AP US History · Topic 3.7
The Articles of Confederation Practice
Part of Period 3: 1754–1800.
Practice questions
9
Sample questions
5 of 9 — sign in to practice the rest with adaptive difficulty and mastery tracking.
Sample 1difficulty 2/5
"Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." — Articles of Confederation, Article II (ratified 1781)
This article most directly reflects which concern shared by the state legislatures that ratified it?
- Acheck_circle
Fear that a strong central government would replicate the perceived abuses of Parliament
- B
Opposition to forming any standing peacetime army
- C
Hostility toward the establishment of an independent federal judiciary
- D
Anxiety about French military intervention in the Mississippi Valley
Why
Having just rebelled against a distant central authority, states protected their sovereignty in Article II out of fear of a powerful national government. The other concerns existed in the 1780s but are not what Article II specifically addresses.
- A
Sample 2difficulty 3/5
The Articles of Confederation (ratified 1781)
- A
Created a strong central government with broad taxing and military powers
- B
Granted royal authority to a hereditary American monarch chosen by Congress
- Ccheck_circle
Created a weak central government with limited powers; states retained sovereignty
- D
Established slavery as a permanent legal institution across all the states
Why
The national government couldn't tax, regulate trade, or enforce laws; led to crises that prompted the Constitution.
- A
Sample 3difficulty 3/5
"There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided always, That any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid." — Northwest Ordinance, Article VI, July 13, 1787
This article most clearly reveals which feature of the politics of slavery in 1787?
- Acheck_circle
Sectional compromise that simultaneously restricted slavery's expansion and protected slaveholder claims
- B
An emerging national consensus that slavery would soon be abolished everywhere
- C
A complete prohibition on slavery in all territories acquired by the United States
- D
Federal authorization for the international slave trade until 1808
Why
The article banned slavery north of the Ohio while explicitly preserving fugitive-slave rendition — a sectional compromise that mirrored the simultaneous Constitutional Convention. There was no abolition consensus, the ban applied only to this territory, and the 1808 slave-trade clause appears in the Constitution, not the Ordinance.
- A
Sample 4difficulty 3/5
The provision highlighted in the diagram reflects which goal of the Confederation Congress?
- Acheck_circle
Promoting public education through revenue from designated lands
- B
Maintaining military bases in the Northwest Territory
- C
Reserving lands exclusively for Native American tribes
- D
Funding the national debt by selling all sections to land speculators
Why
The Land Ordinance of 1785 set aside section 16 of every township to fund public schools—an early federal commitment to education.
- A
Sample 5difficulty 3/5
"Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled." — Articles of Confederation, Article II (ratified 1781)
Which crisis of the 1780s most directly exposed the practical limits of the principle articulated here?
- Acheck_circle
Shays's Rebellion's demonstration that Congress could not raise force to suppress unrest
- B
The Treaty of Greenville's settlement of Ohio Valley conflicts
- C
The XYZ Affair's diplomatic confrontation with France
- D
Hamilton's funding-and-assumption plan in the First Congress
Why
Shays's Rebellion (1786-87) showed the Confederation could not coerce states or raise revenue/troops, accelerating calls for constitutional revision. The other events occurred under the new Constitution (1790s), so they cannot have exposed limits of the Articles.
- A