8th Grade Social Studies Vocabulary Practice

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Charter

• economic policy where colonies serve as a source of raw materials to increase the wealth and maintain a favorable balance of trade for the “mother” country

• Exploration

• traveling to new territories for the purpose of discovery

• Representative Government

• state sponsored settlement of people to new territories

• Mercantilism

• political system where policies are created by representatives selected by the people

• Colonization

• a contract given to someone to establish a colony

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Region

• a geographic area that share similar characteristics

• Plantation

• process of collecting money from citizens in order to fund government expenses

• Political Revolution

• refusal to buy something as a form of protest

• Boycott

• large agricultural enterprise where crops are grown for sale

• Taxation

• changing from one governmental structure to another 

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Loyalists

• American colonists who supported independence from Great Britain

• Civil Disobedience

• a complaint

• Confederation

• refusal to obey laws as a form of protest

• Patriots

• an alliance of states created for a common purpose

• Grievance

• American colonists who did not support independence from Great Britain

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Constitution

• an addition to a document

• Ratification

• document outlining the fundamental principles and structures of a government

• Compromise

• approval of a document or policy

• Amendment

• an agreement between opposing parties

• Natural Rights

• basic rights people are born with, also called unalienable rights

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Political Party

• forcing someone into service for an organization or government

• Federalism

• independent power

• Soveriegnty

• groups of people sharing a common political philosophy and support for candidates with that philosophy

• Impressment

• political system in which representatives are responsible for governing

• Republic

• political system in which power is shared between a national centralized government and a collection of smaller state governments

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Foreign Policy

• government actions in relations to other countries

• Isolationism

• policy of separating and not participation in international relationships

• Spoils System

• the idea that states can refuse to follow federal laws

• Nullification

• the practice of public officials giving jobs or favors to supporters

• Neutrality

• remaining independent and not taking sides in an issue

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Manifest Destiny

• the right to vote

• Pioneers

• idea that the United States should expand to include the territory from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean

• Suffrage

• powers given to the states as interpreted in the U.S. Constitution, generally seen as a check to federal powers

• Free Enterprise

• market system operating free from government intervention  

• States' Rights

• someone who is first to settle a region or enter into a project

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Abolition

• the process of migration to large, densely populated areas, generally cities

• Innovation

• legally ending of the practice of enslaving people

• Industrialism

• the process of economic development based on factory production

• Mechanization

• creating new ideas, products or methods

• Urbanization

• using machines in the production process

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Civil Disobedience

• an alliance formed for a common purpose

• Reconstruction

• the withdrawal of a state from a union

• Secession

• concern for regional needs and interests

• Confederacy

• process of rebuilding the Union with the readmission of the southern states

• Sectionalism

• refusing to obey laws believed to be unjust

Match the following Vocabulary to its corresponding definition.

• Homestead

• a tract of land with a home on it

• Carpetbagger

• the practice of receiving a portion of the crops in exchange for living and farming on a large estate

• Sharecropping

• referred to Northerners who moved to the South following the Civil War to take advantage of the unsettled political situation

• Scalawag

• referred to Southerners who cooperated with federal authorities during Reconstruction, often gaining an advantage