Westward Expansion Vocabulary

Frontier

The part of a country that borders another country.

Great Plains

Grassland extending through the west-central portion of the United States.

Push Factors

The reasons that people leave their homes and move to a new area.

Pull Factors

The reasons that drew people to move west.

Indian Wars

A protracted series of conflicts between Native American Indians and white settlers over land and natural resources in the West.

Battle of Wounded Knee

Brings the Indian wars to a bitter end.

Homestead Act

Offered 160 acres of land free to any citizen or intended citizen who was head of a household.

Morrill Act

Legislation that granted federal land to states to help finance the establishment of agricultural colleges.

Open range

A system of unfenced public lands where cattle and other livestock could graze freely.

Barbed Wire

Allowed farmers and ranchers to keep cattle from crossing property lines and damaging crops on neighboring land.

Sod House

A house built of strips of sod, laid like brickwork, used especially by settlers on the Great Plains when timber was scarce.

Dawes Act

Broke up reservations and allotted land to individual Native Americans, giving 160 acres to each head of household and 80 acres to each unmarried adult.

Exoduster

African Americans that began a massive migration West from the post-Reconstruction era.

Oliver Hudson Kelley

Founded the Patrons of Husbandry, an organization for farmers.

Farmers Alliance

A series of political organizations and agrarian movements in the United States in the late 1800s that sought to improve economic conditions for farmers.

Populism

The movement of the people; was born with the founding of the Populist party.

Bimetallism

A monetary system based on the value between two metals, usually gold and silver.

Gold Standard

A monetary system that linked the value of a country's currency to gold; played a role in the United States' emergence as a world power.

William McKinley

25th US president, gold standard

William Jennings Bryan

Former Nebraska congressman, bimettalism, cross of gold speech