated with President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s?

Accepted Answer

Cutting income tax rates, reducing federal regulation and building up the military

Answer

Expanding Great Society programs and raising the top tax rate

Answer

Nationalizing major industries and setting price controls

Answer

Cutting military spending and withdrawing from NATO

Question 14

What did the Indian Removal Act of 1830 do?

Accepted Answer

It authorized the president to trade for Native lands in the East in exchange for lands west of the Mississippi River, which led to forced removals such as the Trail of Tears.

Answer

It granted United States citizenship to all Native Americans living east of the Mississippi.

Answer

It divided reservations in the West into individual family farms.

Answer

It ended all treaty-making with Native nations.

Question 15

Which demand was a central part of the Populist (People’s) Party platform of 1892?

Accepted Answer

The free and unlimited coinage of silver

Answer

A strict gold standard with no silver money

Answer

Lower taxes on corporations

Answer

An end to all government regulation of railroads

Question 16

Which law banned literacy tests and allowed federal examiners to register voters in places with a history of discrimination?

Accepted Answer

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

Answer

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

Answer

The Twenty-fourth Amendment

Answer

The Civil Rights Act of 1957

Question 17

In his Farewell Address (1796), George Washington warned Americans against

Accepted Answer

permanent alliances with foreign nations and the dangers of political parties

Answer

trade of any kind with Britain and France

Answer

westward expansion beyond the Appalachian Mountains

Answer

creating a national bank

Question 18

What did the Emancipation Proclamation (1863) do?

Accepted Answer

It declared enslaved people free in areas in rebellion against the United States.

Answer

It abolished slavery everywhere in the United States.

Answer

It freed enslaved people in the border states that stayed in the Union.

Answer

It granted African American men the right to vote.

Question 19

Which describes the First Great Awakening of the 1730s and 1740s?

Accepted Answer

A religious revival that stressed personal, emotional faith and challenged established church authority

Answer

A movement that made the Church of England the official church of every colony

Answer

A scientific movement led by colonial universities

Answer

A revival that ended religious differences among the colonies

Question 20

Which Progressive Era reform gave voters, rather than state legislatures, the power to choose senators?

Accepted Answer

The Seventeenth Amendment

Answer

The Sixteenth Amendment

Answer

The Eighteenth Amendment

Answer

The Nineteenth Amendment

Question 21

After the French and Indian War, how did British policy toward the American colonies change?

Accepted Answer

Britain tried to raise money from the colonies through new taxes such as the Stamp Act.

Answer

Britain withdrew all of its troops from North America.

Answer

Britain encouraged colonists to settle west of the Appalachians.

Answer

Britain gave the colonies seats in Parliament.

Question 22

What was the main goal of the Dawes Act (1887)?

Accepted Answer

To break up reservation land into individual allotments and push Native Americans to adopt white American farming and culture

Answer

To return lands in the East to Native nations

Answer

To recognize Native nations as independent countries

Answer

To set up schools that taught in Native languages

Question 23

What did the Declaration of Sentiments, adopted at Seneca Falls in 1848, demand?

Accepted Answer

Equal rights for women, including the right to vote

Answer

An immediate end to slavery in the South

Answer

Limits on immigration from Ireland

Answer

A ban on the sale of alcohol

Question 24

What power did the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution (1964) give President Lyndon Johnson?

Accepted Answer

Broad authority to use military force in Vietnam without a formal declaration of war

Answer

The power to end the draft

Answer

The power to negotiate a peace treaty with North Vietnam without the Senate

Answer

Authority to send troops to Korea

Question 25

How did the Compromise of 1877 affect Reconstruction?

Accepted Answer

Federal troops were withdrawn from the South, which effectively ended Reconstruction.

Answer

It gave formerly enslaved families forty acres of land each.

Answer

It passed the Fourteenth Amendment.

Answer

It placed the South under military rule for ten more years.

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