Railroad and Westward Expansion

What group of people built the first part of the railroad?

• The Irish immigrants, Chinese immigrants, civil war vets, and highwaymen.

• Abraham Lincoln and the Confederates.

Besides blasting tunnels through mountains, what else did the railroad companies do that changed the environment?

• cut down forests

• drained lakes

• laid track over sand

• routed railroads around high mountains

What was the overall effect the Transcontinental Railroad had on the United States?

• It United the Country politically.

• It made canals and shipping unneccessary.

Why were the vaqueros (cowboys) critical to the development of the cattle industry in the West?

• They taught American cowhands about riding, roping, and branding.

• They established houses of worship along the west

The cattle boom was ended by new settlement in the West and problems with

• vaqueros

• disease and climate

What made the Homestead Act less successful in establishing small farms than it could have been?

• There was too little competition for the available farmland.

• The market for wheat and corn wasn't sufficiently profitable

• Land for homesteaders was scarce.

The number of federal land grants that a state received under the Morrill Acts was based on the state's

• size

• population

What made farming the western plains difficult?

• the soil did not provide enough nutrients for the crops

• the harsh environment presented many difficulties

The American Indians of the Great Plains lived there successfully for many years because they

• Lived in peace with each other.

• depended on agriculture for food

• adapted their way of life to the region

Most women in Plains Indians societies took responsibility for

• hunting bison on foot or on horseback

• conducting religious ceremonies

• processing bison hides to make teepees and clothing