Booklet 1 America Early Settlers

Question 1

What year did America declare independence?

Answer 1

1776

Question 2

How many states were in the original United States

Answer 2

13

Question 3

How many people did a territory need to join the union?

Answer 3

60,000

Question 4

Name the two main mountain ranges in the American West.

Answer 4

Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada.

Question 5

Which country did America defeat to win the South West in 1848?

Answer 5

Mexico

Question 6

Describe the terrain and climate of the Great Plains.

Answer 6

Flat. Dry hot grasslands in summer, cold windy and snow covered in winter.

Question 7

What did many people refer to the Plains as?

Answer 7

The Great American Desert

Question 8

What is Manifest Destiny?

Answer 8

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

Question 9

Define ‘pioneer’ in American history.

Answer 9

A person who travels to an area not yet settled with the intention of developing a new home.

Question 10

Why did the Mountain Men go west in the late 1700s and early 1800s?

Answer 10

Hunt animals and bring back furs to trade.

Question 11

How did Mountain men encourage future travellers to go west?

Answer 11

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

Question 12

When was the economic crisis in the eastern states that pushed a lot of people west?

Answer 12

1837+

Question 13

Give 3 reasons why people wanted to leave the eastern states.

Answer 13

immigration, overcrowding, land prices up, crime (cities), poor living conditions (cities), unemployment

Question 14

Why was California a popular destination up to 1848? (Name 2 reasons)

Answer 14

nice climate, lots of space, cheap land, good agricultural land.

Question 15

Describe two methods of transport most pioneers used to get across the 3500 miles to California.

Answer 15

Boats until Independence, Missouri then covered wagon pulled by oxen or horse across the plains.

Question 16

Name the four main geographical obstacles that made the journey difficult.

Answer 16

Rocky Mountains, Nevada Desert, Salt Lake/Flats, Sierra Nevada Mountains

Question 17

Whose shortcut did the Donner Party follow?

Answer 17

Lansford Hastings

Question 18

Why did the Donner Party get stuck in the Mountains in 1846?

Answer 18

Short cut took too long, got to the Mountains too late, snow.

Question 19

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

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What year did Joseph Smith start the Church of Latter Day Saints the Mormons?

Answer 20

1823

Question 21

Who was the angel Moroni?

Answer 21

The angel that visited Smith and told him to go find the story of the Mormons.

Question 22

What is the Book of Mormon based on?

Answer 22

Gold plates left by the first Israelites in America. Told the story of the Mormons.

Question 23

Give four reasons why the Mormons were persecuted in the east.

Answer 23

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 24

What does polygamy mean and why did the Mormons practise it?

Answer 24

More than one wife, more women than men joined the Mormon religion in the 1840s.

Question 25

Why was Joseph Smith murdered in 1845?

Answer 25

Wanted to run for American president. Murdered by an Anti-Mormon mob.

Question 26

Who replaced Joseph Smith as leader of the Mormons and decided to take them out west?

Answer 26

Brigham Young

Question 27

Give two reasons why Young chose the Salt Lake for the new Mormon settlement.

Answer 27

Isolated and unsettled so that Mormons could practise their religion without persecution

Question 28

How did Young solve the issue of having a reliable trail to follow out west?

Answer 28

Young sent a group of pioneers out first to make a clear trail to follow.

Question 29

Where did the Mormons get their resources?

Answer 29

Rest camps set up along the trail.

Question 30

How did the Mormons get 16,000 people out west safely?

Answer 30

Split them into teams, strict time frames, winter camps.

Question 31

How was Salt Lake land allocated?

Answer 31

Planned community, land allocated based on need (e.g. size of family or job)

Question 32

What is the type of community called, where jobs and resources are shared and organised for all?

Answer 32

Co-operative

Question 33

What was Deseret?

Answer 33

The state that Brigham Young wanted entered into the Union in the 1850s?

Question 34

What was the Perpetual Emigrating Fund?

Answer 34

All expenses paid journey for new recruits to the Mormon religion

Question 35

When was Gold discovered in California?

Answer 35

24th January 1848

Question 36

What nickname was given to the miners and why?

Answer 36

49ers, because they all went out in 1849

Question 37

Name 5 different ethnic groups that went west for gold?

Answer 37

Chinese, eastern Anglo Americans, Mexicans, Europeans, freed slaves (African Americans)

Question 38

In what year did California become a state as a result of the Gold Rush immigration?

Answer 38

1850

Question 39

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

Answer 39

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

Question 40

How did the Gold Rush change America? (Name 2 things)

Answer 40

Took land from Native Americans, immigration and racial diversity, gold reserves made it an internationally wealthy country, California became a state,