16.4 – Cause and Effect Activity

Remember, a common way of studying history is by examining the CAUSES and EFFECTS of a certain event.

Causes? Effects? Let’s review what this means:

CAUSE = The reason(s) that something happens.

EFFECT = The outcome or result of something.

  • Events in history just don’t happen for no reason. There is a cause (or are causes) of a specific event and then there is a result, or effect (or effects).

  • For example, the United States bought the Louisiana territory from France in 1803 (the cause) and one effect was that people started to move from the East coast to the West coast.

  • Another effect was that Native Americans were being forced off their homelands.

  • Examining causes and effects is a common way to study history and sometimes the effects of a past event can be seen at the present time.

Take a look at this:

CAUSE = The U.S. bought the Louisiana territory from France (the green area on the map). 

EFFECT = It doubled the size of the United States at that time. [Credit]

Now, CLICK HERE to practice identifying the causes and effects of various events in American history.

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CILIA-T: Civics, U.S. History, Academic English and Digital Skills Copyright © by Aydin Durgunoglu; Erin Cary; and John Trerotola is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.