Westward Expansion

What was not a motive for expanding out west?

• Manifest Destiny

• Gold

• Start a new life

• Bored and nothing new to do

What is Manifest Destiny?

• legislation passed by Congress that split up Indian reservation lands.

• the belief that it's our country's fate from God to explore and move out west.

What was a popular trail that took people out west?

• Oregon Trail

• Transcontinental Cattle Trail

• Mining Trail

What was the purpose of Cattle Drives?

• To discover gold along the way.

• To go for long walks for fun.

• Cattle needed to be brought to the markets in the North but there were no railroads yet that connected those parts of the United States.

What was the mining boom?

• The discovery of gold and silver out west -> people coming from all over the world to settle there and join in the mining business.

• The discovery of diamonds out west -> people coming from all over the world to settle out there and join in the mining business.

What 2 animals did Native Americans on the Great Plains rely on?

• Pigs and cattle

• Dogs and cats

• Buffalo and horses

• Cattle and horses

What are Buffalo Soldiers?

• African Americans that settled western lands in the late 1800s.

• African American soldiers who served in the cavalry during the wars for the west.

How did many Americans buy cheap land out west

• The Dawes Act

• The Homestead Act

• The Cheap Land Act

What does assimilation mean?

• a limited area set aside for Native Americans.

• herds of longhorn cattle were driven (walked) hundreds of miles north to railroad lines.

• give up traditional ways of life and adopt American culture

What was the Dawes Act?

• legislation passed by Congress that split up Indian reservation lands among individual Indians and promised them citizenship.

• a railroad system that crossed the continental United States; construction began in 1863.

• Nevada gold and silver mine was discovered by Henry Comstock in 1859.