Manifest Destiny Flashcards
What is Manifest Destiny?
The belief that it was Americans’ God- given right to expand “from sea to shining sea”
What was the transcontinental railroad?
A railroad that connected the railroads in the east to the West / The “physical completion” of Manifest Destiny -> people and goods can travel more easily and quickly from east to west
What was the Homestead Act?
An act passed by Congress that encouraged settlement in the West by giving government-owned land to small farmers
What was Boomtown?
communities that grew suddenly when a mine opened
What was Ghosttown?
Communities that experienced people leaving rapidly once the ore was gone
What is a Assimilation?
To blend
Policies that the US government adopted to make Native people part of the dominant white culture; Native people were to speak only English and adopt Christianity
What is a Reservation?
An area of public lands set aside for Native Americans by the US government
What was the Dawes Act?
Aimed to remove what whites regarded as two weaknesses of Native American life: the lack of private property and the nomadic tradition
Called for the breakup of reservation and an end to identification with a tribal group
Each Native American would receive a plot of reservation land
Reformers hoped the native peoples would become farmers and in time American citizens
What was The Carlisle Indian boarding School?
One of the schools operated by the federal government or Christian organizations to assimilate Native children into white US culture
