Westward Expansion Test Study Guide

Essential Understandings

During the nineteenth century, people’s perceptions and use of the Great Plains changed.

Technological advances allowed people to live in more challenging environments.

New opportunities and technological advances led to westward migration following the Civil War.

Essential Questions (Be ready to answer these)

How did people’s perceptions and use of the Great Plains change after the Civil War?

How did people adapt to life in challenging environments?

Why did westward expansion occur?

Essential Knowledge

Because of new technologies, people saw the Great Plains not as a "treeless wasteland" but as a vast area to be settled.

Physical features/climate of the Great Plains

Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west

Land eroded by wind and water

Low rainfall

Frequent dust storms

Inventions/adaptations

Barbed wire

Steel plows

Dry farming

Sod houses

Beef cattle raising—primarily in eastern Texas

Wheat farming

Windmills

Railroads

Vocabulary
  • Comstock Lode
  • Transcontinental Railroad
  • Promontory Point
  • Colonel George Custer
  • Exodusters
  • Sooners
  • Sodbusters

 

Reasons for westward expansion

Opportunities for land ownership (Homestead Act)

Technological advances, including the Transcontinental Railroad (Promontory Point)—know that Congress provided land incentive to help the railroad owners build more track.

Possibility of wealth created by the discovery of gold and silver-- Comstock Lode

Adventure

A new beginning for former slaves

Interaction and conflict between different cultural groups

Indian policies and wars