STAAR Questions: Westward Expansion.

Which of these characteristics also describes these two states below?

• Founded as work colonies for debtors.
• Former slave states.
• Were havens for religious dissenters.
• Former Spanish colonies.

Which of the following best completes the diagram below?

• Slaveholding state.
• Bordered by the Pacific.
• Formerly part of Mexico.
• Dependent on heavy industry.

Which of the following best replaces the question mark in the diagram below?

• Former Mexican territory.
• Dependent on slavery.
• Settled by Mormons.
• Large coal deposits.

The numbered river on this map below played a major role in?

• the defeat of British troops at the Battle of Saratoga.
• the exploration of new territory acquired from France.
• the defeat of British invaders at the Battle of Fort McHenry.
• the settlement of territory previously claimed by the Dutch.

According to the excerpt below, the Gadsden Purchase was intended to —

• support settlement of U.S. territory gained through the U.S.-Mexican War.
• encourage commerce among U.S. states formed from the Louisiana Purchase.
• allow the United States and Mexico to share railroad construction costs.
• encourage the sale of U.S. government land in Florida.

What effect did the mining technique described in this excerpt below have on the local environment?

• Rivers became filled with sediment.
• Reduced flooding led to an increased reliance on irrigation.
• Forests were clear-cut, and the timber was used to line tunnels and shafts.
• Farmland benefited from a change in soil composition.

What was one reason James K. Polk won the presidential election of 1844? 

• He was against removing American Indians from their native lands.  
• He favored the policy of popular sovereignty in the Kansas and Nebraska territories.  
• He was committed to fulfilling the goals of Manifest Destiny. 
• He opposed the extension of slavery west of the Mississippi River.  

During the 1840s the factors in this diagram below contributed to widespread support for which of the following?

• The Kansas-Nebraska Act.
• Manifest Destiny
• The American System
• States’ Rights

The bullet points in this list below would most likely be included in an essay about?

• the rise of the Republican Party.
• the emergence of Manifest Destiny.
• abolitionist groups in the western territories.
• the growth of the secession movement in southern states.

This excerpt below provides evidence that in 1844 Democrats supported?

• federal financing of transportation systems in the West.
• making Manifest Destiny an official federal policy.
• social Darwinism as a justification for expansion.
• prohibiting the expansion of slavery into new areas of the United States.