American History
41 questions from the 2025 USCIS civics test
Questions about major events and people in American history from the colonial period to the present day. This section covers 41 questions on the founding of the nation, the Civil War, world wars, and the civil rights movement.
During your USCIS naturalization interview, the officer may ask questions from any of the sub-sections below. Each question lists every answer that USCIS considers acceptable, you only need to provide one correct answer. Answers separated by semicolons are alternative acceptable responses.
Colonial Period and Independence
- Question 58
What is one reason colonists came to America?
Answer: freedom; political liberty; religious freedom; economic opportunity; practice their religion; escape persecution
- Question 59
Who lived in America before the Europeans arrived?
Answer: American Indians; Native Americans
- Question 60
What group of people was taken to America and sold as slaves?
Answer: Africans; people from Africa
- Question 61
Why did the colonists fight the British?
Answer: because of high taxes (taxation without representation); because the British army stayed in their houses (boarding, quartering); because they didn’t have self-government
- Question 62
Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Answer: (Thomas) Jefferson
- Question 63
When was the Declaration of Independence adopted?
Answer: July 4, 1776
- Question 64
There were 13 original states. Name three.
Answer: New Hampshire; Massachusetts; Rhode Island; Connecticut; New York; New Jersey; Pennsylvania; Delaware; Maryland; Virginia; North Carolina; South Carolina; Georgia
- Question 65
What happened at the Constitutional Convention?
Answer: The Constitution was written.; The Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution.
- Question 66
When was the Constitution written?
Answer: 1787
- Question 67
The Federalist Papers supported the passage of the U.S. Constitution. Name one of the writers.
Answer: (James) Madison; (Alexander) Hamilton; (John) Jay; Publius
- Question 68
What is one thing Benjamin Franklin is famous for?
Answer: U.S. diplomat; oldest member of the Constitutional Convention; first Postmaster General of the United States; writer of “Poor Richard’s Almanac”; started the first free libraries
- Question 69
Who is the “Father of Our Country”?
Answer: (George) Washington
- Question 70
Who was the first President?
Answer: (George) Washington
1800s
- Question 71
What territory did the United States buy from France in 1803?
Answer: the Louisiana Territory; Louisiana
- Question 72
Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.
Answer: War of 1812; Mexican-American War; Civil War; Spanish-American War
- Question 73
Name the U.S. war between the North and the South.
Answer: the Civil War; the War between the States
- Question 74
Name one problem that led to the Civil War.
Answer: slavery; economic reasons; states’ rights
- Question 75
What was one important thing that Abraham Lincoln did?
Answer: freed the slaves (Emancipation Proclamation); saved (or preserved) the Union; led the United States during the Civil War
- Question 76
What did the Emancipation Proclamation do?
Answer: freed the slaves; freed slaves in the Confederacy; freed slaves in the Confederate states; freed slaves in most Southern states
- Question 77
What did Susan B. Anthony do?
Answer: fought for women’s rights; fought for civil rights
Recent American History
- Question 78
Name one war fought by the United States in the 1900s.
Answer: World War I; World War II; Korean War; Vietnam War; (Persian) Gulf War
- Question 79
Who was President during World War I?
Answer: (Woodrow) Wilson
- Question 80
Who was President during the Great Depression and World War II?
Answer: (Franklin) Roosevelt
- Question 81
Who did the United States fight in World War II?
Answer: Japan, Germany, and Italy
- Question 82
Before he was President, Eisenhower was a general. What war was he in?
Answer: World War II
- Question 83
During the Cold War, what was the main concern of the United States?
Answer: Communism
- Question 84
What movement tried to end racial discrimination?
Answer: civil rights (movement)
- Question 85
What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?
Answer: fought for civil rights; worked for equality for all Americans
- Question 86
What major event happened on September 11, 2001, in the United States?
Answer: Terrorists attacked the United States.; Terrorists took over two planes and flew them into the World Trade Center in New York City.; Terrorists took over a plane and flew it into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.; Terrorists took over a plane originally aimed at Washington, D.C., and crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.
- Question 87
Name one American Indian tribe in the United States.
Answer: Cherokee; Navajo; Sioux; Chippewa; Choctaw; Pueblo; Apache; Iroquois; Creek; Blackfeet; Seminole; Cheyenne; Arawak; Shawnee; Mohegan; Huron; Oneida; Lakota; Crow; Teton; Hopi; Inuit
Additional History Questions
- Question 113
Who was the second President of the United States?
Answer: (John) Adams
- Question 114
Who was the President during the War of 1812?
Answer: (James) Madison
- Question 115
The Civil War had many important events. Name one.
Answer: (Battle of) Fort Sumter; The Emancipation Proclamation; (Battle of) Vicksburg; (Battle of) Gettysburg; Sherman’s March; (Surrender at) Appomattox; (Battle of) Antietam/Sharpsburg; Lincoln was assassinated.
- Question 116
What did the 13th Amendment do?
Answer: freed the slaves; banned slavery; made slavery illegal
- Question 117
What did the 14th Amendment do?
Answer: gave citizenship to all persons born in the United States; gave all citizens equal protection under the law
- Question 118
What did the 15th Amendment do?
Answer: gave all men the right to vote; gave men of all races the right to vote
- Question 119
What did the 19th Amendment do?
Answer: gave women the right to vote; gave all women the right to vote
- Question 120
Name one leader of the Civil Rights movement.
Answer: Martin Luther King, Jr.; Rosa Parks; Cesar Chavez; Philip Randolph; Medgar Evers; Thurgood Marshall; Gloria Steinem; Malcolm X; Stokely Carmichael; W.E.B. Du Bois
- Question 121
What was the main reason the United States entered World War I?
Answer: Because Germany sank many American (civilian) ships.; Because the United States wanted to support the Allied Powers (England, France, Italy, and Russia).; Because Germany tried to get Mexico to declare war on the United States.
- Question 122
What was the main reason the United States entered World War II?
Answer: (bombing of) Pearl Harbor; The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.; The United States wanted to support the Allied Powers (England, France, and others).
- Question 123
Name one of the U.S. territories that existed before 1900.
Answer: Puerto Rico; Guam; Philippines; American Samoa
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