United States History: Chronology and Causation
Approach
Most questions test sequence and cause-and-effect, not trivia. Build a spine of dates and anchor events around it, then attach the reasons each event mattered.
Spine to know
Colonial era and mercantilism; Stamp Act (1765), Townshend duties (1767), Boston Tea Party (1773); Declaration of Independence (1776); Saratoga (1777) as the turning point that brought French alliance; Yorktown (1781); Constitution (1787) and Bill of Rights (1791); Louisiana Purchase (1803); War of 1812; Missouri Compromise (1820, the 36°30′ line); Mexican-American War (1846–48); Compromise of 1850; Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854); Dred Scott (1857); Civil War (1861–65); Emancipation Proclamation (effective January 1, 1863); Thirteenth (1865), Fourteenth (1868), Fifteenth (1870) Amendments; Reconstruction ends (1877); Sherman Antitrust Act (1890); Progressive era; U.S. entry into World War I (1917); New Deal (1933–39); World War II; Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan (1947); Brown v. Board (1954); Civil Rights Act (1964); Voting Rights Act (1965).
Traps
Dates off by a year; assuming the Emancipation Proclamation freed all enslaved people (it applied to rebelling states, not border states); confusing the Fourteenth (citizenship, equal protection) with the Fifteenth (voting); attributing New Deal programs to the wrong branch; sweeping firsts that are not true.
Worked example
Why did the Kansas-Nebraska Act intensify sectional conflict? It repealed the Missouri Compromise line and let settlers decide slavery by popular sovereignty, opening territory previously closed to slavery - which mobilized the Republican Party and preceded the violence of Bleeding Kansas. The answer requires the causal chain, not just the date.
Rule of thumb
When two events are listed, decide which is cause and which is consequence before choosing. If a choice merely restates a date without explaining significance, it is rarely the best answer.