Deck 11: The Contested West, 1815-1860

Question 1

Who were the first Anglo-American artists to travel West, hired by the federal government to accompany explorer Stephen H. Long?

A) Cyrus McCormick and John Deere
B) Michael D. Row and Daniel Boone
C) Samuel Seymour and Titan Ramsay Peale
D) George Catlin and James H. Simpson

Answer 1

Samuel Seymour and Titan Ramsay Peale

Question 2

The General Land Office, established in 1812, ___________________.

A) established a credit system for the purchase of Western lands that favored small-time farmers
B) handled the distribution of federal lands in the West
C) had the power to set the price-per-acre of Western lands
D) was charged with the responsibility of preventing speculators from buying large tracts of federal Western lands

Answer 2

handled the distribution of federal lands in the West

Question 3

Which of the following caused a significant increase in the demand for western timber?

A) The housing boom in the Old Northwest
B) The decision by Congress to double the number of ships in the United States Navy
C) The California Gold Rush
D) The expansion of the South's slave society into the Old Southwest

Answer 3

The California Gold Rush

Question 4

In addition to the Bible, which of the following books did migrants to the West often take with them?

A) Timothy Flint's Biographical Memoir of Daniel Boone
B) Ralph Waldo Emerson's compilation of essays and poems
C) John C. Frémont's accounts of his explorations
D) James Fenimore Cooper's The Deerslayer

Question 5

The Office of Indian Affairs:

A) Oversaw the "civilizing" of Native Americans by establishing European-style villages and schools for Indian children
B) Cooperated with the military in the removal of Indians from western lands and protected citizens who wanted to settle in the West
C) Was established to help in the assimilation of Native Americans into American society
D) Had the duty and responsibility of protecting the cultures of Native American peoples

Question 6

Appalachian West fur trappers _____________.

A) had little interaction with Indians in the region
B) often put inferior pelts on the market, which severely hurt their chances of selling in the international marketplace
C) often married Indian women
D) suffered severe economic setbacks in the 1820s

Question 7

Which of the following was a characteristic of the American "frontier"?

A) It was a region in which anarchy reigned.
B) It was a boundary beyond which there was no human habitation.
C) It was the line between civilized society and a completely untamed and savage wilderness.
D) It was a meeting place of different cultures.

Question 8

Largely as a result of the Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper, frontiersmen such as Daniel Boone became a symbol of which of the following?

A) Altruism and personal sacrifice
B) Humility and purity of thought
C) Individualism and freedom
D) Selfishness and greed

Question 9

Which of the following is true of "black laws" passed by many Midwestern states in the 1850s?

A) These laws prohibited gambling of any kind and imposed strict penalties against bookmakers.
B) These laws prohibited African Americans from living within the border of such states.
C) These laws prevented the return of runaway slaves to their southern owners.
D) These laws provided financial incentives to free black laborers willing to become permanent residents.

Question 10

The Black Hawk War:

A) Marked the end of militant Indian resistance uprisings in the Old Northwest
B) Raised the possibility that Great Britain would honor its defensive treaty with the Sauks by actively intervening on their behalf
C) Represented the first time that Native Americans successfully resisted removal from their ancestral lands
D) Represents one of the worst defeats ever experienced by the U.S. Army

Question 11

Native peoples were removed from their Eastern homelands by the U.S military under provisions of which act in the year 1830?

A) Military Commissions Act
B) Donation Land Claim Act
C) Residence Act
D) Indian Removal Act

Question 12

Which historian saw the Western frontier as a "meeting point between savagery and civilization" that shaped the American character and made the United States exceptional among nations?

A) Eugene Genovese
B) Frederick Jackson Turner
C) Charles A Beard
D) Robert Fogel

Question 13

Who was known as "The Pathfinder"?

A) John Jacob Astor
B) Stephen Austin
C) Davy Crockett
D) John C. Frémont

Question 14

In which place in the West was gold discovered in 1848, and subsequently became known as a place to strike it rich before returning home to live in comfort?

A) Colorado
B) California
C) Alaska
D) Washington

Question 15

Even though the West was often depicted in popular literature of the early nineteenth century as a violent place, in the minds of many Americans it also symbolized the nation's core value of __________.

A) materialism
B) idealism
C) communalism
D) freedom

Question 16

What was the moral message implied by much of George Catlin's artwork?

A) Destruction of the natural environment is against God's will.
B) Indians are better off if they are removed from the corrupting influence of white Americans.
C) American westward expansion is right and moral and part of God's plan.
D) The superior American culture must inevitably replace all other cultures.

Question 17

The Miami Indians:

A) Were able to prevent the removal of their people to reservations because of their successful assimilation into American culture
B) Managed to consistently elude the federal troops sent to forcibly remove them to Indian Country
C) Were subjected to a brutal massacre at the hands of the United States Army
D) Were decimated by a smallpox epidemic

Question 18

What was the "rendezvous"?

A) It was an annual, multi-day gathering of American, Indian, Mexican, and mixed-race fur trappers from throughout the West.
B) It was gathering in which all of the ethnic groups that lived in New Orleans competed for a story-telling prize.
C) It was the geographic point after which wagon trains had to depend on Native American guides to lead them safely to their destination.
D) After barn raisings in Midwestern farm communities, it was an opportunity for the participants to celebrate with story telling, dancing, and drinking.

Question 19

In the minds of most Americans of European descent in the early nineteenth century, the West:

A) Was an uninhabitable wilderness
B) Represented a place where they could own land and achieve economic independence
C) Consisted of a hodge-podge of cultures that could never be assimilated into the nation
D) Was a peaceful and idyllic area

Question 20

Which of the following was the most significant contribution made by the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers during the first half of the nineteenth century?

A) The building of levees to protect the city of New Orleans
B) Its survey of the Oregon Trail
C) The surveying of possible routes for a transcontinental railroad
D) The expeditions it sponsored to explore the West

Question 21

Which of the following was the dominant population group in Texas at the time of Mexican independence in 1821?

A) People of mixed race
B) Indians indigenous to the area
C) Immigrant Anglos
D) Hispanics

Question 22

Wheat farming in California depended on

A) massive irrigation projects.
B) skills taught to European-American migrants by Native Americans.
C) Indian laborers held in bondage.
D) mechanized agriculture.

Question 23

Under the presidency of Mirabeau Lamar, the Texas Rangers:

A) Were stationed along the border between Lone Star Republic and the United States to prevent any further influx of American migrants
B) Acted as a border patrol to enforce the law against entry of free blacks from the United States into the Lone Star Republic
C) Used terror tactics to drive Indians from Texas
D) Acted to protect the rights of Tejanos

Question 24

After passage of the Colonization Law of 1824 by the Mexican government, the Mexican state of Coahuila y Texas stipulated that, to be eligible for land grants, foreigners:

A) Could only use gold to pay for their land and could not buy land on credit
B) Could not marry Mexican women
C) Had to convert to the Catholic faith
D) Had to be Christians and establish permanent residency

Question 25

Manifest Destiny was the belief that ____________.

A) the territorial expansion of the United States was inevitable, divinely ordained, and just
B) the United States should fulfill its mission as expressed in the Declaration of Independence
C) the United States should pledge its support to oppressed people everywhere
D) war with Canada and Mexico was necessary and desirable

Question 26

Which of the following is true of slavery as practiced by Native Americans in the Southwest?

A) Owning slaves did not give increased socioeconomic status to their captors.
B) Within a tribe, only those convicted of crimes could be enslaved.
C) It was far less violent than the chattel slavery found in the American South.
D) It involved capturing women and children from other communities and assimilating them into their captors' communities.

Question 27

The "War of a Thousand Deserts" ____________.

A) was won by General Santa Ana
B) devastated the Comanche people
C) led to a justification of manifest destiny in Mexico
D) inspired the formation of the Texas Rangers

Question 28

Which of the following held spiritual significance for Plains Indians?

A) The American bison
B) The beaver
C) The coyote
D) The horse

Question 29

An empresario was:

A) An immigration agent who chose families suitable for settlement in Texas and who, in return, received land for every one hundred families he settled
B) A middleman who negotiated land contracts with the Mexican government on behalf of the United States
C) A United States resident who owned large tracts of land in Mexico
D) The owner of a large plantation in Texas

Question 30

Which of the following is true of Anglo-Americans who emigrated to Texas during the 1820s?

A) They were usually wealthy speculators who wanted to buy cheap land and sell it for a substantial profit.
B) They were not allowed by the Mexican authorities to bring slaves into Texas.
C) They generally settled in their own separate communities and had little interaction with Tejanos.
D) They were always outnumbered by Tejanos.

Question 31

By the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851,

A) Indian tribes in the Northwest Territory agreed to allow American migrants moving West free passage across their tribal lands.
B) all of the Indian tribes of the Great Plains agreed to cede their ancestral lands to the United States but were allowed to live on that land in perpetuity.
C) southwestern Indian tribes agreed to forgo any further allotments from the federal government in return for an expansion of their tribal boundaries.
D) eight northern Plains tribes agreed to respect tribal boundaries established by the United States government and to allow the government to build roads and forts within those boundaries.

Question 32

Which of the following are generally recognized as having been the first white migrants along the Oregon Trail?

A) Laura and Almanzo Wilder and Rose and Gillette Lane
B) Narcissa and Marcus Whitman and Eliza and Henry Spalding
C) Bill Cody and Wyatt Earp
D) Elizabeth and Charles Finney

Question 33

By the 1850s, San Francisco

A) had lost its pre-eminence to new metropolitan centers in California.
B) was merely a small rural settlement.
C) enjoyed prosperity almost exclusively due to the cotton trade.
D) had become the West Coast gateway to the interior.

Question 34

Which of the following is true of European-American migrants trekking West along the Oregon and California trails?

A) Death rates from disease were significantly higher than in society at large.
B) For most adults, trail life was not particularly dangerous.
C) They only killed bison or other animals for food.
D) They were constantly subjected to Indian attacks.

Question 35

Which enterprising merchant assisted in 1821 with charting the "Santa Fe Trail" running between Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico?

A) William Becknell
B) Davy Crockett
C) George Catlin
D) Samuel Seymour

Question 36

As the result of a Mexican law passed in 1833, California missions were used primarily ___________.

A) to organize Indian labor
B) as a refuge for Native Americans fighting against removal to Indian Country by federal authorities
C) to care for European American migrants who needed shelter until they could build their own homes
D) to provide a safe haven to residents who had been the victims of anti-Catholic hate crimes

Question 37

After 1852, anger toward the Mormons in the Utah territory increased throughout the United States for which of the following reasons?

A) The Mormons officially sanctioned polygamy.
B) The Mormons prohibited all non-Mormons from entering their state of "Deseret."
C) The Mormons engaged in a rebellion against the government of the United States.
D) The Mormons publicized their belief that Jesus was not divine and not the Son of God.

Question 38

Which of the following is true of women in California in the 1850s?

A) Because their skills were in demand, they could charge high fees for cooking, laundering, and sewing.
B) They worked on family farms as they had done in the East and Midwest.
C) Many married women built reputations as hostesses by providing food and entertainment for their husbands' bachelor friends.
D) They were usually engaged in mining for gold alongside the male settlers.

Question 39

Why did Narcissa and Marcus Whitman fail in their efforts to convert the Cayuse Indians to Christianity?

A) The Cayuse saw the doctrine of the Trinity as illogical.
B) The Whitman assumed an air of cultural superiority over the Cayuse.
C) The Cayuse found it impossible to accept the doctrine of transubstantiation.
D) The Whitman insisted on holding religious services in their home, which conflicted with the religious practices of the Cayuse.

Question 40

By the mid-1850s, California's major agricultural crop was

A) barley.
B) corn.
C) soy beans.
D) wheat.

Question 41

Discuss the relationship between western expansion and slavery.

Question 42

Discuss the characteristics of the lives of fur trappers in the trans-Appalachian West in the early nineteenth century.

Question 43

Discuss the causes and the consequences of the Black Hawk War.

Question 44

Compare the view of the West as depicted in popular literature and in public and commercial art of the nineteenth century with the reality of the West.

Question 45

Analyze the cultural, political, and ecological consequences of the Gold Rush.

Question 46

Examine the factors that led to the Texas independence movement, and explain the outcome of that movement.

Question 47

Discuss the role of the American military in the West during the first half of the nineteenth century.

Question 48

Examine the role of the federal government in preparing the West for American settlement.

Question 49

Discuss the various factors that caused tension and sometimes conflict between western American migrants and Native Americans during the first half of the nineteenth century, and the treaties that were signed to alleviate those tensions.