Westward Expansion

Question 1

individuals who rushed to California in the first year of the Gold Rush.

Answer 1

forty-niners

Question 2

Mexican cowboys; introduced Spanish ranching traditions

Answer 2

vaqueros

Question 3

the cattle-drive trail from Texas, to Kansas; was replaced by railroads in the 1880s

Answer 3

Chisholm Trail

Question 4

the location in northern Utah were the transcontinental railroad was completed; “Golden Spike”

Answer 4

Promontory Point

Question 5

covering an entire continent; i.e. railroads

Answer 5

transcontinental

Question 6

a person who tries to persuade lawmakers to pass laws favorable to a particular group or cause; i.e. railroads

Answer 6

lobbyist

Question 7

passed in 1862, directed railroad companies to construct railway and telegraph lines from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean.

Answer 7

Pacific Railway Act

Question 8

the company that operated out of Sacramento, California; built the transcontinental railway toward the east

Answer 8

Central Pacific Railroad

Question 9

the company that built the transcontinental railway toward the west from Omaha, Nebraska

Answer 9

Union Pacific Railroad

Question 10

an area of federal land reserved for American Indian groups

Answer 10

reservations

Question 11

an 1887 federal law that distributed land to individual Indians rather than to tribes, thereby encouraging Indians to become assimilated; ended the reservation system.

Answer 11

Dawes Act

Question 12

a federal law that provided each state with public land to help finance the establishment of agricultural colleges; more homesteads were created

Answer 12

Morrill Land Grant Act

Question 13

an 1864 event in which soldiers attacked a group of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians without cause; over 150 are killed; sparked the Indian Wars of the 1870s-1880s

Answer 13

Sand Creek Massacre

Question 14

absorbing a group of people into the larger culture; making American Indians more “white”

Answer 14

assimilation

Question 15

a federal law in 1862 that gave 160 acres to settlers who promised to live on the land for 5 years and work the land.

Answer 15

Homestead Act

Question 16

freed blacks who migrated to the Great Plains from the South after the Civil War; reference to Exodus.

Answer 16

Exodusters

Question 17

the movement began by farmers to advance farming friendly laws

Answer 17

National Grange

Question 18

the political group formed in the 1890s; helped working people; wanted government ownership of the railroads; preferred a silver standard currency

Answer 18

Populist Party

Question 19

currency/money system based on gold coinage; supported by Republicans in the late 1800s.

Answer 19

gold standard

Question 20

Political party that wanted more paper currency to be used

Answer 20

“Greenbackers”