Westward Expansion

How did the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad affect the United States in the late 1800s?

• It reduced economic hardships for many American Indian tribes.

• It allowed for the construction of textile mills across the West.

• It decreased the need for the country to be reunified.

• It encouraged people to establish settlements beyond the western frontier.

This list describes selected features of the Homestead Act of 1862.

• Adult citizens were granted 100 and 60 acres of public land.
  
  People claiming the land were required to improve the land by building a home and farming the land.

• 
  After 5 years on the land, the person claiming the land paid a registration fee and officially owned the land.

What was one effect of the act described in this list?

• The population of settlers in the American West increased.

• The debt of the federal government increased.

• The number of conflicts with American Indians decreased.

• The demand for natural resources decreased.

Which factor contributed to the settling of the American West by immigrants arriving from places such as China, Ireland, and Scandinavia?

• Building of the Transcontinental Railroad

• Development of cattle drive trails out of Texas

• Invention of the commercial electric telegraph

• Establishment of a system of Indian reservations

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What is the best title for this list?

• How Sharecroppers lived in the Deep South

• Ways Migrant Workers Lived in the Southwest

• How Minors took advantage of Gold Rush Opportunities

• Ways settlers adapted to conditions on the Great Plains

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What was the primary reason the Exodusters left the south?

• To escape drought conditions

• To reunite with family members

• To find employment in U.S. wartime industries

• To escape oppression and discrimination

Match the following

• The Frontier, West, Great Plains

• Cheap government land that accelerated westward expansion

• Transcontinental Railroad

• First migration of former African American slaves from the south to the west to escape racial oppression

• Homestead Act 1862

• Areas not settled by technological advances and home to Native Americans

• Exodusters

• Massive rush of people to Alaska in hopes of striking in rich

• Klondike Gold Rush

• Connected the east coast and west coast

From the information in the Fort Worth Population Growth chart, what is the most likely reason for Fort Worth’s dramatic population growth between 1890 – 1910?

• Reliable transportation for shipping

• The mild climate of central Texas

• An increase demand for beef.

• An abundant water supply