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Westward Expansion
Term | Definition |
---|---|
California gold rush | period were 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 delivered mail from Missouri to California in ten days |
telegrahp | invention that sent messages along wires using electricity |
Samuel B. Morse | developed a way to send telegraph messages |
transcontinental railroad | a railroad across the continental linking the Eastern United States to Western United States |
union pacific | began building train tracks west from Omaha, most workers weer Irish immigrants |
central pacific | began building train tracks east from Sacramento California. Most workers were Chinese immagrants |
promontory point | place in Utah were the union Pacific met the Central Pacific and connected the transcontinental railroad |
Chinese Immigrants | made up almost 80% of the central pacific workers |
red cloud | told union pacific workers they were scaring away the buffalo |
Gen. Williams Tecumsah Sherman | Warned the Native Americans that nothing would stop the building of the railroads |
Homestead act of 1862 | Law that gave free land to American citizens and immigrants who were willing to start new farms on the great plains. Had to be 21 or older or a women head of the family. Got 160 acres of land. Paid $10 and agreed to farm and live on land for 5 years |
homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through homestead act |
sod house | houses made from sod on the great plains |
sodbuster | the name for farmers on the great plains |
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 |
technology | the use of new ideas to make tools that improve people’s lives |
entrepreneur | a person who starts a new business hoping to make a profit |
Levi Strauss | began making pants out of blue denim that were Sturdy and didn’t tear – the first blue jeans |
Reservation | area of land set aside for Native Americans |
Sitting Bull | chief of the Lakota tribe in the Black Hills of South Dakota |
Col. George Custer | led the 7 th Cavalry on a mission to defeat the Defeat the Lakota and force them onto a new Reservation |
Battle of Little Bighorn | battle in which Crazy Horse helped lead the Lakota to victory against the U.S. forces |
Chief Joseph | A Nez Perce’ chief who led his people to the Canadian border to avoid moving to a reservation. |