America - Factual Knowlegd

Question 1

How many people did a territory need to become a state

Answer 1

60,000

Question 2

Which country did American defeat to win the SW in 1848

Answer 2

Mexico

Question 3

What is Manifest Destiny

Answer 3

The American belief that it was God’s will that they inhabit the continent from east to west.

Question 4

How did Mountain men encourage future travellers to go west

Answer 4

Told stories, developed trails, drew maps, had articles written about them etc.

Question 5

Name one way the Donner Party and other pioneers encouraged further development

Answer 5

Letters back to the east, stories covered in Dime novels, newspapers and journals.

Question 6

Give four reasons why te Mormons were persecuted in the East

Answer 6

Religious beliefs such as polygamy, economic success such as buying up land and setting up banks, blamed for 1837 economic crisis, anti-slavery, Joseph Smith wanting to become president, growing numbers.

Question 7

What was the perpetual immigration fund

Answer 7

all expenses paid journey for new Mormon recruits

Question 8

When was gold discovered in California

Answer 8

24th January 1848

Question 9

Name 5 different ethnic groups that went west for gold

Answer 9

Chinese, Eastern Anglo Americans, Mexicans, Europeans, Freed Slaves

Question 10

In what year did the Cali become a state as a result of the gold rush

Answer 10

1850

Question 11

Give 5 different entrepreneurial jobs that developed as a result of the Gold Rush.

Answer 11

prostitution, gambling, tool shops, b and bs, saloons (pub), bridge tolls, ferries, food, Levis jeans

Question 12

Why were the Sioux nomadic?

Answer 12

followed the buffalo

Question 13

Why was the tipi the perfect shelter for the Sioux? 2 reasons

Answer 13

Easy to take up and down quickly, easy to transport, used resources available (buffalo skin), cool in summer and warm in winter.

Question 14

Why did the Sioux practise polygamy?

Answer 14

Braves lost in hunting/war. Distinct gender roles (e.g. men hunted) meant that women and children of dead braves/warriors would be looked after.

Question 15

What did the Sioux usually go to war over?

Answer 15

Horse theft.

Question 16

Why did the Sioux scalp their enemies?

Answer 16

As trophies from battle, but mainly to ensure that their enemies soul escaped and did not go into the afterlife.

Question 17

Did the Sioux own land?

Answer 17

No, they believed that the land and all of the world’s creatures belong to the Great Spirit.

Question 18

How did a chief get his position?

Answer 18

Chosen by the council, elders, warrior society and medicine men for bravery and wisdom. Not inherited (from their father) or elected.

Question 19

Why did the Sioux and American government find it difficult to negotiate who owned the Plains?

Answer 19

Americans believed in owning land, but the Sioux did not.

Question 20

What was the Bureau of Indian Affairs?

Answer 20

A government department with agents sent to learn about the Sioux and help make decisions regarding how to deal with the Indians.

Question 21

What did the Indian Removal Act of 1830 set up?

Answer 21

A ‘Permanent Indian Frontier’ in the western part of America (past the Mississippi). Removed Indians from the fertile farming lands of the south-east to the harsh western plains.

Question 22

When was the first Fort Laramie Treaty passed?

Answer 22

1851

Question 23

Name TWO terms of the first Fort Laramie treaty.

Answer 23

Sioux promised not to attack settlers on the trails to California and allowed the building of roads and forts and the US Government promised to protect Sioux hunting areas and pay the Sioux an annual subsidy (money).

Question 24

Who supported the ‘exterminator’ solution to the Indian problem?

Answer 24

westerners (miners, homesteaders) and the army.

Question 25

What was the Homestead Act, 1862?

Answer 25

160 acres of free land. If you could farm successfully in 5 years, the land was yours.

Question 26

Why did the government want settlement on the Great Plains? (two reasons)

Answer 26

Unify America (especially after the start of the Civil War between the North and South), defeat the Sioux, deal with overcrowding (immigration) and high land prices in the eastern states.

Question 27

Give 2 reasons why the Transcontinental Railroad was built 1863-1869?

Answer 27

Unite USA east to west, support western settlement, encourage trade.

Question 28

How did the government pay the Railroad builders (Union Pacific and Central Pacific)?

Answer 28

Government grants after 40 miles of track built and 12,000 acres of land for every 1 mile of track built. (Companies could then sell land to settlers).

Question 29

Which railroad company had to deal with Sioux attacks?

Answer 29

Union Pacific (from the east to the west across the Plains)

Question 30

Why did the Sioux attack the railroad?

Answer 30

Cut through buffalo hunting grounds, brought more settlers out west.

Question 31

The first Sioux war is known as the Cheyenne War, 1863-67. What caused it?

Answer 31

Some Cheyenne Sioux refused to live on reservations and attacked railroad, settlers, miners, ranchers etc.

Question 32

Why was Sandcreek (1864) a ‘massacre’?

Answer 32

700 soldiers of the Colorado militia attacked mostly women, children and elderly (warriors were hunting) Sioux in camp at Sandcreek. There is evidence that Black Kettle (chief) flew a US flag over the village and that there were attempts by the Sioux to surrender, but the soldiers butchered them anyway. There is evidence that Colonel Chivington ordered the massacre and that Sioux bodies were mutilated by the soldiers afterwards.

Question 33

What were the terms of the Second Fort Laramie Treaty, 1868? (name 3)

Answer 33

The government withdrew soldiers from the forts (and the Sioux burned them down), the Great Sioux Reservation was created, no non-Indians were allowed to enter this land

Question 34

Name two results of the Mountain Meadow Massacre.

Answer 34

1858 - Mormons were pardoned and US Army stationed in Utah. Bad publicity for the Mormons. Mormons struggled to convince USA to let Utah join as a state. Did not join until 1896 and had to ban polygamy.

Question 35

How did Slavery cause the American Civil War 1861-65?

Answer 35

Although there were many differences between the north and the south, slavery was the underlying cause. The north had no need for slavery, whereas slaves were fundamental to the southern economy. Northerners were becoming anti-slavery. Mainly, they did not want slavery to spread to the new Western states. The south resented the north’s lack of support or understanding. This all comes down to the slavery issue.

Question 36

How did the 1860 Election cause the American Civil War 1861-65?

Answer 36

Nobody expected the Republican Abraham Lincoln to win, but the Democrats split in half (those who wanted to stay in the union and those that wanted to leave). As a result, Lincoln won. He did not want to ban slavery, only stop it spreading, however many Republicans were anti-slavery and the south was worried about a Republican government. South Carolina was the first to leave the union as a result.

Question 37

How did Secession cause the American Civil War 1861-65?

Answer 37

South Carolina and then Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia and Texas voted to leave the Union and become the Confederacy. Lincoln would not let them leave and sent troops to Fort Sumter. Other southern states, such as Virginia, were not happy Lincoln sent troops so joined the Confederacy as well. The southern army attacked northern troops, starting the war.

Question 38

The 1850 Compromise allowed California to join as a free state, but in exchange for what?

Answer 38

The Fugitive Slave Act meant that Northern states must return any escaped slaves to the south.

Question 39

What was the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act and how did it contribute to the war?

Answer 39

The US government decided to let new states such as Kansas and Nebraska vote on whether they wanted to be slave or free. This caused tension between the north and the south as each side sent in supporters to ‘convince’ people to vote one way or the other. There was even fighting!

Question 40

Give 3 reasons why the southern economy was more badly affected than the north.

Answer 40

The south was agricultural, when men went off to fight plantations failed and profits were lost. The north had a navy and blocked trade to the south, this caused inflation and food shortages. The north had the benefit of factories and the US government treasury whereas the south struggled for funding, especially as they were unable to trade their cotton and tobacco due to the disruptions of war and the north had railroads, whereas what the south had were destroyed by northern troops.