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TEXES Social Studies 4-8 Exam
Questions and Answers 100% Pass
Second Continental Congress - ✔✔A convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started
meeting in the spring of 1775 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Managed the Colonial war effort and moved
incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4,
1776.
Townshend Acts (1767) - ✔✔A series of British acts passed beginning in 1767 and relating to the British
American colonies in North America.
Thirteen Colonies - ✔✔A group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th
and 18th centuries that declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States of America.
Fluvial Processes - ✔✔Processes that are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and
landforms created by them. These landforms include Basins, Channels, Delta, Floodplain, Canyons,
Islands, Gully, Waterfalls, etc.
Aeolian Processes - ✔✔Processes pertaining to wind activity, specifically to the wind's ability to shape the
surface of the Earth. Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials and are effective agents in
regions with sparse vegetation, a lack of soil moisture and a large supply of unconsolidated sediments.
Aridification - ✔✔The process of a region becoming increasingly dry. Refers to long term change rather
than seasonal variation. Measured by the reduction of average soil moisture content.
Industrial Revolution - ✔✔The transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from 1760 to
1840. Included going from hand production to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron
Emily Charlene © 2025, All Rights Reserved.
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production, increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the factory
system. Textiles were the dominant industry. With the first cotton mill in 1733.
Cotton Gin - ✔✔Eli Whitney invented this in 1793 in America.
Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485-1528) - ✔✔An Italian explorer of North America in the service of King
Francis I of France. Explored the area between Florida and the St. Lawrence Seaway for France.
Samuel de Champlain (1574-1635 - ✔✔"The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer,
draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made from 21-29 trips
across the Atlantic, and founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608. Set up a fur empire.
Fr. Jacques Marquette (1637-1675) - ✔✔Was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first
European settlement, Sault Ste. Marie, and later founded St. Ignace, Michigan. In 1673 he and Louis Jolliet
were the first Europeans to explore and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River.
Rene-Robert de la Salle (1643-1687) - ✔✔He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and
Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. He claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for
France.
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) - ✔✔During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World
instead of arriving in Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he
named San Salvador. European explorer credited with establishing and documenting routes to the
Americas, securing lasting European ties to the Americas, and inaugurating a period of exploration,
conquest, and colonization that lasted for centuries.
Transatlantic Slave Trade - ✔✔Involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people,
mainly from Africa to the Americas, and then their sale there. The slave trade used mainly the triangular
trade route and its Middle Passage, and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
Emily Charlene © 2025, All Rights Reserved.
,3|Page
Juan Ponce de Leon (1474-1521) - ✔✔He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the
Spanish crown. He led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his
first voyage to the area in 1513.
Conquistador - ✔✔A term used to refer to the soldiers and explorers of the Spanish Empire or the
Portuguese Empire in a general sense.[1][2] During the Age of Discovery, they sailed beyond Europe to
the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Asia, conquering territory and opening trade routes. They colonized
much of the world for Spain and Portugal in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda (1494-1520) - ✔✔In 1519 he led several expeditions to map the western
coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico to Florida.
Panifilo de Narvaez (14-1528) - ✔✔He came to participate in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition
to Camagüey escorting Bartolomé de las Casas.
Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) - ✔✔A Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the
Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of
Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the
first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1488-1560) - ✔✔A Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four
survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the US Southwest, he
became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish
civilization in Mexico in 1536.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510-1554) - ✔✔A Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large
expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between
1540 and 1542. His expedition marked the first European sightings of the Grand Canyon and the
Colorado River, among other landmarks.
Emily Charlene © 2025, All Rights Reserved.
, 4|Page
Hernando de Soto (1495-1542) - ✔✔Led the first European expedition deep into the territory of the
modern-day United States (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and most likely Arkansas). He is the
first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.
Merchantilism - ✔✔A national economic policy designed to maximize the trade of a nation and,
historically, to maximize the accumulation of gold and silver. was dominant in modernized parts of
Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) - ✔✔An intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and
England that was never formally declared. The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and
began with England's military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of
Leicester in support of the resistance of the States General to Spanish Habsburg rule.
Slavery in the United States - ✔✔The modern conception of slavery in the United States was formalized
in 1640 (the John Punch hearing) and was fully entrenched in Virginia by 1660.
Virginia Company - ✔✔Refers collectively to two joint stock companies chartered under James I on 10
April 1606 with the goal of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.
American Revolution - ✔✔A colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American
Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of
America. They defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War in alliance with France and
others.
No Taxation Without Representation - ✔✔A slogan originating during the 1750s and 1760s that
summarized a primary grievance of the American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, which was one of
the major causes of the American Revolution.
Emily Charlene © 2025, All Rights Reserved.
TEXES Social Studies 4-8 Exam
Questions and Answers 100% Pass
Second Continental Congress - ✔✔A convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started
meeting in the spring of 1775 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Managed the Colonial war effort and moved
incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4,
1776.
Townshend Acts (1767) - ✔✔A series of British acts passed beginning in 1767 and relating to the British
American colonies in North America.
Thirteen Colonies - ✔✔A group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th
and 18th centuries that declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States of America.
Fluvial Processes - ✔✔Processes that are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and
landforms created by them. These landforms include Basins, Channels, Delta, Floodplain, Canyons,
Islands, Gully, Waterfalls, etc.
Aeolian Processes - ✔✔Processes pertaining to wind activity, specifically to the wind's ability to shape the
surface of the Earth. Winds may erode, transport, and deposit materials and are effective agents in
regions with sparse vegetation, a lack of soil moisture and a large supply of unconsolidated sediments.
Aridification - ✔✔The process of a region becoming increasingly dry. Refers to long term change rather
than seasonal variation. Measured by the reduction of average soil moisture content.
Industrial Revolution - ✔✔The transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from 1760 to
1840. Included going from hand production to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron
Emily Charlene © 2025, All Rights Reserved.
,2|Page
production, increasing use of steam power, the development of machine tools and the rise of the factory
system. Textiles were the dominant industry. With the first cotton mill in 1733.
Cotton Gin - ✔✔Eli Whitney invented this in 1793 in America.
Giovanni da Verrazzano (1485-1528) - ✔✔An Italian explorer of North America in the service of King
Francis I of France. Explored the area between Florida and the St. Lawrence Seaway for France.
Samuel de Champlain (1574-1635 - ✔✔"The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer,
draftsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat, and chronicler. He made from 21-29 trips
across the Atlantic, and founded New France and Quebec City on July 3, 1608. Set up a fur empire.
Fr. Jacques Marquette (1637-1675) - ✔✔Was a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first
European settlement, Sault Ste. Marie, and later founded St. Ignace, Michigan. In 1673 he and Louis Jolliet
were the first Europeans to explore and map the northern portion of the Mississippi River.
Rene-Robert de la Salle (1643-1687) - ✔✔He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and
Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. He claimed the entire Mississippi River basin for
France.
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) - ✔✔During his first voyage in 1492, he reached the New World
instead of arriving in Japan as he had intended, landing on an island in the Bahamas archipelago that he
named San Salvador. European explorer credited with establishing and documenting routes to the
Americas, securing lasting European ties to the Americas, and inaugurating a period of exploration,
conquest, and colonization that lasted for centuries.
Transatlantic Slave Trade - ✔✔Involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people,
mainly from Africa to the Americas, and then their sale there. The slave trade used mainly the triangular
trade route and its Middle Passage, and existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
Emily Charlene © 2025, All Rights Reserved.
,3|Page
Juan Ponce de Leon (1474-1521) - ✔✔He became the first Governor of Puerto Rico by appointment of the
Spanish crown. He led the first known European expedition to La Florida, which he named during his
first voyage to the area in 1513.
Conquistador - ✔✔A term used to refer to the soldiers and explorers of the Spanish Empire or the
Portuguese Empire in a general sense.[1][2] During the Age of Discovery, they sailed beyond Europe to
the Americas, Oceania, Africa and Asia, conquering territory and opening trade routes. They colonized
much of the world for Spain and Portugal in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
Alonso Alvarez de Pineda (1494-1520) - ✔✔In 1519 he led several expeditions to map the western
coastlines of the Gulf of Mexico to Florida.
Panifilo de Narvaez (14-1528) - ✔✔He came to participate in the conquest of Cuba and led an expedition
to Camagüey escorting Bartolomé de las Casas.
Hernan Cortes (1485-1547) - ✔✔A Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the
Aztec Empire and brought large portions of what is now mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of
Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the
first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (1488-1560) - ✔✔A Spanish explorer of the New World, and one of four
survivors of the 1527 Narváez expedition. During eight years of traveling across the US Southwest, he
became a trader and faith healer to various Native American tribes before reconnecting with Spanish
civilization in Mexico in 1536.
Francisco Vasquez de Coronado (1510-1554) - ✔✔A Spanish conquistador and explorer who led a large
expedition from Mexico to present-day Kansas through parts of the southwestern United States between
1540 and 1542. His expedition marked the first European sightings of the Grand Canyon and the
Colorado River, among other landmarks.
Emily Charlene © 2025, All Rights Reserved.
, 4|Page
Hernando de Soto (1495-1542) - ✔✔Led the first European expedition deep into the territory of the
modern-day United States (Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and most likely Arkansas). He is the
first European documented as having crossed the Mississippi River.
Merchantilism - ✔✔A national economic policy designed to maximize the trade of a nation and,
historically, to maximize the accumulation of gold and silver. was dominant in modernized parts of
Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
Anglo-Spanish War (1585-1604) - ✔✔An intermittent conflict between the kingdoms of Spain and
England that was never formally declared. The war was punctuated by widely separated battles, and
began with England's military expedition in 1585 to the Netherlands under the command of the Earl of
Leicester in support of the resistance of the States General to Spanish Habsburg rule.
Slavery in the United States - ✔✔The modern conception of slavery in the United States was formalized
in 1640 (the John Punch hearing) and was fully entrenched in Virginia by 1660.
Virginia Company - ✔✔Refers collectively to two joint stock companies chartered under James I on 10
April 1606 with the goal of establishing settlements on the coast of North America.
American Revolution - ✔✔A colonial revolt that took place between 1765 and 1783. The American
Patriots in the Thirteen Colonies won independence from Great Britain, becoming the United States of
America. They defeated the British in the American Revolutionary War in alliance with France and
others.
No Taxation Without Representation - ✔✔A slogan originating during the 1750s and 1760s that
summarized a primary grievance of the American colonists in the Thirteen Colonies, which was one of
the major causes of the American Revolution.
Emily Charlene © 2025, All Rights Reserved.
