Westward Expansion and America: The Story of Us - Heartland Review Flashcards

Flashcards covering key terms and concepts related to Westward Expansion and the 'America: The Story of Us - Heartland' video.

Morrill Land Grant Act

Federal government gave land to state governments to sell for colleges and infrastructure.

Homestead Act

Provided 160 acres free/cheap land if settler was 21, male head of household, U.S. citizen/in process, built a house, lived there 6 months/yr, and farmed for 5 years.

Pacific Railway Act

Federal land given to railroad companies to build infrastructure in the West.

Land speculators

People who bought land cheaply and sold it for profit.

Port of entry for Chinese immigrants

San Francisco.

Common job for Chinese immigrants

Railroad construction.

Mexican contribution to West

Taught farming and ranching skills, familiar with climate.

Exodusters

African Americans who moved from the South to the West for land and to escape racism.

Longhorn cattle

Breed that thrived on the grassy plains.

Most popular meat before Civil War

Pork.

Shipping beef east

Done on refrigerated railway cars.

Cow towns

Towns along railroads where cattle were shipped east.

Cattle barons

Wealthy ranchers who ran huge cattle operations.

Haciendas

Huge ranches with thousands of acres in the Hispanic Southwest.

Cowboy job

Herd cattle on the Long Drive to railway centers.

Chisholm Trail

Route that linked Texas to Kansas cow towns and railroads.

Cowboy demographics

One in five cowboys was Mexican or African American.

Cowboy #1 cause of death

Being trampled.

Homesteader homes

Soddies made from sod or dugouts carved into hillsides.

Challenges for homesteaders

Floods, prairie fires, dust storms, and insects.

Economic struggles for farmers

Falling crop prices, high interest rates, and debt.

Fate of many homesteaders

Thousands gave up and moved back east.

Bonanza farms

Huge farms that produced large crops and operated like businesses.

Purpose of mining railroads

Connect mines in the West to factories in the East.

Boomtowns

Mining towns that grew rapidly but often became ghost towns.

Mining and statehood – California

Achieved statehood in 1850 after the Gold Rush of 1849.

Mining and statehood – Colorado

Achieved statehood in 1876 with “Pikes Peak or Bust” gold rush.

Mining and statehood – Dakotas & Montana

Achieved statehood in 1889 after gold in the Black Hills.

Mining and statehood – Arizona

Achieved statehood in 1912 due to copper discovery.

Native American reliance on buffalo

Source of food and clothing.

U.S. policy on buffalo

Encouraged destruction to force Native Americans to relocate.

Buffalo population in 1840

About 25 million.

Buffalo population in 1889

Fewer than 1,100.

Oklahoma Land Rush

Occurred on April 22, 1889.

Railroad contributions to frontier life

Brought lumber, coal, brick, and manufactured goods to settlers.

Role of land speculators in expansion

Bought and sold land for profit.

Role of immigrants in expansion

Settled towns and cities seeking cheap land and jobs.

Problem with settlement patterns

Cities were spread too far apart.

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

Traveling show that dramatized life on the frontier.

Boy Scouts

Organization created to teach frontier survival skills.

Frontier myth of cowboy

Often romanticized; real work was long and dangerous.

Biggest obstacle in building the transcontinental railroad

Crossing the Rocky Mountains.

Two companies that built the railroad

Union Pacific and Central Pacific.

How the federal government paid for the railroad

Gave federal land to companies for every mile of track laid.

Why Chinese workers were chosen for railroad construction

Worked hard, accepted lower pay, and handled dangerous conditions.

May 10, 1869

Date of the completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah.

Where the railroad triggered mass migration

The Great Plains.

Land given away under the Homestead Act

160 acres.

Obstacles settlers faced

Harsh weather, prairie fires, locusts, dust storms, isolation, debt.

Fate of half of western Nebraska’s population by 1892

They left due to drought and hardship.

What happened to the Great Plains

Became America’s breadbasket (farming region).

“Green gold”

Wheat.

Why many Norwegians came to America

To escape poverty and famine and to farm cheap land.

Number of buffalo on the Great Plains in the 1800s

About 30 million.

New hunter on the Great Plains

Professional buffalo hunters.

Why conflict between whites and Indians over buffalo

Whites slaughtered buffalo, destroying Native food supply.

How the horse changed Indian life

Enabled faster travel, better buffalo hunting, and stronger warfare.

Purpose of the cowboy

To drive cattle to railroads for shipment east.

Origin of the Texas Longhorn

Bred from Spanish cattle and English breeds.

Invention that threatened cowboy life

Barbed wire.

Fate of the open range

Closed off by fencing (barbed wire).

Length of cowboy “hay day”

About 20 years (mid-1860s to mid-1880s).

Where most Indians ended up

On reservations.

Fate of Lt. Col. George Custer and his men

Killed at the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876).

December 29, 1890

Date of the Wounded Knee Massacre of Lakota Sioux.

How the railroad changed time

Created standardized time zones.

How Richard Sears changed shopping

Used mail-order catalogs to bring goods to rural Americans.