American Promise, Value Edition, Volume 2, 6th Edition Test Bank

Name: __________________________ Date: _____________ Choose the letter of the best answer. 1. What did historian Frederick Jackson Turner argue about the importance of the western frontier in American history in 1893? A) It made the United States different from Europe. B) It provided a focus for American imperialism. C) It promoted conflict between the North and the South. D) It disproved Buffalo Bill’s version of American history. 2. Which statement describes the U.S. government’s Indian policy during the middle of the nineteenth century? A) The government was more willing than ever to grant Indians the rights enjoyed by whites. B) The government cleared Indian land for white settlement but lived up to most of the promises it made to the Indians. C) The government pushed Indians off their lands and into reservations. D) The government attempted to prevent white settlers from taking more Indian land. 3. Why did the Plains Indians sign the Treaty of Fort Laramie, which ceded some of their land to allow the passage of wagon trains? A) They depended on trade with white settlers. B) They wanted to protect their favored status with the U.S. government. C) They believed it would help them to displace weaker tribes. D) They hoped to preserve their culture in the face of white onslaught. 4. What happened at the Sand Creek Massacre in November 1864? 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. 5. Which group or groups decimated the buffalo herds on the Great Plains in the late nineteenth century? 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 Page 1 6. Who led the Great Sioux Uprising in 1862? A) Sitting Bull B) Little Crow C) Red Cloud D) Crazy Horse 7. Which statement describes life on the Indian reservations? A) The government allowed Indians to maintain their cultural practices. B) Poverty and starvation stalked Indian reservations. C) The government assaulted Indian culture but did give Indians sufficient rations. D) Indians were able to establish their own independent governments. 8. In what manner did William Tecumseh Sherman successfully defeat the Comanchería? A) Using the scorched-earth policy he’d perfected during his March to the Sea B) Committing the largest mass execution in American history C) Creating the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs D) Herding the Comanche onto the reservation at Fort Sill 9. What was the outcome of the second Treaty of Fort Laramie? A) The Sioux and Cheyenne agreed to the completion of the Bozeman Trail. B) The treaty convinced Sioux chiefs, including Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, to accept reservation lands. C) The treaty was violated by the U.S. government after gold was discovered in the Black Hills. D) The treaty led to the extinction of the Sioux Indians. 10. What happened to the Sioux after their victory at the Battle of the Little Big Horn? A) They continued to pose a military threat to American invaders. B) They were hunted down by the American army. C) Sitting Bull led the united Sioux in establishing an independent settlement. D) They begrudgingly accepted the loss of the Black Hills. 11. What occurred under the ―outing system‖ of the 1880s? A) Young children from rural areas were sent to live with families in cities. B) Indian children were forced to live with white families over summer vacation. C) Indian children who did not succeed at school were returned to their tribes. D) White men who had taken Indian wives were asked to leave the reservation. Page 2 12. Who argued in the 1881 book A Century of Dishonor that the Indians had been treated unfairly? A) Merrill Gates B) Thomas Goodwood C) Helen Hunt Jackson D) Henry Dawes 13. What was the outcome of the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887? A) Expansion of the area covered by the reservation system to include all Native Americans B) Division of reservations and allotment of individual plots of land to Native Americans C) Prohibition of white settlement in Oklahoma D) Restoration of much of the land in the Southwest to Native Americans 14. Which fleeing Indian tribe was hunted down by the U.S. army just 50 miles from Canada in 1877? A) Nez Percé B) Shoshoni C) Apache D) Crow 15. Who was Geronimo? A) A Sioux warrior and chieftain who regularly defeated the U.S. army on the Great Plains B) The Nez Percé leader who said, ―I will fight no more forever.‖ C) A Cheyenne warrior and chieftain who led pitched battles against both Mexican and U.S. armies D) An Apache warrior and chieftain who led raiding parties and burned ranches on both sides of the Mexican border 16. What occurred after Geronimo surrendered to General Miles in 1886? A) The U.S. government resettled the Apaches in Mexico. B) The Apache warriors were tried as war criminals and executed. C) The Apaches were allowed to remain on their ancestral land in the Southwest. D) The government sent nearly five hundred Apaches to prisons in the South. Page 3 17. What was the Ghost Dance? 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. 18. Which of the following explains why the U.S. army gunned down unarmed Sioux at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota in 1890? A) It was rumored that the Indians were waiting to ambush the troops. B) American soldiers feared an uprising provoked by a militant interpretation of the Ghost Dance religion. C) The Sioux had refused to sign a new treaty that relinquished land surrounding the Creek. D) Troops had been ordered to wipe out all Native Americans in the area. 19. What was the Comstock Lode? A) A vein of gold discovered by prospector Henry Comstock B) The richest vein of silver ore found on the North American continent C) A complicated piece of machinery designed to extract silver from mines D) The largest mining company ever formed in the American West 20. What was the easiest way to get rich in the American silver mining industry? A) Working regularly in a variety of different mines B) Laboring in a large mining company for a period of years C) Sifting through brackish sand in search of precious metals D) Selling claims to land or forming mining companies and selling stock 21. Which of the following describes the impact of the wealth produced in the Nevada mining industry? A) It enriched speculators in San Francisco. B) It remained in the state’s rapidly expanding mining towns. C) It funded local education and construction projects. D) It discouraged immigrants from migrating to the region. Page 4 22. Which was the largest ethnic group in the western mining district of the United States in the late nineteenth century? A) The Chinese B) The Swiss C) Hungarians D) The Irish 23. What impact did the discovery of precious metals on the Comstock have for Native Americans? A) Tremendous economic prosperity B) Destruction of their land C) The obliteration of their culture D) Almost no effect on their daily lives 24. Which of the following terms best characterizes Virginia City, Nevada, and other mining centers in the late nineteenth century? A) Lawless outposts B) Homogeneous small towns C) Sprawling industrialized communities D) Short-lived settlements 25. Which of the following is true of labor unions in the western mining industry? A) They formed early and held considerable bargaining power. B) They did little to help workers in the event of an accident or sickness. C) They held little appeal for workers. D) They had no success organizing in the West. 26. Which of the following describes women in Virginia City by 1870? A) They were still outnumbered by men at a ratio of ten to one. B) They complained about the city’s filth, lawlessness, and disorder. C) They worked primarily in dancehalls, saloons, and brothels. D) They worked primarily as housekeepers. 27. Which group or groups composed the population of the area from the Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean during the last decades of the nineteenth century? A) Native-born whites B) African Americans fleeing the oppression of the South C) People from various parts of Europe, Asia, and the Americas D) Waves of Mexican refugees Page 5 28. For what reason were African American troops, known as Buffalo soldiers, serving in the West during the Indian Wars? A) The first black regiment to come west originated in Buffalo, New York. B) Native Americans thought their hair resembled that of the bison. C) They were as scarce as the buffalo on the Great Plains of the late 1800s. D) They were the soldiers primarily responsible for the extinction of buffalo herds. 29. Which of the following describes the changes experienced by the Californios between 1850 and 1880? 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. 30. How did the Utah legislature counter the criticism of polygamy in 1870? A) It outlawed the practice. B) It gave women the right to vote. C) It ignored its critics. D) It successfully petitioned for statehood. 31. Chinese immigrants made up what proportion of the workforce that built America’s first transcontinental railroad? A) 20 percent B) 50 percent C) 90 percent D) 100 percent 32. What was the purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882? 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 Page 6 33. Who eventually replaced Chinese workers, especially in agriculture, after the Chinese Exclusion Act? A) Japanese workers B) White southerners C) Black southerners D) Mexican workers 34. For what reason did hundreds of thousands of Americans migrate to the West in the three decades after 1870? A) To find work in the steel industry B) To own their own land C) To secure territorial appointments in government D) To earn wages in the expanding agribusinesses 35. Along with the Homestead Act of 1862, which factor helped stimulate the land rush in the trans-Mississippi West? 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 36. Which of the following describes how life in the agrarian West compared to life in the mining West? A) Slow paced B) Free of hardship C) Equally exploitative D) Free of economic competition 37. What did the Homestead Act of 1862 promise to potential migrants to the West? 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 Page 7 38. How did the landscape of the trans-Mississippi West change between 1870 and 1900? A) The region proved to be a haven for family farming. B) It was populated predominantly by former slaves. C) Mining made it the country’s largest industrial region. D) Family farms gave way to commercial farming. 39. Which of the following characterizes life for women on the western frontier in the late nineteenth century? A) They usually had servants to help them with their household work. B) They worked only within the physical confines of their homes. C) They were forced to work hard to accomplish even the simplest tasks. D) They tended to live quite well while expending little physical effort. 40. What were the ―chips‖ that served as the most prevalent form of fuel used for cooking and heating in the plains in the latter half of the nineteenth century? A) Coal that had spilled from railroad cars B) Charred wood leftover from Indian bonfires C) Twigs, old corncobs, and sunflower stalks D) Chunks of dried cattle and buffalo dung 41. By the 1870s, homesteaders discovered that most of the prime land in the West was A) already set aside for protection by the federal government. B) held by Native Americans, who refused to relinquish it. C) already ruined by industrial enterprises seeking mineral wealth. D) already in the hands of speculators. 42. What did the state and federal governments do to encourage railroad construction in the decades after the Civil War? A) They gave railroad companies 180 million acres of public land. B) They gave railroads rights-of-way across homesteaders’ land. C) They sold land to railroad companies at bargain prices. D) They reclaimed acreage already settled by farmers and sold it to the railroads. 43. Of the 2.5 million farms established between 1860 and 1900, homesteading accounted for what proportion? A) Three-quarters B) Two-thirds C) One-half D) One-fifth Page 8 44. What did settlers passing through the western portion of Kansas and Nebraska and the eastern portion of Colorado in the years after 1870 call the area? A) The Comstock Lode B) Homestead Act Lands C) The Great American Desert D) The Near West Plains 45. How did the invention of barbed wire revolutionize the cattle industry? A) It helped ranchers separate their herds from one another. B) It expanded safe grazing areas. C) It allowed ranchers to fence in their cattle. D) It prevented disputes over ownership of cattle. 46. Which of the following describes African American cowboys in the West in the late nineteenth century? A) They had a substantial presence in the region but not in the fiction of the time. B) They were prominently featured in the dime novels of the post–Civil War era. C) They were an insignificant presence, particularly in Texas and California. D) They were celebrated in popular fiction despite their small numbers in the region. 47. What was the outcome of the transformation of agriculture to big business in the South and West during the post–Civil War era? 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 48. Between 1870 and 1900, the population of rural America shrank from 80 percent to 66 percent while the agricultural sector of the economy experienced what change? A) It benefitted from the steady growth of the diversified family farm. B) It suffered from the removal of government subsidies for small farms. C) It grew through mechanization, commercialization, and expanding urban markets. D) It became the primary source of income for laborers in the Northeast. 49. Henry Miller and Charles Lux fit into which of the following categories? A) Pioneers in the field of agribusiness B) Small ranchers threatened by the consolidation of the ranching business C) Enlightened benefactors of migrant laborers D) Adherents to the old Republican ideal of the self-sufficient yeoman farmer Page 9 50. 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? A) Thomas Jefferson B) George Washington C) Andrew Jackson D) James Madison Answer each question with three or four sentences. 51. Describe how the concepts of imperialism and colonialism explain the process of westward expansion in the United States in the nineteenth century? 52. Describe the government’s philosophies for the Indian boarding schools in the late nineteenth century. What happened to Indian children once they arrived at these schools? 53. What was the Ghost Dance religion? Why was it so important to those who participated in it? Why did it frighten the white settlers in the West? 54. Describe life in Virginia City, Nevada, in the 1870s. 55. Describe what life was like in the West for Californios and Chinese immigrants in the post–Civil War years. 56. Who among whites protested the conditions on Indian reservations during the 1880s? How did Congress address these problems? 57. When Americans spoke of the West after the Civil War, to what areas were they referring? Describe the various ways in which people hoped to make a living in the West in the nineteenth century. 58. What factors accounted for the decline of the cowboy and the rise of the cattle king? 59. Explain why newly freed slaves, poor whites, and Hispanics had become sharecroppers and migrant workers by the beginning of the twentieth century. Page 10 60. Describe three important changes in the way farming was carried out after the Civil War. Answer each of the following questions with an essay. Be sure to include specific examples that support your thesis and conclusions. 61. How and to what extent did the American West reflect the major social, political, and economic trends more typically associated with the industrial Midwest and Northeast in the late nineteenth century? 62. What were the benefits and costs of economic and technological development in the western United States between 1870 and 1900? 63. 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. 64. Most people associate the clash of cultures in the trans-Mississippi West after the Civil War with the continuing antagonism between Native Americans and white settlers. The cultural conflict in this region, however, was actually much more complex. Discuss the various groups of people settling the West in this era. Who were they, where did they come from, and what were they seeking? 65. 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? Page 11 Use the following to answer questions 66-77: Select the word or phrase from the Key Terms section that best matches the definition or example provided in the Definitions section. Terms 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 66. Religion founded in 1889 by Paiute shaman Wovoka that combined elements of Christianity and traditional Indian religion and served as a nonviolent form of resistance for Indians in the late nineteenth century. The practice frightened whites and was violently suppressed. 67. 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. 68. Mountains in western South Dakota and northeast Wyoming that are sacred to the Lakota Sioux. In the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, the United States guaranteed Indians control of the land but broke its promise after gold was discovered there in 1874. 69. 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. Page 12 70. Silver ore deposit discovered in 1859 in Nevada. Discovery of the ore touched off a mining rush that brought a diverse population into the region and led to the establishment of a number of boomtowns, including Virginia City, Nevada. 71. Land given by the federal government to American Indians beginning in the 1860s in an attempt to reduce tensions between Indians and western settlers. On these lands, Indians subsisted on meager government rations and faced a life of poverty and starvation. 72. Indian empire based on trade in horses, hides, guns, and captives that stretched from the Canadian plains to Mexico in the eighteenth century. By 1865, fewer than five thousand Comanches lived in the empire, which ranged from west Texas north to Oklahoma. 73. 1890 massacre of Sioux Indians by American cavalry in South Dakota. Sent to suppress the Ghost Dance, the soldiers opened fire on the Sioux as they attempted to surrender. More than two hundred Sioux men, women, and children were killed. 74. Railroad completed in 1869 that was the first to span North America. Built in large part by Chinese laborers, it and others opened access to new areas, fueled land speculation, and actively recruited settlers. 75. Institution established in Pennsylvania in 1879 to educate and assimilate American Indians. It pioneered the ―outing system‖ in which Indian students were sent to live with white families in order to accelerate acculturation. 76. 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. 77. 1882 law that effectively barred Chinese immigration and set a precedent for further immigration restrictions. Fueled by racial and cultural animosities, the act’s passage led to a sharp drop in the Chinese population in America. Page 13 Answer Key 1. A 2. C 3. D 4. A 5. B 6. B 7. B 8. A 9. C 10. B 11. B 12. C 13. B 14. A 15. D 16. D 17. A 18. B 19. B 20. D 21. A 22. D 23. B 24. C 25. A 26. D 27. C 28. B 29. C 30. B 31. C 32. B 33. A 34. B 35. D 36. C 37. B 38. D 39. C 40. D 41. D 42. A 43. D 44. C Page 14 45. C 46. A 47. A 48. C 49. A 50. A 51. Answer would ideally include: Conquest of New Territories: Although the United States did not establish empires in Asia, Africa, or South America in the nineteenth century, its government did push the nation’s borders farther and farther to the west by invading and conquering territory that had long been claimed by Native American and Mexican peoples. Displacement of and Rule over Native Peoples: In order to take and maintain control over territory in the West, the U.S. government confined Native Americans to reservations ruled by outside bureaucrats who assaulted their cultures, outlawed their religious practices, and sent their children away to boarding schools in order to promote assimilation and ―civilization.‖ The U.S. government also displaced Mexicans who had long owned land in California and the Southwest and established rule over them. 52. Answer would ideally include: Native American Assimilation: Indian schools constituted the cultural battleground of the Indian wars in the West; their avowed purpose was ―to destroy the Indian in him and save the man,‖ and to ―civilize the Indian, get him into civilization . . . and keep him civilized.‖ Once at the school, the children had their clothing and belongings confiscated and their hair cut. They also lost possession of their names, and many were forced to live with white families during summer vacations. 53. Answer would ideally include: Ghost Dance: The Ghost Dance religion was a nonviolent form of resistance practiced by many tribes in the West after 1889. The Paiute shaman Wovoka claimed that he had received a vision in which the Great Spirit spoke through him to all Indians, prophesying that if they united in the Ghost Dance ritual, whites would be destroyed in an apocalypse. Message of Hope for Indians: The message of the Ghost Dance spoke about the possibility of the rebirth of Indian cultures, something greatly desired as whites continued to take Indian lands and force Native American children to abandon their culture and assimilate to the American way of life. Fear of the Ghost Dance: The Ghost Dance unsettled whites, who feared an Indian uprising, particularly after the Sioux claimed that the white shirts worn in the dance made Indians immune to the bullets of soldiers. Whites viewed the religion as a way for the Indians to rise up in opposition to white power and, much as slave rebellions had been quelled before the Civil War, they halted all practices of the Ghost Dance. 54. Answer would ideally include: Page 15 Diverse Mining Towns of the West: Virginia City was a diverse urban industrial city by the 1870s, supported primarily by the silver mines in the area. Populated by white Americans as well as by African Americans, Chinese, Mexicans, South and Central Americans, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, Europeans from many nations, and Moroccans, among other ethnic groups, Virginia City, which had a population of 25,000 by 1875, was more cosmopolitan than New York or Boston at the time. Much of the city’s population made a living in either the mining industry or the boardinghouses and service occupations that supported the mining industry. Far from being a lawless outpost of civilization, Virginia City was an established urban community that boasted churches, schools, theaters, and an opera house. 55. Answer would ideally include: Life Out West for Mexicans: Californios, Mexicans who had been granted American citizenship by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, faced a great deal of discrimination from California Anglos, who sought to keep them out of mines and commerce and took over their lands illegally. As Anglos took the best jobs and dominated business, Californios were segregated into urban barrios and driven into poverty. Life Out West for Chinese Immigrants: Chinese immigrants, primarily male, who came to California and other parts of the West in the late nineteenth century suffered brutal treatment at the hands of employers and other workers. Barred from the mines, Chinese immigrants were forced to work in domestic service, agriculture, or on the railroads. They were denied access to citizenship and were the frequent targets of nativist prejudice and discrimination. 56. Answer would ideally include: Protestors: People sympathetic to the Indians were appalled at the desperate poverty on the reservations. In her 1881 book A Century of Dishonor, Helen Hunt Jackson convinced many readers that the Indians had been treated unfairly. The Indian Rights Organization, a group of mainly white easterners formed in 1882, campaigned for the dismantling of reservations, which it viewed as obstacles to progress. Allotment: In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Allotment Act, divvying up reservations and allotting parcels of land to individual Indians as private property. Indians who took allotments earned U.S. citizenship. This fostering of individualism through the distribution of land dealt a crippling blow to traditional tribal culture. 57. Answer would ideally include: The New West: Americans speaking of the West after the Civil War were generally referring to the land west of the Mississippi River. Americans moving to the West in the nineteenth century hoped to make their living by either mining or farming their own plots of land gained through homesteading. Chinese workers coming into the American West came to do wage work, often for the railroads. African Americans and Hispanics often worked as cowboys or as migrant laborers. Page 16 58. Answer would ideally include: Role of the Cowboy: Cowboys were a vital part of the ranching industry in the West starting in the 1860s. They established a cattle kingdom from Texas to Wyoming between 1865 and 1885, driving huge herds—sometimes up to 3,000 head of cattle—across cattle tracks. Advent of the Cattle King: Barbed wire, invented in 1874, revolutionized the cattle business by providing ranchers with a cheap and effective way to fence their land. Fencing effectively ended the open range and the ability of cowboys to own cattle without owning land. By the late 1880s, after the winter of 1886–87 decimated herds, ranchers adopted new, more labor-intensive forms of cattle ranching, and cowboys were forced into working as wage laborers. 59. Answer would ideally include: Sharecropping and Economic Opportunity: As agriculture became a big business tied to national and global markets at the end of the nineteenth century, it became increasingly difficult for poor whites, freed slaves, and Hispanics to acquire their own land and to make a living from autonomous farming. Relatively small numbers of southern plantation owners, Texas cotton growers, and California wheat growers owned vast quantities of the available agricultural land in those regions, leaving poor groups no choice but to work as sharecroppers and migrant laborers for big landowners. 60. Answer would ideally include: New Technology: First, new technology and farming techniques revolutionized American farm life. Mechanized plows and reapers halved the time and labor cost of production and made it possible to cultivate vast tracts of land, spurring the creation of large commercial farms, some encompassing more than 100,000 acres, in places like California and North Dakota. Expanding Markets: Rather than farming to supply food to local areas, farmers expanded their markets after the Civil War, selling their crops to far-away cities and to foreign markets as well. This meant that successful farmers had to be businessmen, fully informed of global market needs, transportation networks, and so on. Commercial Farming: Large commercial farms were heavily dependent on wage laborers such as former yeoman farmers who had abandoned their own farms for the ―factories in the fields,‖ or poor migrant workers who traveled from place to place looking for agricultural work. 61. Answer would ideally include: Expansion of U.S. Empire: The United States in the period between 1860 and 1900 expanded its authority and wealth by expanding its borders and culture into the West, conquering the Native Americans and Mexicans who already lived there and displacing and ruling over them. This expansion meant that the American West, to a great extent, reflected the major social, political, and economic trends typically associated with the Page 17 industrial Midwest and Northeast in this period. Consolidation of Business: Businesses developing in the West in this period followed the same models and business practices as those east of the Mississippi. The railroads, mining industry, and lumber companies all made use of capital investment and expensive technology, which also spurred an active San Francisco stock market and much stock speculation. The discovery of a huge new vein of gold and silver on the Comstock in 1873 led to a transition from small-scale industry to corporate oligopoly there. Commercial farms also came to dominate U.S. agriculture. Exploitation of Natural Resources: Western businesses, like those in the East, exploited and sometimes devastated natural resources. The railroads were in large part responsible for the decimation of the bison herds. Mining companies ravaged the landscape in Nevada and other locations as they looked for valuable metals. Racial and Ethnic Animosity: The West, like the East, was ethnically and racially diverse and ridden with tensions and conflict as different groups confronted one another. Violent conflict between whites and Native Americans ultimately devastated Indian populations and cultures. There was also conflict between and sometimes among native-born whites, the Irish, Mexicans, blacks, and Chinese immigrants. Conflict between Workers and Bosses: Western bosses and workers on ranches, in mines, on railroads, and in other businesses also experienced frequent conflict and tension. These conflicts took place over land and natural resources as well as over worker autonomy, pay rates, hours, and working conditions. Urban Industrialism: Communities that grew up around new businesses, especially mining communities, were similar to some communities in eastern cities. Virginia City, Nevada, is a good example: It had a diverse population of 25,000, big industry, churches, schools, theaters, and an opera house. 62. 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. 63. 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 Page 18 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. 64. Answer would ideally include: Native-born Americans: This group came from east of the Mississippi either as homesteaders or as individuals seeking economic opportunity in the new businesses and communities in the West. Free African Americans: Many newly freed slaves traveled west after the Civil War in search of land and economic opportunity. Most of them did not successfully acquire land but ended up working as farm laborers, cowboys, or domestic workers. Some African Americans also came into the West with the U.S. army. European Immigrants: Immigrants from Ireland and other European countries came west for economic opportunity, working as railroaders, miners, servants, boardinghouse workers, and washerwomen. Mexicans: Many Mexicans living in the West had been ranchers there since before the Mexican-American War and, once the war was over, found themselves in new American territory that required them to prove their land claims in court. Chinese Immigrants: Chinese men came to the western U.S. looking for gold and silver, but most ended up working at jobs that others found undesirable, such as railroad laborers, cooks, servants, and farmhands. Mormons: Followers of Joseph Smith fled west to avoid religious persecution, believing that they had a divine right to the land. 65. Answer would ideally include: Migrants and Social Mobility: In general, individuals and families who migrated into the trans-Mississippi West hoping to improve their economic status did not experience significant social mobility. By the 1870s, most of the land in the West was already owned by mining, railroad, and agriculture corporations. Even though the Homestead Act of 1862 promised 160 acres of land to those who would occupy and farm the land for five years, only those who had sufficient resources to travel to the West and Page 19 purchase the materials necessary to settle new land could generally take advantage of the government’s offer. Furthermore, most homesteaders found that they got the least desirable tracts of land and that, combined with difficult weather conditions, made it difficult for most settlers to improve their economic prospects. Individuals who migrated West to seek their fortunes in the mining, ranching, farming, and railroad industries generally found themselves working for large corporations where they faced conditions very similar to those that defined the experiences of wage workers in the East. Migrants and Social Tensions: The trans-Mississippi West was hardly free of social tensions. Workers and bosses in the mining, railroad, and agricultural industries experienced frequent conflict over the availability of land and resources, as well as over wages, working conditions, and workers’ control over their daily lives. Furthermore, the racial and ethnic diversity in the West caused tensions and conflicts as different groups competed for land, resources, and jobs. Certainly the violent conflict that occurred between whites and Native Americans ultimately devastated Indian populations and cultures. There was also conflict between and sometimes among native-born whites, the Irish, Mexicans, blacks, and Chinese immigrants. 66. I 67. G 68. B 69. A 70. F 71. K 72. E 73. L 74. H 75. C 76. J 77. D Page 20