The Westward Expansion Quiz
Estimated Completion Time 4 min
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Image: MPI/Archive Photos/Getty Images
About This Quiz
Go West, young man — as the saying goes. Or instead of doing that, just take this quiz to see how much you know about the cowboys and pioneers who traveled West and the native peoples who lived there long before the migrants came in.
START QUIZ
In 1803, Thomas Jefferson did what to increase the size of the United States?
made the Louisiana Purchase
declared that all western states had a right to the lands touching their borders
The Louisiana territory was about 828,000 square miles (2,144,510 square kilometers).
How much did the purchase cost?
It cost $15 million. Totally worth it for Oklahoma.
In 1804, who explored these new Western territories and beyond?
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark journeyed through the land, sparking interest in Western expansion.
What was "manifest destiny" defined as?
the right from God to ordain a president
the right from God to take land from native peoples
the inevitability of the U.S. expansion west to the Pacific
First coined in 1845, it became a kind of de facto foreign policy until the end of the 19th century.
After what war did westward expansion really pick up?
Places like Illinois, Indiana and Mississippi began to fill up after the second war with the British was resolved.
Before the Oregon Trail and other overland routes were mapped, how did white settlers get to Oregon and California territories?
No white people were there until after Lewis and Clark.
They paid natives to get them there.
They sailed around the southern tip of South America.
White settlers and even travelers made their way to the West before Lewis and Clark, but the journey was by boat and took nearly a year.
In 1824, trappers publicized what important breakthrough to westward expansion?
the newfangled covered wagon
a lower (and easier) pass through the Rocky Mountains
instructions for fording rivers
Finding a less dangerous way to cross the continental divide was critical to white western settlement.
What telling change occurred in American policies towards Native Americans in 1815?
American Indian affairs were now handled by the War Department as opposed to the State Department.
Native Americans were no longer allowed to vote.
Native Americans were given the vote.
Suddenly, Native American peoples were formally treated as adversaries.
How did new land from Louisiana and Florida effect native tribes?
They got to stay in their native lands.
White settlers had to learn to coexist with them.
It gave the government more places to "resettle" tribes it wanted to displace.
So hint for future answers: Any question about how Native American tribes were treated can pretty much be answered with "negatively."
Five tribes in the Southeast United States refused to trade their land for western prairie resettlement. How many native people died in the subsequent forced march west?
Nearly 100,000 Native Americans were subject to forced removal, with up to a quarter of them dying along the way.
Cowboys came from a Spanish tradition of cattle herders known as what?
The vaqueros were named for vaca , or "cow" in Spanish.
What staple of cowboy life was once native to the North American continent?
While it's true that Europeans brought horses when settling North America, horses were actually native to the continent before they went extinct there after the last ice age.
Westward expansion of American people also translated to westward expansion of what terrible part of American society?
States like Texas and Louisiana were settled by slave owners.
How did the westward expansion change cowboy life?
Cowboys started wearing cowboy hats.
Cowboys had to move cattle farther north and west to find large ranges.
More cowboys started working with native tribes for wages.
As more people bought private land in places like Oklahoma and Texas, herds were pushed west to find open range.
Before the late 19th century, how did cattle herding work?
Cattle roamed freely, and if you caught 'em, they were yours.
Cattle owners kept their cattle in pens.
Cattle were community property, and towns or settlements shared the meat.
Open range was seriously open.
What did an "assimilation" policy entail for Native Americans in American history?
separating native children from their families
By depleting the native food source and essentially kidnapping native children and forcing them into boarding schools, "assimilation" was supposed to make Native people "white."
What's a roundup?
Cowboys round up the cattle every night to bed down.
an annual or semiannual way to brand and sort cattle
In a roundup, calves are weaned, cattle are cut from the herd to market and animals are sorted or branded.
The Dawes Act gave Native Americans what?
a head of cattle to raise
allotments of private property on reservations
schools for native children
The idea was for everyone to farm their land and live like white Americans.
Why did the Dawes Act fail?
Much of the land wasn't good for farming.
A lot of the land was sold to non-native peoples.
Both of these are true. "Surplus" land was also given to whites for an extremely cheap rate.
Prior to the Dawes Act, Native Americans held roughly 100 million acres (40 million hectares) of land. How much of that acreage did they lose from 1887 to 1932, after the Dawes Act was in effect?
Native Americans lost two-thirds of their land to whites after the Dawes Act and various amendments to it.
How did the railways affect cowboys?
More wealth brought larger ranches with more cattle.
Cattle were decimated by train traffic.
Cowboys took part in extremely large drives to get the cattle to railheads.
With the rise of meat packing and processing plants, there was an increased need to get cattle to the railroad for shipment.
What was the Ghost Dance?
a Native American religious movement that hoped to rid the natives of white oppression
Originally from the Paiute tribe, the Ghost Dance promised the return of native power and ways of life.
How many Native Americans were killed in the 1890 Wounded Knee hostilities?
The Native Americans had surrendered, but a small skirmish started a horrible massacre.
During the 1832 Black Hawk War, Native Americans attempted to regain tribal land in what state?
More than 1,000 Native Americans, led by Sauk warrior Black Hawk, were involved in the attempt to regain Illinois land.
What famous American was in the militia that stopped those Native Americans?
23-year-old Lincoln took part in the local militia.
Some see what event as the end of the open range days of cowboy life?
the rise of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
an increase in dairy farming
Ranches and farms begin fencing off land, keeping their cattle on private grazing land.
What did Free Soilers stand for?
no slavery in the Western territories
no property in the West should be owned by private people
a popular potty-training method
The political party held firm with the Wilmot Proviso, which also promoted no slavery in the West.
By 1910, about 50 percent of the Plains states' population was what?
Americans who had moved West
There was a very robust immigrant population moving into the West.
What was the Compromise of 1850?
California was admitted as a free state, and Washington abolished the slave trade
Western territories were left to decide themselves about the slavery question.
Both of these are true. While the compromise settled some issues, it also caused future headaches.
What other provision to the Compromise of 1850 proved to be more ignition for the eventual Civil War?
All Western states had to let black people vote.
The Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened.
Any other states joining the Union must abolish slavery.
By making the Fugitive Slave Act stronger, more opponents to slavery were mobilized as abolitionists.
You Got:
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