CSET Practice Test History Subtest I

The Bill of Rights The First 10 Amendments to the U.S.
Constitution 

On Sept. 25, 1789, the First Congress of the United States
proposed to the state legislatures 12 amendments to the
Constitution that met arguments most frequently advanced
against its ratification.

The first two proposed amendments, which concerned the
number of constituents for each Representative and the
compensation of Congressmen, were rejected. Articles 3 to
12, however, were approved by three-fourths of the state
legislatures; they constitute the first 10 amendments of
the Constitution, known as the "Bill of Rights."

The full text of the preamble and Bill of Rights follow: 

The Preamble to the Bill Of Rights 

Congress of the United States begun and held at the City
of New York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one
thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.

The Conventions of a number of the States, having at the
time of their adopting the Constitution expressed a desire
in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its
powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses
should be added: And as extending the ground of public
confidence in the Government will best ensure the
beneficent ends of its institution. Resolved by the Senate
and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses
concurring that the following Articles be proposed to the
Legislatures of the several states as Amendments to the
Constitution of the United States, all or any of which
articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said
Legislatures to be valid to all intents and purposes as
part of the said Constitution. viz. Articles in addition
to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States
of America, proposed by Congress and Ratified by the
Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth
Article of the original Constitution.

Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or
of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances. 

Amendment II A well regulated militia, being necessary to
the security of a free state, the right of the people to
keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 

Amendment III No soldier shall, in time of peace be
quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner,
nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by
law. 

Amendment IV The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable
searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no
warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported
by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the
place to be searched, and the persons or things to be
seized. 

Amendment V No person shall be held to answer for a
capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a
presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases
arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia,
when in actual service in time of war or public danger;
nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be
twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be
compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against
himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law; nor shall private property be
taken for public use, without just compensation. 

Amendment VI In all criminal prosecutions, the accused
shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an
impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime
shall have been committed, which district shall have been
previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with
the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for
obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the
assistance of counsel for his defense. 

Amendment VII In suits at common law, where the value in
controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of
trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a
jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the
United States, than according to the rules of the common
law. 

Amendment VIII Excessive bail shall not be required, nor
excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments
inflicted. 

Amendment IX The enumeration in the Constitution, of
certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or
disparage others retained by the people. 

Amendment X The powers not delegated to the United States
by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states,
are reserved to the states respectively, or to the
people.

Pre-Columbian Art and Architecture 

Pre-Columbian art and architecture are works of art and
structures created in Central and South America before the
arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere. For many
years the regions that are now Mexico and Guatemala and
the Andean region of South America had been the cradle of
indigenous civilizations whose remains bear witness to an
exceptional degree of artistic advancement.

Native American art in North America North American Native
art, diverse traditional arts of Native North Americans.
In recent years Native American arts have become
commodities collected and marketed by nonindigenous
Americans and Europeans. Originally, these objects were
produced in different cultural contexts and for altogether
different purposes. In many cases native peoples endowed
utilitarian objects with aesthetic qualities not strictly
related to the objects' primary function. In addition,
some groups produced articles symbolizing status positions
or items of religious significance.

Characteristic Objects The material culture of the Eastern
Woodlands groups (such as the Cherokee and Iroquois), for
example, included decorated pottery and baskets, quillwork
and beadwork, birchbark utensils, plaited sashes, and
carved wood ritual masks. Early Woodland cultures,
including the Adena and Hopewell, are renowned for their
elaborate grave offerings, including copper plates and
earspools, objects made of other minerals (e.g. mica,
silver, meteoric iron), shell and pearl beads, and ceramic
vessels and figurines.

The mainstay of life for the Native Americans of the Great
Plains (such as the Arapaho, Blackfoot, Crow, and Sioux)
was the buffalo, whose skin, both rawhide and tanned, was
used for clothing, containers, tepee covers, and shields.
Triangular and quadrangular designs were often painted or
embroidered on these items, with beads and porcupine
quills. Featherwork, of which the familiar "war bonnet" is
a prime example, was lavish. California, Great Basin, and
Plateau groups (Pomo, Nez-Percé, Paiute) lived by
gathering, hunting, and some fishing. They developed
basketry, especially in N and Central California, as a
highly refined art. Using a great variety of materials,
these groups created many different basketry forms and
techniques to make such items as baby carriers, collecting
and winnowing baskets, fish weirs, and hats. As cooking
and serving containers, the baskets were watertight. They
also fashioned ceremonial and "gift" baskets imbued with
religious significance. Featherwork was used for
headdresses, capes, skirts, and mantles, in dance
costumes, and as decoration, together with beads, on
baskets.

In the Southwest, Native Americans generally practiced
agriculture and lived in settled villages. In that region
pottery making, particularly of jars and bowls, is still
today a highly developed art with a rich tradition
extending back to pre-Columbian times. An art of strong,
graphic, geometric design developed for pottery
decoration. Southwestern groups cultivated cotton to be
spun into yarn, and used a backstrap loom with heddles
prior to European contact. The Spaniards brought sheep to
the region, which the Navajo adopted for weaving
intricately patterned woolen rugs and blankets. Many
designs for blankets were adapted from the ritual
sandpaintings of the Navajo. The Hopi and Zuni developed
brilliantly carved and ornamented kachina dolls to
represent living spirits; these are greatly valued by
collectors today. After the Spanish conquest,
silverworking evolved among the Southwestern Pueblo
groups, especially among the Navajo, Zuni, and Hopi, who
perfected it to the level of fine art, largely as jewelry.

On the heavily forested Northwest Coast, the Native
American groups (Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl,
Nootka, and Salish) developed elaborate woodcarving
techniques used to fabricate tools, houses, huge dugout
canoes, totem poles, and other heraldic and ritual posts,
as well as outstanding masks, bowls, and ladles. Human and
animal figures were stylized to abstraction in this work.
In addition, they made superb basketry and clothing by
twining, and produced metalwork weapons and jewelry. In
Arctic regions the skin and fur garments of Eskimo groups
were elaborately tailored and occasionally decorated.

Eskimos carved sculptures of Arctic animal life (including
seals, walruses, and polar bears) and hunting motifs,
using stone, ivory, and bone, and made elaborate
ceremonial masks. The subjects of their work were chosen
from their extensive mythology as well as their everyday
experience.

The Effects of European Contact It is important to note
that prior to European contact, Native American groups did
not generally produce art for its own sake. Objects, often
utilitarian in function, were adorned with symbolic
elements drawn from their daily lives or cosmologies. In
other instances minute differences in design motifs on
clothing or residential structures served as
differentiating mechanisms, rendering the identity of the
group immediately apparent to knowledgeable outsiders.
Standards of beauty, to the extent that they were
considered at all, were based on traditional notions, not
on innovation or experimentation away from the cultural
norm.

With the coming of European populations and the
devastation of Native American cultures, artifacts were
avidly sought for museum and private collections. That
early collectors attributed great value to often mundane
objects almost certainly struck historic Native Americans
as odd, so that when the articles were not stolen outright
they were usually acquired by buyers at "bargain" rates.
This has provoked numerous conflicts in recent years as
Native Americans become increasingly vocal in calling for
the return of museum items symbolizing their cultural
heritage. In recent years the abject poverty of surviving
Native American populations, combined with the growing
demand for artisans' commodities in industrialized
countries, has stimulated the emergence of increasing
numbers of North American native artisans. Art has thus
become a cottage industry serving tourist markets as well
as demand by more discriminating collectors. Among the
most sought-after articles are works of jewelry, Eskimo
sculpture, as well as the textiles and ceramics of the
Southwestern groups.

Major Collections Museums with major collections of North
American native art include the American Museum of Natural
History, New York City; Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago; National Museum of the American Indian,
Smithsonian Institution, New York City; National Museum of
Canada, Ottawa; Peabody Museum of Archaeology and
Ethnology, Harvard, Cambridge, Mass.; Provincial Museum,
Victoria, British Columbia; Robert H. Lowie Museum of
Anthropology, Univ. of California, Berkeley.

The Cultures of Central America The Maya The Maya occupied
the general area of Yucatán and adjacent parts of Central
America from very early times. Their roots were in the
Archaic period (c.2000 B.C.), but it was only during the
Late Formative (300 B.C.-A.D. 150) and the Proto-Classic
(A.D. 150-300) periods that the traits associated with the
Classic Maya were developed. Their greatest artistic
achievements included their elaborate calendar, writing,
palaces and temple pyramids with vaulted rooms made of
limestone, polychrome pottery, stone stelae, and stylized
wall paintings and bas-reliefs.

The Classic Maya (A.D. 300-900) was the apex of Maya
civilization and is described as that period when the Maya
inscribed the "Long Count Calendar" on their monuments.
The remains of Bonampak, with its famous murals, can be
dated to shortly after 800. Maya cities were ceremonial
centers, and some of the edifices may be more properly
identified as sculptured monuments. Maya architectural
styles are found in three main regions: the Petén district
(Uaxactún and Tikal); the cities of the river valleys,
such as Piedras Negras and Palenque; and the cities of
central and N Yucatán (Uxmal).

In the valley of the Motagua River to the south are Copán
and Quiriguá, where sculpture flourished in the form of
huge, elaborately carved stone stelae; more delicate forms
and a refined spatial sense are evident in the famous
stucco sculpture of Palenque and in the airiness and grace
of its buildings. In the flat, dry country of N Yucatán,
Maya architecture underwent changes in style. The erection
of stone stelae was largely abandoned, and decoration,
notably at Uxmal, became geometric. The cause of the
collapse of the Maya civilization is not precisely
understood. The culture persisted over so long a period
that it is easier to understand the rest of Mesoamerican
art and culture from the framework of Maya chronology.

The Olmec The Olmec civilization, to the west, in the area
of Veracruz and Tabasco, Mexico, was developing in the
Formative period. Specifically, the period 800 to 400 B.C.
marks the finest period of Olmec art as typified by the
finds made at the site of La Venta. It is believed that
the Olmec devised the Long Count Calendar and invented
writing and that they may well be the source of these
developments among the Maya. Noted for the excellence of
their stone carving-ranging from small, finely detailed
jade objects to colossal, often realistic basalt heads-the
Olmec frequently used a motif combining human and jaguar
features.

Teotihuacán Teotihuacán is much to the west of the Olmec
and Maya areas and dates from the 1st cent. A.D. to A.D.
700. The major part of the site and the height of its
artistic expression belong to the periods Teotihuacán II
and Teotihuacán III (c.300-700). Teotihuacán is an urban
center, perhaps the greatest in Mexico; its monumental
pyramids, temples, and royal processional roads are an
extraordinary architectural achievement.

In the latter part of Maya Early Classic (c.A.D. 400-
c.A.D. 600) there is evidence of great influence from
Teotihuacán, as exemplified at the site of Kaminaljuyú and
in varying degrees at other sites, including Tikal and
Uaxactún. Erected on high land above the surrounding
swamps, the latter two sites reveal their massive, richly
decorated temples in the midst of tropical jungles. The
site of Teotihuacán apparently was deliberately destroyed
by invaders c.700 and thereafter ceased to be a factor in
Maya civilization.

The Toltec After the fall of Teotihuacán, a period of
nearly two centuries (700-900) seems to have ensued during
which there was no single dominant force, but a number of
warring factions. One of these, the Toltec, made their
capital at Tula (c.900-1200), northwest of Teotihuacán.
The Toltec achieved power and dominated much of N and
central Mexico until they were vanquished in 1156 or 1168.
They invaded Maya country, principally Chichén Itzá
(c.987). There they had a profound influence as revealed
by the pyramids at Tula and Chichén Itzá, with their deep
colonnades (an unusual feature in Mesoamerican
architecture) and their decorative bas-relief and
sculptured structural elements, e.g., the 15-ft-tall (4.5
m) caryatids at Tula. Toltec occupation has also been
identified at other sites in the Yucatán. Indications are
that Chichén Itzá was abandoned by the Toltec around 1224.

The Aztec The final great native conquest in Mesoamerica
was by the Aztec, who rose to power following a period of
anarchy after the destruction of the Toltec's Tula. By
1344 the Aztecs had founded their magnificent capital,
Tenochtitlán, at the site of present-day Mexico City in
the Valley of Mexico, which became one of the
architectural wonders of ancient America. Aztec art was
eclectic, drawing on the traditions of conquered areas;
but under the influence of the harsh Aztec religion, it
developed a unique character. The importance of human
sacrifice in the cult of the war god, Huitzilopochtli,
permeated life and art, and representations of skulls,
hearts, hands, and sacrificial scenes were common.

Much of the stone sculpture was huge and elaborate, a
remarkable example being the statue of the earth goddess
Coatlicue. Masses of intertwined serpents dominate the
statue, which bears a necklace of human hearts and hands.
Less ominous subjects, such as the plumed serpent,
Quetzalcoatl, and various animals, were often beautifully
carved in a smooth, compact style. Featherwork, jade
carving, goldwork, extraordinary ceremonial vases, and
superb textiles were produced by the artisans of
subjugated groups, especially the Mixtec. Aztec power over
Central Mexico extended until the arrival of Cortés in
1519.

Other Mexican Cultures The area of the Mixtec and Zapotec
in Oaxaca, Mexico, was not completely conquered by the
Aztecs. The Zapotec originally occupied the site of Monte
Albán from late Olmec times (c.600 B.C.) until about A.D.
900. Then a new seat of Zapotec civilization was founded
at Mitla. Later the Mixtec began to infiltrate, intermarry
with, occupy, and absorb the Zapotec. Apart from
architecture, the Mixtec also excelled at the minor arts:
goldwork, jewelry, vessels fashioned with semiprecious
stones, turquoise and feather mosaics, extremely fine
polychrome pottery, and painted books known as codices.

Many of the Mexican cultures produced ceramic figurines
and pottery, often of superior artistic merit. The site of
Tlatilco, in the Valley of Mexico, has yielded famous
ceramics of remarkably early date, about 500 B.C. Delicacy
of detail characterizes the figurines of Teotihuacán, and
the finely decorated funerary urns of Monte Albán (c.400
B.C.) are particularly well wrought. In the western states
of Nayarit, Jalisco, and Colima, early cultures produced
an enormously varied array of fanciful and often grotesque
terra-cotta figurines and pottery during the classic
period, A.D. 300 to 900. The Tarascan of Lake Pátzcuaro
were one of these groups; they still produce excellent
lacquerware. In the jungle states of Veracruz, Campeche,
and Tabasco many sites, particularly Remojadas, have
yielded fine examples of clay sculpture.

The Cultures of South America Ancient Peru The first great
art style of the geographical area that is now Peru was
that of the civilization that flourished at Chavín de
Huántar in the northern highlands c.900 to 200 B.C. A more
or less contemporaneous culture of the north coast
produced a style of pottery known as Cupisnique. The
Paracas culture of the south coast, of the same era, left
some of the most beautiful textiles of pre-Inca Peru as
well as fine pottery decorated with resin paint. Excellent
painted ceramics and beautiful weavings were also
characteristic of the Nazca civilization (c.200 B.C.-A.D.
600) to the south, which also produced the huge and
mysterious "Nazca lines."

The Nazca's contemporaries on the north coast, the
Mochica, surpassed them in the art of painted pottery.
Battle scenes, rituals, animals, and mythological beings
were masterfully depicted. Their ceramic "portrait
vessels" in the form of human heads are the high point of
realism in pre-Columbian art. They were also master
builders, the Mochica Pyramid of the Sun being the largest
in South America. During the following period (c.600-800),
the Tiahuanaco culture gained ascendancy. With the decline
of Tiahuanaco the kingdom of the Chimú flourished. Their
capital, Chan Chan, has long been considered one of the
great centers of ancient Peru.

The Inca Chan Chan was surpassed only by the colossal
achievements of the Inca, who conquered the Chimú in the
latter part of the 15th cent. As engineers the Inca were
unsurpassed in ancient America. Their agricultural
terraces are still in use, and the extensive network of
roads and bridges that spanned their empire would merit
the envy of modern road builders. However, their cities
and fortresses remain their towering achievement. The
great cities of Cuzco and Machu Picchu and the imposing
fortresses of Sacsahuamán and Ollantaytambo are typical
examples of their skill. The Inca also excelled at stone
carving and metalwork, achieving in this latter art a
degree of perfection comparable to that reached anywhere
in the world. Their civilization fell to the Spanish
invaders in 1538.