Pre US History Westward Expansion Test

Railroad owners wanted more people to settle on the Great Plains because...

• farmers would use the railroads to ship products to markets in the cities
• they needed more people to build railroad tracks
• they needed sharecroppers to farm the land owned by the railroads
• settlers would grow cotton and ship it to the south

The first railroad to cross the United States was the....

• Union Pacific Railroad
• Central Pacific Railroad
• Missouri Railroad
• Transcontinental Railroad

Why was the transcontinental railroad beneficial to America?

• The railroad was built over mountains that were impassable in stagecoach.
• Railroads provided a faster, safer, and cheaper transportation.
• Railroads allowed People to bring their furniture to the Great Plains.
• Railroads crossed rivers which were difficult to cross earlier.

By the summer of 1867, the Union Pacific was in Wyoming, covering far more ground than the Central Pacific. The Central Pacific broke through the mountains in late June, which meant the hard part was finally behind them. Both companies headed toward Salt Lake City, while cutting many corners in their race to get ahead. They built shoddy bridges or sections of track that had to be rebuilt later.

Which idea is BEST supported by this paragraph?

• Promoting competition between the two railroad companies caused the Union Pacific to reveal itself as the superior railroad company

• Advocating competition between the two railroad companies while failing to account for different geographic features resulted in resentful feelings.

• Encouraging competition between the two railroad companies resulted in a finished product that was poor quality.

• Nurturing competition between the two railroad companies was clearly a major mistake and caused humiliation for the government for years.

The transcontinental railroad linked these two parts of the United States?

• east to west

• north to south

• white and Native American

• Canada and Mexico

What was a dream of most Americans or what were they looking for?

• Rich land and power

• Rich land of the west and a desire for a job

• Gold and power

• Gold and rich land of the west

In the years following the Civil War, the Federal Government encouraged the settlement of the West by doing which of the following?

• passing an increased number of liberal immigration laws to encourage western settlement

• selling the most fertile public land to Native American Indians

• providing free transportation to settlers moving to the frontier

• granting tracts of land to railroad companies to encourage construction and opening unclaimed land to settlement

How did the Transcontinental railroad impact the United States economy?

• The U.S. economy sharply declined from the amount of money that was spend on its construction.

• The U.S. economy expanded as more products could reach more consumers efficiently in most parts of the United States.

• The only section of the U.S. economy that owed growth to the transcontinental railroad was the meat packing industry.

• The only section of the U.S. economy that owed growth to the transcontinental railroad was the steel industry.

"However, building railroads was grueling work, made even more challenging by the bigotry of their white bosses, as well as constant threat by Indians, and many Chinese died on the job."

• management

• oversight

• prejudice

• tolerance

To be absorbed into the main culture of society

• Assimilation
• Americanization
• Homestead Act
• Gospel of Wealth