Question 1

What were the benefits and costs of economic and technological development in the western United States between 1870 and 1900?

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
Benefits: The growth and expansion of industrialization, especially mining, railroads, and commercial farming, increased U.S. wealth, furthered urbanization, and improved quality of life for some. The West offered economic opportunities for industrialists, and some homesteaders who traveled to the West created comfortable lives that might not have been achievable in the East.
Costs: Destruction of Native American cultures, the bison herds, parts of the western landscape, and the free range were all costs of westward expansion. Many laborers who went west to find work in mining and other areas of industry suffered exploitation.

Question 2

Which was the largest ethnic group in the western mining district of the United States in the late nineteenth century?

Accepted Answer

A)  The Chinese 
B)  The Swiss 
C)  Hungarians 
D)  The Irish 
A)  The Chinese 
B)  The Swiss 
C)  Hungarians 
D)  The Irish D

Question 3

What attitudes did white settlers and those in the U.S. government have toward Native Americans after the Civil War? Describe the ways in which Native Americans attempted to resist white domination of their culture.

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
U.S. Government Attitudes: The U.S. government saw Native Americans in the West as an obstacle to westward expansion and a problem that needed a solution. Native Americans were viewed as a group that was inferior to whites and that needed to be civilized, Christianized, and assimilated in Indian schools and on reservations. The U.S. government also saw at least some Indians as belligerents who should be controlled and even attacked.
White Settlers' Attitudes: White settlers' and miners' attitudes toward Native Americans were almost exclusively suspicious and hostile. They saw Indians as dangerous and barbarous people who needed to be run off "white" land.
Native American Resistance: Different groups of Indians responded in different ways. Some fought alongside the U.S. army hoping to win favor. Some, such as the Nez Percé, actively resisted containment on reservations by fleeing. Some, like the Apache, resorted to armed resistance. Nonviolent resistance in the form of the Ghost Dance was practiced by the Sioux, the Paiute, and other tribes.

Question 4

Which of the following describes how life in the agrarian West compared to life in the mining West?

Accepted Answer

A)  Slow paced 
B)  Free of hardship 
C)  Equally exploitative 
D)  Free of economic competition 
A)  Slow paced 
B)  Free of hardship 
C)  Equally exploitative 
D)  Free of economic competition

Question 5

Which group or groups decimated the buffalo herds on the Great Plains in the late nineteenth century?

Accepted Answer

A)  Native Americans who regularly slaughtered the animals as part of their rituals 
B)  Railroads and irresponsible hide hunters 
C)  The U.S. army, which killed them to feed the troops 
D)  Chinese and Irish work gangs who were desperate for food 
A)  Native Americans who regularly slaughtered the animals as part of their rituals 
B)  Railroads and irresponsible hide hunters 
C)  The U.S. army, which killed them to feed the troops 
D)  Chinese and Irish work gangs who were desperate for food

Question 6

By the late nineteenth century, farmers were no longer the self-sufficient yeomen anchoring the republic as originally described by which of the following men?

Accepted Answer

A)  Thomas Jefferson 
B)  George Washington 
C)  Andrew Jackson 
D)  James Madison 
A)  Thomas Jefferson 
B)  George Washington 
C)  Andrew Jackson 
D)  James Madison

Question 7

Which of the following describes the changes experienced by the Californios between 1850 and 1880?

Accepted Answer

A)  Their numbers increased from 19 percent to 82 percent of the state's total population. 
B)  They solidified their claim to historic land. 
C)  Their percentage of the state's population fell by more than 60 percent. 
D)  They began their steady assimilation into American life. 
A)  Their numbers increased from 19 percent to 82 percent of the state's total population. 
B)  They solidified their claim to historic land. 
C)  Their percentage of the state's population fell by more than 60 percent. 
D)  They began their steady assimilation into American life.

Question 8

What happened at the Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864?

Accepted Answer

A)  Colonel John M. Chivington butchered 270 Indians. 
B)  Black Kettle defeated Chivington's American forces. 
C)  The Americans executed five Indians who refused to surrender. 
D)  Chivington scalped and mutilated Indian men but spared women and children. 
A)  Colonel John M. Chivington butchered 270 Indians. 
B)  Black Kettle defeated Chivington's American forces. 
C)  The Americans executed five Indians who refused to surrender. 
D)  Chivington scalped and mutilated Indian men but spared women and children.

Question 9

What was the Ghost Dance?

Accepted Answer

A)  A religious ritual that was supposed to lead to the destruction of whites and the return of the buffalo. 
B)  A ritual performed by the Paiutes in an effort to contact their great spirit leaders for guidance. 
C)  A signal that Native Americans of the Great Plains had resigned themselves to white domination. 
D)  A ritual that the Sioux men performed as they were preparing for battle against white Americans. 
A)  A religious ritual that was supposed to lead to the destruction of whites and the return of the buffalo. 
B)  A ritual performed by the Paiutes in an effort to contact their great spirit leaders for guidance. 
C)  A signal that Native Americans of the Great Plains had resigned themselves to white domination. 
D)  A ritual that the Sioux men performed as they were preparing for battle against white Americans.

Question 10

According to Map 17.2: Western Mining, 1848-1890, in which state did the most "gold bonanzas" occur?

Accepted Answer

A)  California 
B)  Arizona 
C)  South Dakota 
D)  Colorado 
A)  California 
B)  Arizona 
C)  South Dakota 
D)  Colorado

Question 11

What was the purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?

Accepted Answer

A)  To respond to Chinese laborers' demands for higher wages and better working conditions 
B)  To decrease the Chinese population of the American West 
C)  To limit the number of Chinese immigrants to America for a period of three years 
D)  To reduce anti-Asian prejudice in California and other areas of the West 
A)  To respond to Chinese laborers' demands for higher wages and better working conditions 
B)  To decrease the Chinese population of the American West 
C)  To limit the number of Chinese immigrants to America for a period of three years 
D)  To reduce anti-Asian prejudice in California and other areas of the West

Question 12

Along with the Homestead Act of 1862, which factor helped stimulate the land rush in the trans-Mississippi West?

Accepted Answer

A)  The transition from large commercial farming to smaller family farms 
B)  Frederick Jackson Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" 
C)  The availability of essential resources such as water and firewood on the plains 
D)  The opening of the transcontinental railroad 
A)  The transition from large commercial farming to smaller family farms 
B)  Frederick Jackson Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History" 
C)  The availability of essential resources such as water and firewood on the plains 
D)  The opening of the transcontinental railroad

Question 13

What was the outcome of the transformation of agriculture to big business in the South and West during the post-Civil War era?

Accepted Answer

A)  An increasing number of laborers worked land they would never own 
B)  Agricultural yields fell dramatically overall 
C)  The widespread use of machinery halved the size of the agricultural labor force 
D)  The total number of farms fell by more than half 
A)  An increasing number of laborers worked land they would never own 
B)  Agricultural yields fell dramatically overall 
C)  The widespread use of machinery halved the size of the agricultural labor force 
D)  The total number of farms fell by more than half

Question 14

Frederick Jackson Turner's "frontier thesis" posited that the availability of plentiful land in the West provided a "safety net" that released social tensions and provided opportunities for social mobility that Americanized Americans. To what extent do you think the experiences of the individuals and families who migrated to the trans-Mississippi West between 1870 and 1900 actually bear out Turner's conclusions?

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
Migrants a

Question 15

Describe three important changes in the way farming was carried out after the Civil War.

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
New Techno

Question 16

Match the term with the definition.
-1876 battle begun when American cavalry under George Armstrong Custer attacked an encampment of Indians who refused to remove to a reservation. Indian warriors led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull annihilated the American soldiers, but their victory was short-lived.

Accepted Answer

A) Battle of the Little Big Horn 
B) Black Hills 
C) Carlisle Indian School 
D) Chinese Exclusion Act 
E) Comanchería
F)Comstock Lode
G)Dawes Allotment Act
H)first transcontinental railroad
I)Ghost Dance
J)Homestead Act of 1862
K)reservations
L)Wounded Knee 
A) Battle of the Little Big Horn 
B) Black Hills 
C) Carlisle Indian School 
D) Chinese Exclusion Act 
E) Comanchería
F)Comstock Lode
G)Dawes Allotment Act
H)first transcontinental railroad
I)Ghost Dance
J)Homestead Act of 1862
K)reservations
L)Wounded Knee

Question 17

Match the term with the definition.
-Legislation that promised 160 acres in the trans-Mississippi West free to any citizen or prospective citizen who settled on the land for five years. The act spurred American settlement of the West. Altogether nearly one-tenth of the United States was granted to settlers.

Accepted Answer

A) Battle of the Little Big Horn 
B) Black Hills 
C) Carlisle Indian School 
D) Chinese Exclusion Act 
E) Comanchería
F)Comstock Lode
G)Dawes Allotment Act
H)first transcontinental railroad
I)Ghost Dance
J)Homestead Act of 1862
K)reservations
L)Wounded Knee 
A) Battle of the Little Big Horn 
B) Black Hills 
C) Carlisle Indian School 
D) Chinese Exclusion Act 
E) Comanchería
F)Comstock Lode
G)Dawes Allotment Act
H)first transcontinental railroad
I)Ghost Dance
J)Homestead Act of 1862
K)reservations
L)Wounded Knee

Question 18

Match the term with the definition.
-1887 law that divvied up reservations and allotted parcels of land to individual Indians as private property. In the end, the American government sold almost two-thirds of "surplus" Indian land to white settlers. The law dealt a crippling blow to traditional tribal culture.

Accepted Answer

A) Battle of the Little Big Horn 
B) Black Hills 
C) Carlisle Indian School 
D) Chinese Exclusion Act 
E) Comanchería
F)Comstock Lode
G)Dawes Allotment Act
H)first transcontinental railroad
I)Ghost Dance
J)Homestead Act of 1862
K)reservations
L)Wounded Knee 
A) Battle of the Little Big Horn 
B) Black Hills 
C) Carlisle Indian School 
D) Chinese Exclusion Act 
E) Comanchería
F)Comstock Lode
G)Dawes Allotment Act
H)first transcontinental railroad
I)Ghost Dance
J)Homestead Act of 1862
K)reservations
L)Wounded Knee

Question 19

Describe how the concepts of imperialism and colonialism explain the process of westward expansion in the United States in the nineteenth century?

Accepted Answer

Answer would ideally include:
Conquest o

Question 20

What did the Homestead Act of 1862 promise to potential migrants to the West?

Accepted Answer

A)  160 acres to any southerner who promised to defect from the Confederacy and move West 
B)  160 acres free to any citizen or prospective citizen who settled on land west of the Mississippi River for five years 
C)  Free agricultural implements and enough money to live for one year to all citizens willing to cultivate land west of the Mississippi River 
D)  160 acres to any citizen or prospective citizen at a guaranteed price of $2 an acre 
A)  160 acres to any southerner who promised to defect from the Confederacy and move West 
B)  160 acres free to any citizen or prospective citizen who settled on land west of the Mississippi River for five years 
C)  Free agricultural implements and enough money to live for one year to all citizens willing to cultivate land west of the Mississippi River 
D)  160 acres to any citizen or prospective citizen at a guaranteed price of $2 an acre

Exam 17: The Contested West

What were the benefits and costs of economic and technological development in the western United States between 1870 and 1900?

Which was the largest ethnic group in the western mining district of the United States in the late nineteenth century?

What attitudes did white settlers and those in the U.S. government have toward Native Americans after the Civil War? Describe the ways in which Native Americans attempted to resist white domination of their culture.

Which of the following describes how life in the agrarian West compared to life in the mining West?

Which group or groups decimated the buffalo herds on the Great Plains in the late nineteenth century?

By the late nineteenth century, farmers were no longer the self-sufficient yeomen anchoring the republic as originally described by which of the following men?

Which of the following describes the changes experienced by the Californios between 1850 and 1880?

What happened at the Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864?

What was the Ghost Dance?

According to Map 17.2: Western Mining, 1848-1890, in which state did the most "gold bonanzas" occur?

What was the purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?

Along with the Homestead Act of 1862, which factor helped stimulate the land rush in the trans-Mississippi West?

What was the outcome of the transformation of agriculture to big business in the South and West during the post-Civil War era?

Describe three important changes in the way farming was carried out after the Civil War.

Describe how the concepts of imperialism and colonialism explain the process of westward expansion in the United States in the nineteenth century?

What did the Homestead Act of 1862 promise to potential migrants to the West?

Ancient America Before

Europeans Encounter the New World

The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century

The Northern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century

Colonial America in the Eighteenth Century

The British Empire and the Colonial Crisis

The War for America

Building a Republic

The New Nation Takes Form

Republicans in Power

The Expanding Republic

The New West and the Free North

The Slave South

The House Divided

The Crucible of War

Reconstruction

Railroads, Business, and Politics in the Gilded Age

The City and Its Workers

Dissent, Depression, and War

Progressivism From the Grass Roots to the White House

World War I: the Progressive Crusade at Home and Abroad

From New Era to Great Depression

The New Deal Experiment

The United States and the Second World War

Cold War Politics in the Truman Years

The Politics and Culture of Abundance

Reform, Rebellion, and Reaction

Vietnam and the End of the Cold War Consensus

America Moves to the Right

The Promises and Challenges of Globalization Since

Citizenship, Indian Removal, Equality, Women's Rights, Native American Relations, Slavery, Religion, Labor, Westward Expansion, and North-South Differences.

Historical Perspectives on American Politics and Society

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