AP®︎ US History: Unit 5 Practice Test
Prepare for your quiz, test, or the AP exam with focused practice questions on Unit 5 of AP US History – Period 5 (1844–1877).
Questions List
Unit 5 (All Topics)
Question 1 Topic 5.1Easy
This question tests the following: KC-5.1.I
What was the main belief behind Manifest Destiny?
What You’re Being Tested On:
Explore the learning objectives taken directly from the College Board’s AP® U.S. History Curriculum. Ensure you’re prepared for the exact topics covered on the AP® exam, in-class tests, and quizzes, and gain confidence in your mastery of the material.
Unit 5: Period 5 (1844–1877)
This unit traces the expansion of U.S. territory, the growing sectional conflict over slavery, and the Civil War. It also examines the successes and failures of Reconstruction and efforts to rebuild the South and redefine citizenship.
Topic 5.1: Contextualizing Period 5
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective A
Explain the context in which sectional conflict emerged from 1844 to 1877.
Review: KC-5.1
The United States became more connected with the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.
Review: KC-5.1.I
Popular enthusiasm for U.S. expansion, bolstered by economic and security interests, resulted in the acquisition of new territories, substantial migration westward, and new overseas initiatives.
Review: KC-5.1.II
In the 1840s and 1850s, Americans continued to debate questions about rights and citizenship for various groups of U.S. inhabitants.
Review: KC-5.2
Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural, and political issues led the nation into civil war.
Review: KC-5.2.I
Ideological and economic differences over slavery produced an array of diverging responses from Americans in the North and the South.
Review: KC-5.2.II
Debates over slavery came to dominate political discussion in the 1850s, culminating in the bitter election of 1860 and the secession of Southern states.
Review: KC-5.3
The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship rights.
Review: KC-5.3.I
The North’s greater manpower and industrial resources, the leadership of Abraham Lincoln and others, and the decision to emancipate enslaved people eventually led to the Union military victory over the Confederacy in the devastating Civil War.
Review: KC-5.3.II
Reconstruction and the Civil War ended slavery, altered relationships between the states and the federal government, and led to debates over new definitions of citizenship, particularly regarding the rights of African Americans, women, and other minorities.
Topic 5.2: Manifest Destiny
Thematic Focus: Geography and the EnvironmentGEO
Geographic and environmental factors, including competition over and debates about natural resources, shape the development of America and foster regional diversity. The development of America impacts the environment and reshapes geography, which leads to debates about environmental and geographic issues.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective B
Explain the causes and effects of westward expansion from 1844 to 1877.
Historical Developments: KC-5.1.I.A
The desire for access to natural and mineral resources and the hope of many settlers for economic opportunities or religious refuge led to an increased migration to and settlement in the West.
Historical Developments: KC-5.1.I.B
Advocates of annexing western lands argued that Manifest Destiny and the superiority of American institutions compelled the United States to expand its borders westward to the Pacific Ocean; however, this frequently provoked competition and violent conflict.
Historical Developments: KC-5.1.I.D
Westward migration was boosted during and after the Civil War by the passage of new legislation promoting western transportation and economic development.
Historical Developments: KC-5.1.I.E
U.S. interest in expanding trade led to economic, diplomatic, and cultural initiatives to create more ties with Asia.
Topic 5.3: The Mexican–American War
Thematic Focus: America in the WorldWOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations, and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly important role in the world.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective C
Explain the causes and effects of the Mexican–American War.
Historical Developments: KC-5.1.I.C
The United States added large territories in the West through victory in the Mexican American War and diplomatic negotiations raising questions about the status of slavery, American Indians, and Mexicans in the newly acquired lands.
Historical Developments: KC-5.1.II.C
U.S. government interaction and conflict with Mexican Americans and American Indians increased in regions newly taken from American Indians and Mexico, altering these groups’ economic self-sufficiency and cultures.
Topic 5.4: The Compromise of 1850
Thematic Focus: American and National IdentityNAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity, and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective D
Explain the similarities and differences in how regional attitudes affected federal policy in the period after the Mexican–American War.
Historical Developments: KC-5.2.II.A
The Mexican Cession led to heated controversies over whether to allow slavery in the newly acquired territories.
Historical Developments: KC-5.2.II.B.i
The courts and national leaders made a variety of attempts to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories, including the Compromise of 1850.
Topic 5.5: Sectional Conflict: Regional Differences
Thematic Focus: American and Regional CultureARC
Creative expression, demographic change, philosophy, religious beliefs, scientific ideas, social mores, and technology shape national, regional, and group cultures in America, and these varying cultures often play a role in shaping government policy and developing economic systems.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective E
Explain the effects of immigration from various parts of the world on American culture from 1844 to 1877.
Historical Developments: KC-5.1.II.A
Substantial numbers of international migrants continued to arrive in the United States from Europe and Asia, mainly from Ireland and Germany, often settling in ethnic communities where they could preserve elements of their languages and customs.
Historical Developments: KC-5.1.II.B
A strongly anti-Catholic nativist movement arose that was aimed at limiting new immigrants’ political power and cultural influence.
Thematic Focus: Social StructuresSOC
Social categories, roles, and practices are created, maintained, challenged, and transformed throughout American history, shaping government policy, economic systems, culture, and the lives of citizens.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective F
Explain how regional differences related to slavery caused tension in the years leading up to the Civil War.
Historical Developments: KC-5.2.I.A
The North’s expanding manufacturing economy relied on free labor in contrast to the Southern economy’s dependence on enslaved labor. Some Northerners did not object to slavery on principle but claimed that slavery would undermine the free labor market. As a result, a free-soil movement arose that portrayed the expansion of slavery as incompatible with free labor.
Historical Developments: KC-5.2.I.B
African American and white abolitionists, although a minority in the North, mounted a highly visible campaign against slavery, presenting moral arguments against the institution, assisting escapes, and sometimes expressing a willingness to use violence to achieve their goals.
Historical Developments: KC-5.2.I.C
Defenders of slavery based their arguments on racial doctrines, the view that slavery was a positive social good, and the belief that slavery and states’ rights were protected by the Constitution.
Topic 5.6: Failure of Compromise
Thematic Focus: Politics and PowerPCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions, political parties, and the rights of citizens.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective G
Explain the political causes of the Civil War.
Historical Developments: KC-5.2.II.B.ii
The courts and national leaders made a variety of attempts to resolve the issue of slavery in the territories, including the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision, but these ultimately failed to reduce conflict.
Historical Developments: KC-5.2.II.C
The Second Party System ended when the issues of slavery and anti-immigrant nativism weakened loyalties to the two major parties and fostered the emergence of sectional parties, most notably the Republican Party in the North.
Topic 5.7: Election of 1860 and Secession
Thematic Focus: Politics and PowerPCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions, political parties, and the rights of citizens.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective H
Describe the effects of Lincoln’s election.
Historical Developments: KC-5.2.II.D
Abraham Lincoln’s victory on the Republicans’ free-soil platform in the presidential election of 1860 was accomplished without any Southern electoral votes. After a series of contested debates about secession, most slave states voted to secede from the Union, precipitating the Civil War.
Topic 5.8: Military Conflict in the Civil War
Thematic Focus: America in the WorldWOR
Diplomatic, economic, cultural, and military interactions between empires, nations, and peoples shape the development of America and America’s increasingly important role in the world.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective I
Explain the various factors that contributed to the Union victory in the Civil War.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.I.A
Both the Union and the Confederacy mobilized their economies and societies to wage the war even while facing considerable home front opposition.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.I.D
Although the Confederacy showed military initiative and daring early in the war, the Union ultimately succeeded due to improvements in leadership and strategy, key victories, greater resources, and the wartime destruction of the South’s infrastructure.
Topic 5.9: Government Policies During the Civil War
Thematic Focus: American and National IdentityNAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity, and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective J
Explain how Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War impacted American ideals over the course of the war.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.I.B
Lincoln and most Union supporters began the Civil War to preserve the Union, but Lincoln’s decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation reframed the purpose of the war and helped prevent the Confederacy from gaining full diplomatic support from European powers. Many African Americans fled southern plantations and enlisted in the Union Army, helping to undermine the Confederacy.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.I.C
Lincoln sought to reunify the country and used speeches such as the Gettysburg Address to portray the struggle against slavery as the fulfillment of America’s founding democratic ideals.
Topic 5.10: Reconstruction
Thematic Focus: Politics and PowerPCE
Debates fostered by social and political groups about the role of government in American social, political, and economic life shape government policy, institutions, political parties, and the rights of citizens.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective K
Explain the effects of government policy during Reconstruction on society from 1865 to 1877.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.II. ii
Reconstruction altered relationships between the states and the federal government and led to debates over new definitions of citizenship, particularly regarding the rights of African Americans, women, and other minorities.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.II.A
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, while the 14th and 15th amendments granted African Americans citizenship, equal protection under the laws, and voting rights.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.II.B
The women’s rights movement was both emboldened and divided over the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.II.C
Efforts by radical and moderate Republicans to change the balance of power between Congress and the presidency and to reorder race relations in the defeated South yielded some short-term successes. Reconstruction opened up political opportunities and other leadership roles to formerly enslaved persons but it ultimately failed, due both to determined Southern resistance and the North’s waning resolve.
Topic 5.11: Failure of Reconstruction
Thematic Focus: American and National IdentityNAT
The development of and debates about democracy, freedom, citizenship, diversity, and individualism shape American national identity, cultural values, and beliefs about American exceptionalism, and in turn, these ideas shape political institutions and society. Throughout American history, notions of national identity and culture have coexisted with varying degrees of regional and group identities.
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective L
Explain how and why Reconstruction resulted in continuity and change in regional and national understandings of what it meant to be American.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.II.D
Southern plantation owners continued to own the majority of the region’s land even after Reconstruction. Formerly enslaved persons sought land ownership but generally fell short of self-sufficiency, as an exploitative and soil-intensive sharecropping system limited blacks’ and poor whites’ access to land in the South.
Historical Developments: KC-5.3.II.E
Segregation, violence, Supreme Court decisions, and local political tactics progressively stripped away African American rights, but the 14th and 15th amendments eventually became the basis for court decisions upholding civil rights in the 20th century.
Topic 5.12: Comparison in Period 5
Learning Objective: Unit 5: Learning Objective M
Compare the relative significance of the effects of the Civil War on American values.
Review: KC-5.1
The United States became more connected with the world, pursued an expansionist foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere, and emerged as the destination for many migrants from other countries.
Review: KC-5.1.I
Popular enthusiasm for U.S. expansion, bolstered by economic and security interests, resulted in the acquisition of new territories, substantial migration westward, and new overseas initiatives.
Review: KC-5.1.II
In the 1840s and 1850s, Americans continued to debate questions about rights and citizenship for various groups of U.S. inhabitants.
Review: KC-5.2
Intensified by expansion and deepening regional divisions, debates over slavery and other economic, cultural, and political issues led the nation into civil war.
Review: KC-5.2.I
Ideological and economic differences over slavery produced an array of diverging responses from Americans in the North and the South.
Review: KC-5.2.II
Debates over slavery came to dominate political discussion in the 1850s, culminating in the bitter election of 1860 and the secession of Southern states.
Review: KC-5.3
The Union victory in the Civil War and the contested reconstruction of the South settled the issues of slavery and secession, but left unresolved many questions about the power of the federal government and citizenship rights.
Review: KC-5.3.I
The North’s greater manpower and industrial resources, the leadership of Abraham Lincoln and others, and the decision to emancipate enslaved people eventually led to the Union military victory over the Confederacy in the devastating Civil War.
Review: KC-5.3.II.i
Reconstruction and the Civil War ended slavery, altered relationships between the states and the federal government, and led to debates over new definitions of citizenship, particularly regarding the rights of African Americans, women, and other minorities.
