The Americas

Question 1

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

Answer 1

60,000

Question 2

Which country did America defeat to win the south west 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 travellers to go west?

Answer 4

Stories, made trails, made maps, articles

Question 5

Name one way the Donner Party + others encouraged development

Answer 5

Letters back to the east, stories covered by newspapers and journals and dime novels

Question 6

Four reasons why the Mormons were persecuted?

Answer 6

Economic success, polygamy, anti-slavery, growing numbers

Question 7

What was the Perpetual Emigrating Fund?

Answer 7

All expenses paid journey for new Mormon recruits

Question 8

When was gold discovered in California?

Answer 8

24th jan 1848

Question 9

Name 5 ethnic groups that went west to look for gold

Answer 9

Chinese, Mexicans, Europeans, african-americans, eastern anglo-americans

Question 10

What year did California become a state?

Answer 10

1850

Question 11

5 jobs that developed due to the gold rush?

Answer 11

Gambling, tool shops, b&bs, bridge tolls, ferries

Question 12

Why were the Sioux nomadic?

Answer 12

Following the buffalo

Question 13

Why was the tipi good for the Sioux?

Answer 13

Easy to put up and down, easy to transport

Question 14

Why did the Sioux practise polygamy?

Answer 14

Braves lost in hunting/wars, distinct gender roles meant that women and children of dead braved would be looked after

Question 15

What did the Sioux go to war over?

Answer 15

Horse theft

Question 16

Why did the Sioux scalp their enemies?

Answer 16

Trophies, to ensure their enemies soul escapes and did not go to the afterlife

Question 17

Did the Sioux own land?

Answer 17

No, they believed that the land and all 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.

Question 19

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

Answer 19

Americans believed in owning land, the Sioux did not.

Question 20

What was Bureau on 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 Native Americans

Question 21

What did the Indian Removal 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 the 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), defeat the Sioux, deal with overcrowding, high land prices in the eastern states.

Question 27

Give two reasons why the Transcontinental Railroad was built 1863-69?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

How did the government pay he Railroad builders (union pacific and central pacific)?

Answer 28

Government grants after 40 miles of track built and 12000 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 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 the Sioux bodies were mutilated by the soldiers afterwards.

Question 33

What were the terms of the Second Fort Laramie Treaty, 1868? (Name three)

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

1859- Mormons were pardoned and US Army stationed in Utah. Bad publicity for the Mormons. Mormons struggled to convince USA to let Utah to 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 Democracts split in half (those who wanted to stay in the union and those who 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 the 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 a slave or free. This caused tension between the north and south as each side sent in supporters to ‘convince’ people to vote one way or the other. There was fighting.

Question 40

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

Answer 40

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. The north had railroads, whereas what the south had were destroyed by the northern troops.