Westward Expansion

Study Guide
Standard 5-2: I can demonstrate an
understanding of the continued Westward
Expansion of the United States.

Westward Expansion: The acquisition

(settling) of territories, like the Louisiana
Purchase, resulting in more and more
land for Americans until eventually
reaching the Pacific Ocean.

Transcontinental Railroad: Completed

largely by Chinese and Irish laborers and
completed in 1869 in Promontory, Utah,
was a major railway that linked the
eastern and western parts of the United
States.

Manifest Destiny: The 19th century

doctrine and belief by the United States
that they had the right and duty to
expand throughout the North American
continent.
Homestead Act: Passed in 1862
allowing any citizen or applicant for the
citizenship over 21 years old and head of
a family to acquire 160 acres of public
land by living on it and cultivating it for 5
years. (Who received money for
moving out west?)

Exodusters: Name given to African

Americans who migrated from states
along the Mississippi River to Kansas in
the late 19th century, as part of the
Exoduster Movement of 1879. This period
was the first general migration of blacks
following the Civil War. (What town was
established by African Americans?)
Indian Wars: Name used in the U.S. to
describe the multiple conflicts between
American settlers/ federal government
and the native peoples of North America
from the time of the earliest colonial
settlement until approximately 1890.

Black Hills: Mountains in southwestern

South Dakota and northwestern Wyoming.
Sacred to the Sioux. The opening of the
Black Hills to settlement by whites in 1874
led to the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Battle of Little Bighorn: Name given to
the combat between the LaKotas,
Cheyenne, and the U.S. Armys Seventh
Calvary in 1876. This battle resulted in
the deaths of nearly half of the unit,
including General George Armstrong
Custer.

Carlisle School: In Carlisle,

Pennsylvania, was the flagship Indian
boarding school in the U.S. from 1879 to
1918. The school was founded by Captain
Richard Henry Pratt under the authority of
the U.S. federal government. The Carlisle
School was the first off-reservation Indian
boarding school.
Dawes Severalty Act of 1887: Act of 1887