Deck 17: The West: Exploiting an Empire, 1849-1902

Question 1

On the Great Plains, rainfall averaged________ .

A) more than 100 inches a year
B) less than five inches a year
C) less than 20 inches a year
D) more than 200 inches a year
E) less than ten inches a year

Answer 1

less than 20 inches a year

Question 2

In 1865, the number of Native Americans living in the West was________ .

A) 10,000
B) 250,000
C) 500,000
D) 750,000
E) 1,000,000

Answer 2

250,000

Question 3

Which of the following tribes were peaceful farmers and herdsmen?

A) the Sioux
B) the Kiowas
C) the Seminoles
D) the Pueblos
E) the Comanches

Answer 3

the Pueblos

Question 4

By 1880, there were approximately________ Native Americans in California.

A) 20,000
B) 30,000
C) 40,000
D) 50,000
E) 60,000

Question 5

By the mid-nineteenth century, two-thirds of Native American tribes lived on the Great Plains, including the________ .

A) Hopi
B) Cherokee
C) Sioux
D) Chinook
E) Zuni

Question 6

The Plains tribes were________ .

A) sedentary and pacific
B) fishermen and farmers
C) nomadic and warlike
D) practitioners of human sacrifice
E) builders of great cities

Question 7

The socioeconomic life of the Plains tribes revolved around________ .

A) the sun
B) grain cultivation
C) the buffalo
D) the elk
E) war

Question 8

After the buffalo, the most important animal to the Plains Indians was the________ .

A) dog
B) elk
C) deer
D) horse
E) jackrabbit

Question 9

In the 1850s, government policy toward the Plains tribes was to________ .

A) exterminate them
B) define boundaries for each tribe and sign treaties with them
C) give each Native American "40 acres and a mule" for farming
D) provoke intertribal warfare
E) ignore them and hope they would eventually die out

Question 10

The Sand Creek massacre of 1864 was led by________ .

A) William J. Fetterman
B) George Custer
C) William Sherman
D) John Chivington
E) Joseph Smith

Question 11

One of the greatest Native American victories over the U.S. Army was the________ .

A) Battle of Wounded Knee
B) Battle of Sand Creek
C) Battle of Little Big Horn
D) Fetterman Massacre
E) "Trail of Tears"

Question 12

By the late 1880s, a popular new cult among the Native American Plains tribes was________ .

A) the Ghost Dance
B) the Sun Dance
C) human sacrifice
D) Catholicism
E) the Great White Father

Question 13

Beginning in 1871, the U.S. government________ .

A) stopped dealing with Native American tribes as sovereign nations
B) started dealing with Native American tribes as sovereign nations
C) tried to restore lands to Native Americans
D) rejected the Dawes Act
E) began a systematic slaughter of all Native Americans still living in tribes

Question 14

The final blow to Native American tribal life on the Plains was________ .

A) the deaths of the major Native American leaders
B) the extermination of the buffalo herds
C) incessant tribal warfare
D) the reservation system
E) the introduction of crop farming

Question 15

The first migrations westward________ .

A) headed for the Middle Plains region
B) focused on the Southwest
C) rushed to Oregon and California
D) followed the traditional path of earlier settlers
E) steered toward the Great Lakes region

Question 16

A dominant issue in the western Great Plains was control of________ .

A) gold and silver mines
B) grazing rights
C) water
D) the land
E) the routes of the great cattle drives

Question 17

A common sight for pioneers heading west on the Oregon and other trails was________ .

A) the bleached bones of those who had gone before
B) menacing bands of hostile Indians
C) piles of trash discarded by previous travelers
D) towns where gambling and drinking predominated
E) cattle drives heading north

Question 18

The largest landowners in the West were________ .

A) railroad companies
B) immigrants
C) eastern settlers
D) Native Americans
E) Mexicans

Question 19

The 1902 federal law to use the proceeds from land sales to finance irrigation projects in the West was the________ .

A) National Reclamation Act
B) Timber Culture Act
C) Timber and Stone Act
D) Homestead Act
E) Western Watering Act

Question 20

________ was the first major industry to attract large numbers of people to the West.

A) Cattle ranching
B) Farming
C) Fur trapping
D) Herding
E) Mining

Question 21

The origins of the western cattle industry lay in________ .

A) Mexico
B) Spain
C) New England
D) the plantation South
E) the Midwest

Question 22

The individual largely responsible for developing the "trail drive" was________ .

A) William Hickok
B) Joseph G. McCoy
C) Charles Goodnight
D) Henry Comstock
E) Hank Chisolm

Question 23

Approximately 50 percent of cowboys driving the great herds from Texas to city markets in the 1870s were________ .

A) Asian Americans
B) African Americans and Mexicans
C) Europeans
D) Native Americans
E) women

Question 24

The so-called "final fling" of settlement on the frontier occurred in________ .

A) California
B) Oklahoma
C) Missouri
D) Oregon
E) Arizona

Question 25

Frederick Jackson Turner was________ .

A) founder of the National Grange
B) the historian who first developed the frontier thesis
C) the most notorious of the western badmen
D) the discoverer of the Comstock Lode
E) a famous wagon train boss

Question 26

What was challenging about settling the land west of the Mississippi River in the late 1800s?

A) The region got little rainfall, and there was little lumber available for housing.
B) The region was frequently flooded by its rivers, which made farming it difficult.
C) The Great Plains had many deserts, and this made travel and farming difficult.
D) The region had various Native American groups who would not leave their land.
E) The Great Plains were known for their severe and unpredictable weather patterns.

Question 27

The Plains Indians________ .

A) were organized into one large and powerful tribal group
B) were an insignificant proportion of the total Native American population in the United States in 1870
C) were a complex of tribes, cultures, and bands that assigned most work on the basis of gender
D) were at a distinct disadvantage when fighting whites because of their weapons
E) had advanced farming techniques and complex building structures

Question 28

A factor in the U.S. government abandonment of the policy of one large reservation after 1851 was

A) to enable wagon trains needed to cross the Great Plains without hindrances
B) a push by Southerners to allow slavery in the western territories
C) that Indians had traditional rivalries and needed to be kept apart
D) a desire to foster traditional Native American culture
E) the difficulty in finding large enough tracts of unsettled land

Question 29

Government policy toward Native Americans in the 1860s________ .

A) ignored or opposed tribal organization
B) was consistent but not successful because of tribal organization
C) was formulated by humanitarians who wanted to preserve tribal organization
D) was a failure because the Indians insisted on being farmers
E) was based on a system of hierarchy toward various groups

Question 30

Some American reformers were against segregating Native Americans on reservations because they believed that________ .

A) Native Americans should be sent to the North where they could live freely
B) reservations took too much land away from white settlers
C) Native Americans should be allowed to live their traditional lifestyles in the West
D) Native Americans should be assimilated into white American culture
E) reservations should include both Native Americans and white settlers

Question 31

How did the Dawes Severalty Act try to "civilize" the Indians?

A) by turning them into landowning ranchers and farmers
B) by making public education compulsory on reservations
C) by threatening to exterminate Indians if they refused to adopt white culture
D) by sending Christian missionaries to convert Indians
E) by arranging for their children to be fostered out to white families

Question 32

Which of the following was part of the national government's policy toward Native Americans from the early 1870s to the mid-1880s?

A) working to assimilate Native Americans into the larger American culture
B) encouraging Native American tribal customs and ceremonies
C) seizing individual Native American's parcels of land
D) assimilating Native Americans into urban life
E) sending Native American children to integrated public schools in nearby towns

Question 33

Why did most settlers move west between 1870 and 1900?

A) to seek freedom from religious persecution
B) to escape the drab routine of factory life
C) to escape the diseased conditions of crowded eastern cities
D) to improve their economic situation
E) to escape from invading Native American groups

Question 34

Which of the following phrases describes the journey westward for most settlers?

A) All members of the journey had tasks to fulfill on the trail.
B) Only men migrated westward.
C) Most settlers tried to make the journey as quickly as possible.
D) The journey was easier for men than for women.
E) It was a disciplined and efficient enterprise.

Question 35

Why is it inaccurate to say that everyone who settled in the American West in the 1870s and 1880s traveled westward?

A) Many people in the Northwest traveled southeast to the Great Plains.
B) Mexicans traveled north and Asians traveled east to settle in the West.
C) Mexicans traveled east from California to settle in the Great Plains.
D) Western Europeans traveled east in order to settle in the West.
E) Asians in the west traveled east to reach the Great Plains.

Question 36

Why did the Homestead Act of 1862 fail?

A) It charged too much for government land.
B) The land allotments were insufficient for farming arid land.
C) It did not adequately convert Native Americans to farming.
D) Gold was discovered on land set aside for farming.
E) Too few settlers were willing to migrate to the West.

Question 37

How did the National Reclamation Act help settlement in the west?

A) It restricted immigration from Asia and parts of Europe so that there would be more land for easterners moving west.
B) It reclaimed hundreds of acres of land from Native Americans and made it available to white settlers.
C) It restricted cattle to specific areas of land, so that farmers would have more land for cultivation.
D) It gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would pay a registration fee and cultivate the land for five years.
E) It financed irrigation projects, such as dams and canals, which brought water to the area.

Question 38

Why was the late-nineteenth-century southwestern frontier largely Spanish American?

A) The heavy Spanish influence there was due to the original Spanish settlers.
B) There were very few Anglo Americans who wanted to settle the southwest.
C) It was originally part of Mexico, and many Mexicans still had communities there.
D) Mexico did not allow people from the eastern United States to settle there.
E) English settlers were reluctant to learn Spanish, so they settled elsewhere.

Question 39

Why did "instant cities" arise in the West in the late nineteenth century?

A) City builders rushed to the West to take advantage of the cheap land.
B) People rushed to the West for economic opportunities, and cities sprang up quickly.
C) Easterners were anxious to replicate the cities they had left and built quickly.
D) Building materials were so cheap that it made sense to build an entire city instantly instead of letting it develop over time.
E) White settlers took over western settlements that had already been built by Native Americans.

Question 40

What was significant about the Big Bonanza?

A) It made Henry Comstock the richest man in the world.
B) It was the largest wheat farm on the Great Plains.
C) It was discovered near Pike's Peak in California.
D) It was the richest discovery in the history of mining.
E) It indirectly led to an uprising of Sioux Indians.

Question 41

Why did the number of Chinese immigrants fall drastically in the late nineteenth century?

A) Chinese laborers were treated so poorly in the West that fewer immigrants wanted to come to the United States.
B) China severely restricted immigration to the United States beginning in the 1880s.
C) The Homestead Act did not apply to Chinese immigrants and thus there was no land available for them.
D) Many Chinese laborers found better work in Europe than in the United States.
E) The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended immigration of Chinese laborers.

Question 42

Which of the following stimulated the western cattle industry?

A) court decisions that allowed livestock to be transported across state lines
B) the discovery of precious metals, which made money available for investment in ranching
C) railroads and a population increase in the eastern United States
D) a decline in the amount of beef imported to the United States
E) dietary changes in the eastern United States

Question 43

By the late nineteenth century, ranching was changing as________ .

A) ranchers were fencing off their lands
B) experienced cowboys abandoned ranches in favor of factory jobs
C) ranches were getting smaller
D) ranchers switched to farming corn
E) cattle shipped from Mexico became cheaper than American cattle

Question 44

What was the primary cause of the increase of farmers in the West after the Civil War?

A) the decline of ranching
B) failed miners looking for new opportunities
C) the belief in economic opportunity by many Americans
D) an increase in the birthrate of the western farmers
E) advances in farming by irrigation

Question 45

How did barbed wire transform the lives of farmers on the Great Plains?

A) It allowed farmers to establish the boundaries of their farms, which previously had not been possible.
B) It made it possible for farmers to leave their farms for extended periods of time.
C) It helped farmers get cattle to northern markets along the cattle trails.
D) It kept Native Americans away from their farms so that their land was protected.
E) It allowed farmers to pen their animals and keep other animals off their land.

Question 46

What was one of the results of the rapid increase in cultivated acreage during the latter half of the nineteenth century?

A) higher tariffs on farm products
B) lower prices for farm products
C) a decrease in demand for farm machinery
D) an increase in land values
E) a decrease in land values

Question 47

The Grange was originally founded in 1867 to________ .

A) provide social, cultural, and educational activities for farmers
B) allow farmers to have a say in government
C) organize farmers into a union for collective bargaining
D) keep peace between farmers and cattlemen in the West
E) provide collective insurance for farmers and their land

Question 48

What was the debate in the 1860s between whites in the East and whites in the West over what to do about Native Americans?

A) Easterners wanted a peaceful policy of assimilation, while those in the West, who feared attacks, wanted a firmer control over Native Americans.
B) Easterners wanted Native Americans to be segregated on reservations, while those in the West wanted Native Americans to be assimilated into white society.
C) Easterners wanted Native Americans to move further west, while westerners believed they should be allowed to stay where they were.
D) Easterners felt that until Native Americans were fully controlled, they could not have any rights, whereas westerners wanted them to have equal rights.
E) Easterners felt that Native Americans should be allowed to live their traditional nomadic lifestyles, while westerners wanted them to be assimilated into American culture.

Question 49

What does the following quotation mean with regard to western migration: "The quest for something new would take place in the context of the very familiar"?

A) Families would only migrate to the West after they had sent an individual ahead who would report back to them.
B) People only migrated in family groups if they already had family established out West.
C) Families tended to travel back and forth between their old homes and their new homes until they felt entirely comfortable out West.
D) Most families who traveled to the West had experience with migration before, and thus the trip was nothing new to them.
E) People made every effort to keep their migration experience as familiar as possible, including traveling in family groups.

Question 50

How do the views of "new Western historians" contrast with Frederick Jackson Turner's thesis about the westward migration?

A) Turner viewed the migration as a fluid back and forth between the East and West, but new historians point out that very few families who migrated west returned east.
B) Turner viewed the migration as a mix of cultures struggling to get along with Native Americans, but new historians point out that many Native Americans were helpful to the new settlers.
C) Turner saw the migration as a wave of white migrants who traveled west, but new historians look at it as a set of various groups moving in many directions and interacting with each other.
D) Turner saw the migration as a long process, but new historians have pointed out that the entire wave of migration was very concentrated and took place over a relatively short period of time.
E) Turner viewed the migration as a very negative experience for the travelers, but new historians point out that the experience was both positive and negative.

Question 51

What government policies facilitated the settlement and development of the West?

Question 52

How did the environment of the Great Plains differ from that of the eastern United States? What problems did this pose for farmers?

Question 53

Contrast life on the western frontier for the miner, the cattleman, and the farmer. What social and economic factors contributed to the lifestyle developed by each group?