Westward Expansion after the Civil War Study Guide

  1. Who was most likely NOT to become rich on the mining frontier?

An individual miner

  1. What is the name of people who leave their homeland and live in another country?

immigrants

  1. Why did the harsh frontier justice of the mining camps develop?

police

  1. The first transcontinental railroad when from Sacramento to?

Omaha

  1. Why did the ranchers drive their cattle to Abilene?

Cattle could be shipped on trains to markets in the East that would pay higher prices

  1. Instead of driving their cattle to Sedalia, why did ranchers choose a route farther west?

There were fewer people, farms and trees

  1. On a drive what was the cowboy’s biggest worry?

A stampede

  1. What was are the reasons for the end of the great age of the cowboy?

People in the east began to raise their own cattle

  1. What Rain, snow, sleet and hail all forms of?

precipitation

  1. What is the main difference between the Great Plains and Interior Lowlands?

Great Plains are drier

  1. Why did they settle the Great Plains?

A temporary increase in rainfall, free land through the Homestead Act, Cheap land from the railroads

  1. Through the Homestead Act of 1862, who was free land available to?

United States citizens and immigrants

  1. What was the main reason that settlers on the plains built their houses out of sod?

There were few trees from which to build wooden houses

  1. What are three inventions that helped people farm in the plains?

Barbed wire, steel plow, and dry farming

  1. What was the worst disaster for plains farmers?

Hordes of grasshoppers

  1. Who said “Go West, young man, and grow up with the country”?

Horace Greeley

  1. Why was Oklahoma the last plains territory to be settled?

Much of the land belonged to Native Americans

  1. What is a census?

A government count of the people

  1. Who are two well-known outlaws of the West?

Jesse James and Billy the Kid

  1. Who arranged the purchase of Alaska from Russia?

William Seward

  1. How are mining booms, building of transcontinental railroads and Homestead Act related? All three contributed to the development of the West.
  1. Why was building the transcontinental railroad such a challenging project for railroad companies and their workers?

Supplies had to come from a long ways away (over mountains and deserts). Most work was done with hand tools, they endured all kinds of weather, they had to clear forests and sold rock, they had to fend of attacks from Indians.

  1. How did real lives of cowboys differ from the “movie cowboys”?

Real cowboys lead unglamorous lives, worked long hours in all kinds of weather, stayed with herds, did not off on adventures, few carried guns, they were all different nationalities-majority was not caucasion

  1. Why was the purchase of Alaska a good idea?

Great purchase price-only about 2cents an acre. Alaska had abundant resources including lumber and fish.