Westward Expansion

Question 1

Why did railroad companies hire immigrants?

Answer 1

Immigrants worked long hours for low pay.

Question 2

What were some of the things the Plains Indians used the buffalo for?

Answer 2

Food, clothing, shelter

Question 3

How did the Homestead Act encourage people to move west?

Answer 3

It offered free land to those willing to farm it.

Question 4

Lode

Answer 4

Rich vein of gold or silver.

Question 5

Vigilante

Answer 5

Self-appointed crime fighter.

Question 6

Transcontinental Railroad

Answer 6

One that stretches across a continent from coast to coast.

Question 7

Subsidy

Answer 7

Financial aid or a land grant from the government.

Question 8

How did news of the Comstock Lode affect the west?

Answer 8

Prospectors migrated west in search of gold and silver.

Question 9

Why were Texas Longhorns popular in the commercial market?

Answer 9

They required little food and water when traveling long distances.

Question 10

What were the terms of the Fort Laramie treaty?

Answer 10

Land would be reserved for Native Americans forever and they would receive tools, domestic animals, and money.

Question 11

What was the name given to people who sneaked into Oklahoma before the land rush to stake out the best land?

Answer 11

Sooners

Question 12

How did Congress help railroad companies?

Answer 12

By giving them a subsidy-financial aid or land grant.

Question 13

Where did cow hands learn their skills from?

Answer 13

Mexican vaqueros

Question 14

What were some of the problems that settlers encountered on the mining frontier?

Answer 14

Pollution in streams, cutting down of forests, few ever got rich.

Question 15

What was the most significant economic impact of the transcontinental railroad?

Answer 15

Expanding trade nation wide

Question 16

Sod house

Answer 16

House built of soil held together by grass roots.

Question 17

Why did cowtowns develop?

Answer 17

Cattle were held in pens near rail lines, and towns with dance halls, saloons, hotels, restaurants, and stores catering to cowhands sprang up.

Question 18

How did mining encourage the growth of towns in the west?

Answer 18

Merchants and traders followed miners into new areas to sell them goods they needed.

Question 19

Vaquero

Answer 19

Spanish and Mexican cowhands who herded cattle. American cowands learned about riding, roping, and branding from vaqueros.

Question 20

Cow towns

Answer 20

Towns where cattle drives ended. Usually found near rail lines. Cattle were held in pens until they could be loaded onto trains.

Question 21

What promises to the Native Americans did the government break?

Answer 21

Promises to protect Native American hunting grounds, promises that land reserved for them would be theirs forever.

Question 22

Why did Settlers and Plains Indians come into conflict?

Answer 22

Settlers ignored treaties protecting Indian lands.

Question 23

How did the Cattle Kingdom begin?

Answer 23

Cattle ranches were set up on the Great Plains by the Spanish and Mexicans before the arrival of settlers from the U.S. After the Civil War, the demand for beef increased, and Texas ranchers began rounding up and driving the cattle to meet it.