Westward Expansion Review

What economic development attracted people to the West? 

• Irrigated land for farming
• Plenty of bison were availalbe
• An abundance of natural resources for the mining industry
• Reservations for Native Americans

What new technologies and adaptations helped ranchers to survive on the Great Plains? 

• barbed wire, steel plows, and dry farming
• sod houses, barbed wire, and windmills
• wheat farming, steel plows, and sod houses
• windmills, cattle raising, and transcontinental railroad 

Which group was recruited to help build the Transcontinental Railroad west to east? 

• Irish
• Chinese
• Native Americans
• African Americans

How were the beliefs about land ownership different for settlers and Native Americans? 

• Settlers believed the land belonged to everyone
• Settlers believed the community should share the land
• Native American believed individuals should own the land
• Native Americans believed the land belonged to the group not the individual

How did many settlers know the trails to use to travel West? 

• The hired Chinese immigrants to show them
• They followed trails first traveled by Native Americans
• They used the Mississippi River to guide them
• They used a compass and the North star

What were the four main obstacles to westward migration? 

• Lakes, forests, rivers, bison
• Native Americans, climate, mountains, guidebooks
• Trails, buffalo, mountains, deserts
• Rivers, climate/weather, mountain ranges, plains/deserts

Why did migrants skip the Great Plains at first to settle on the West Coast?

• They had family on the West Coast
• There was gold in Oregon
• They didn't understand how to farm on the Great Plains
• They couldn't plant peach trees in the Painted Desert

What were the two main ways people could make money by settling in the west? 

• Settle permanently to farm/ranch; use available resources and move on
• Live in a gold mine for a short period of time; rent wagons to pioneers
• Raise and sell apples; invent the steel plow
• Dig holes for wells; sell shovels to miners

What group helped build the Transcontinental Railroad from the east to the west? 

• Irish
• Chinese
• Native Americans
• African Americans

How did the Transcontinental Railroad affect trade in our country? 

• It made it possible for farmers to plow the hard ground
• It made it possible to ship crops grown and animals raised in the west to markets in the east
• It helped the Irish and Chinese learn to work together
• The cowboys and ranchers were able to travel across the country more quickly