TExES Exam Social Studies 7-12 6 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which economic principle holds that a country should export more than it imports in order to accumulate national wealth, and was the dominant trade policy of European powers in the 16th–18th centuries?
- Laissez-faire capitalism
- Mercantilism (Correct answer)
- Comparative advantage
- Keynesian economics
Correct answer: Mercantilism
Mercantilism held that national wealth depended on accumulating precious metals and maintaining a favorable balance of trade (more exports than imports). European colonial powers used this doctrine to justify extracting resources from colonies and restricting colonial trade to benefit the mother country.
Question 2: The Emancipation Proclamation issued by President Lincoln in 1863 applied to enslaved people in:
- All states, including border states loyal to the Union
- Only Confederate states still in rebellion against the Union (Correct answer)
- Only states that had already been recaptured by Union forces
- The entire United States effective immediately upon signing
Correct answer: Only Confederate states still in rebellion against the Union
The Emancipation Proclamation declared enslaved people free only in Confederate states that were still in rebellion. It deliberately excluded border states loyal to the Union (such as Kentucky and Missouri) and areas already under Union control, making it primarily a war measure and political strategy rather than a universal abolition decree.
Question 3: In geography, the term 'push-pull theory' is used to explain:
- The gravitational forces that shape tectonic plate movement
- The factors that drive people to leave one place and attract them to another during migration (Correct answer)
- The relationship between supply and demand in international trade
- The influence of ocean currents on coastal climate patterns
Correct answer: The factors that drive people to leave one place and attract them to another during migration
Push-pull theory describes human migration by identifying 'push' factors that drive people away from a place (poverty, war, famine) and 'pull' factors that attract them to a destination (economic opportunity, safety, family ties). It is a foundational concept in human geography.
Question 4: The principle of 'popular sovereignty' as applied to U.S. territories in the 1850s meant that:
- The president alone had the power to decide the status of new territories
- Congress would vote on the expansion of slavery territory by territory
- Residents of a territory would vote to decide whether to allow slavery (Correct answer)
- The Supreme Court would determine the constitutionality of slavery in each territory
Correct answer: Residents of a territory would vote to decide whether to allow slavery
Popular sovereignty, championed by Senator Stephen Douglas, held that the settlers of each new territory should decide for themselves whether to permit slavery rather than having Congress impose a decision. It was embedded in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 and led directly to the violent conflict known as 'Bleeding Kansas.'
Question 5: Which event most directly caused the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991?
- The Soviet defeat in the Korean War
- The failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev combined with declarations of independence by Soviet republics (Correct answer)
- The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan that stretched Soviet military resources
- The assassination of Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev
Correct answer: The failed coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev combined with declarations of independence by Soviet republics
The August 1991 coup attempt against Gorbachev by hardline Communist officials backfired, discrediting the Communist Party. In its aftermath, Soviet republics rapidly declared independence. By December 1991, the Commonwealth of Independent States had replaced the USSR, and Gorbachev resigned, formally ending the Soviet Union.
Question 6: The Columbian Exchange refers to:
- The treaty that divided the New World between Spain and Portugal in 1494
- The trade network linking North American fur traders with European markets in the 1600s
- The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and cultures between the Americas and the Old World following 1492 (Correct answer)
- The diplomatic correspondence between Columbus and the Spanish Crown regarding colonization rights
Correct answer: The transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and cultures between the Americas and the Old World following 1492
The Columbian Exchange describes the widespread transfer of plants (potatoes, tomatoes, maize), animals (horses, cattle), diseases (smallpox), and peoples between the Americas and Europe, Africa, and Asia after Columbus's 1492 voyage. It had profound and lasting demographic, ecological, and economic consequences on both sides of the Atlantic.
TExES Exam Social Studies 7-12 6
Which economic principle holds that a country should export more than it imports in order to accumulate national wealth, and was the dominant trade policy of European powers in the 16th–18th centuries?