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Westward expansion
Wesword expansion
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| California Gold rush | period where thousands of people went west to search for gold |
| Cattle Drive | when cowboys guided huge herds of cattle North to new railroad lines extending across The Great Plains |
| Pony Express | Business that deliverable mail from Missouri to California in just ten days |
| Telegraph | invention that sent messages along wires using electricity |
| Samuel B .Morse | developed a way to send telegraph messages |
| Transcontinental Railroad | a railroad across the continent linking the Eastern United States to the Western United States |
| Union Pacific | began building train track West from Omaha, Most workers were Irish immigrants. |
| Promontory Point | Place in Utah where the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific and connected the transcontinental |
| Central Pacific | began building train track east from Sacramento California. Most workers were Chinese immigrants. |
| Chinese immigrants | made up of 80% of Central Pacific workers |
| Red Cloud | told Union Pacific workers they were scaring away the buffalo |
| Gen. William Tecumsah Sherman | warned the Native Americans that nothing would stop the building of the railroads |
| Homestead Act Of 1862 | law that offered free land to American citizens and immigrants who were willing to start new farms on the Great plans |
| Homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through the Homestead Act |
| sod House (soddy) | houses made from sod (soil) on the Great Plans |
| Pioneers | new settlers |
| exodusters | thousands of African American pioneers who moved to the Great Plains and started communities |
| Nicodemus, Kansas | a successful community started by exodusters |