WESTWARD EXPANSION AFTER THE CIVIL WAR Flashcards
Was California the only place that had a gold rush? if not what other States found gold and silver?
Nevada, Utah, and Colorado
What was the best way to get rich back in those days?was it from relocating to places where gold and silver was been discovered or from selling things to the miners?
Selling things to the miners
True or False:
Were things dangerous and disorganized back in those days of the Mining gold rush?
True
The gold rush didn’t last long and people would move on to the next one. Some of these towns stayed alive and became cities that we know today, others slowly died out and became?
Ghost towns.
When ordinary citizens pursue and punish people for their crimes instead of waiting for the police or courts to do it for them is called?
Vigilante justice
In what STATE did the first railroad system that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of the U.S. Railroads that went halfway across the country ended.
Nebraska
What is the name of the first railroad system to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts of the U.S. Railroads?
Transcontinental Railroad
To finish the Transcontinental Railroad system the government paid two companies to finish the job. Name the two companies?
Tthe Union Pacific and the Central Pacific.
Who did the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific employed to finish the job?
Immigrants especially Chinese and Irish.
Did the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific use any machines to finish the job? and if not what did they use?
No machines, work was done by hand.
What shifts (hours and days) did the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific worked?
6 days a week, 12 hours a day.
What contributed to the difficulty of the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroad work?
- Using dynamite
- Mountains - cold winters and hot summers
3 Attacks from Native Americans
The job was finally completed when the two companies met at Promontory Point in what state?
in the State of Utah.
How did the railroad help the people back then?
- it made travel easier
- getting supplies faster
3, as results towns and cities in the west grew quickly!
Even the Transcontinental Railroad didn’t reach many places. So cattle ranchers figured out that if they couldn’t get a train to their cattle… what did they do?
They would move their cattle to the train.
Established cattle trails developed, like the Chisholm Trail which ran from which state to which state?
Texas to (Abilene, Kansas).
What was the name of an established cattle trail back those days?
Chisholm Trail
Why was it that back in those days the NEED for cowboys disappeared?
- More fences were being built,
- farms claimed land,
- Ranchers themselves moved closer to railroads.
Before the Civil war why did people skipped over the Great Plains in the middle to settle in California and Oregon?
California and Oregon were more appealing places to settle.
After the Civil war why did people started changing their minds about settling in the Great Plains?
- Good weather
- Cheap or free land
and thats what encourage them to come.
What were FIVE challenges of settling on the Great Plains?
- No trees to build
- Had to travel long distances for water
- No neighbors
- NATURAL DISASTERS like big storms
- Grasshopper swarms
Three inventions helped the settlers of the Great plains?
- Steel plow
- barbed wire
- Method called dry farming
The government wanted to encourage people to move to the Great Plains area. They offered 160 acres of free land to immigrant and citizens who would stay and farm on it for at least 5 years.
Homestead Act
Why did people did not take advantage of the Homestead Act?
Poor people could not afford farm equipment, animals, or building supplies.
Outlaws seem daring and smart like Robin Hood when in reality they were NOT?
Billy the Kid and Jesse James
True or False
The idea of the Wild West was created mostly to entertain people in eastern cities?
TRUE
What country did Alaska belong to before it became part of the US?
Russia
How much did Russia ask for Alaska?
The Russian Czar asked 5 million dollars
Name of the person in the US in charge of the transaction of buying Alaska from Russia?
William Seward.
Most people thought he was crazy to agree to buy Alaska. They started calling the decision what?
Alaska“Seward’s Folly” or “mistake.”
With more people moving west and building cities and farms across the Great Plains, all that grass made raising cattle very easy, until it was time to ship them to the city to be sold what is this called?
Cattle Drives
