Review Questions

1. 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

2. 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

3. Why and how did the U.S. government promote western migration in the midst of fighting the Civil War?

4. 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

5. What accounts for the success of large commercial “bonanza farms?” What benefits did they enjoy over their smaller family-run counterparts?

6. How did everyday life in the American West hasten equality for women who settled the land?

7. Which of the following groups was not impacted by the invention of barbed wire?
ranchers
cowboys
farmers
illegal prostitutes

8. The American cowboy owes much of its model to what other culture?
Mexicans
Native Americans
Northern European immigrants
Chinese immigrants

9. How did mining and cattle ranching transform individual “get rich quick” efforts into “big business” efforts when the nineteenth century came to a close?

10. 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

11. What brought the majority of Chinese immigrants to the U.S.?
gold
work opportunities on the railroads
the Homestead Act
Chinese benevolent associations

12. 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

13. Compare and contrast the treatment of Chinese immigrants and Hispanic citizens to that of Native Americans during the period of western settlement.