Chapter Seventeen: The West: Exploiting an Empire, 1849-1902

Practice Quiz:

1. What was challenging about settling the land west of the Mississippi River in the late 1800s?
a. the region got little rainfall, and there was little lumber available for housing
b. the region was frequently flooded by its rivers, which made farming difficult
c. The Great Plains had many deserts and this made travel and farming difficult
d. The region had various Native American groups who would not leave their land

2. Which was true about the Plains Indians?
a. They were organized into one large and powerful tribal group
b. They were a complex of tribes, cultures, and bands that assigned most work on the basis of gender
c. They were at a distinct disadvantage when fighting whites because of their weapons
d. They had advanced farming techniques and complex building structures

3. In the 1850s, government policy toward the Plains tribes was to
a. exterminate them
b. define boundaries for each tribe and sign treaties with them
c. give each Native American “40 acres and a mule” for farming
d. provoke intertribal warfare

4. How did the Dawes Severalty Act try to “civilize” Indians?
a. by turning them into landowning ranchers and farmers
b. by making public education compulsory on reservations
c. by threatening to exterminate Indians if they did not adopt white culture
d. by arranging for their children to be fostered out to white families

5. The final blow to Native American tribal life on the Plains was
a. the deaths of the major Native American leaders
b. the extermination of the buffalo herds
c. the reservation system
d. the introduction of crop farming

6. Why did most settlers move west between 1870 and 1900?
a. to seek freedom from religious prosecution
b. to escape the drab routine of factory life
c. to escape the diseased conditions of crowded eastern cities
d. to improve their economic situation

7. A dominant issue in the western Great Plains was control of
a. gold and silver mines
b. grazing rights
c. water
d. the routes of the great cattle drives

8. Which were the largest landowners in the West
a. railroad companies
b. immigrants
c. Native Americans
d. eastern settlers

9. How did the National Reclamation Act help settlement in the West?
a. It restricted immigration from Asia and parts of Europe so that there would be more land for easterners moving west
b. It restricted cattle to specific areas of land, so that farmers would have more land for cultivation
c. It gave 160 acres of land to anyone who would pay a registration fee and cultivate the land for five years
d. It financed irrigation projects, such as damns and canals, which brought water to the area

10. The first major industry to attract large numbers of people to the West was
a. cattle ranching
b. farming
c. fur trapping
d. mining

11. Why did the number of Chinese immigrants fall drastically in the late nineteenth century?
a. China severely restricted immigration to the United States beginning in the 1880s
b. The Homestead Act did not apply to Chinese immigrants and thus there was no land available for them
c. many Chinese laborers found better work in Europe than in the United States
d. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 suspended immigration of Chinese laborers

12. How did barbed wire transform the lives of farmers on the Great Plains?
a. It made it possible for farmers to leave their farms for extended periods of time
b. It allowed farmers to establish the boundaries of their farm, which had not previously been possible
c. It kept Native Americans away from their farms so that their land was protected
d. It allowed farmers to pen their animals and keep other animals off their land

13. Why was the Grange originally founded in 1867?
a. to provide social, cultural, and educational activities for farmers
b. to allow farmers to have a say in government
c. to organize farmers into a union for collective bargaining
d. to keep peace between farmers and cattlemen in the West