Review Questions
- Which of the following does not represent a group that participated significantly in westward migration after 1870?
- African American “exodusters” escaping racism and seeking economic opportunities
- former Southern slaveholders seeking land and new financial opportunities
- recent immigrants from Northern Europe and Canada
- recent Chinese immigrants seeking gold in California
- Which of the following represents an action that the U.S. government took to help Americans fulfill the goal of western expansion?
- the passage of the Homestead Act
- the official creation of the philosophy of Manifest Destiny
- the development of stricter immigration policies
- the introduction of new irrigation techniques
- Why and how did the U.S. government promote western migration in the midst of fighting the Civil War?
- What specific types of hardships did an average American farmer not face as he built his homestead in the Midwest?
- droughts
- insect swarms
- attacks from Native Americans
- limited building supplies
- What accounts for the success of large commercial “bonanza farms?” What benefits did they enjoy over their smaller family-run counterparts?
- How did everyday life in the American West hasten equality for women who settled the land?
- Which of the following groups was not impacted by the invention of barbed wire?
- ranchers
- cowboys
- farmers
- illegal prostitutes
- The American cowboy owes much of its model to what other culture?
- Mexicans
- Native Americans
- Northern European immigrants
- Chinese immigrants
- How did mining and cattle ranching transform individual “get rich quick” efforts into “big business” efforts when the nineteenth century came to a close?
- Which of the following was not a primary method by which the American government dealt with American Indians during the period of western settlement?
- relocation
- appeasement
- extermination
- assimilation
- What brought the majority of Chinese immigrants to the U.S.?
- gold
- work opportunities on the railroads
- the Homestead Act
- Chinese benevolent associations
- How were Hispanic citizens deprived of their wealth and land in the course of western settlement?
- Native American raids
- land seizures
- prisoner of war status
- infighting
- Compare and contrast the treatment of Chinese immigrants and Hispanic citizens to that of Native Americans during the period of western settlement.