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Westward Expansion
Term | Definition |
---|---|
California Gold Rush | period where thousands of people went west to search for gold. |
Cattle Drive | when cowboys guided huge herds of cattle North to the new railroad lines extending across The Great Plains |
Pony Express | business that delivered mail from Missouri to California in just 10 days |
Telegraph | invention that sent messages along wires using electricity |
Samuel B. Morse | developed a way to send telegraph messages |
Transcontinental Railroad | a railroad across the continent linking the Eastern United States to the Western United States |
Union Pacific | began building train track west from Omaha, most workers were Irish immigrants |
Central Pacific | began building train track east from Sacramento, California. Most workers were Chinese immigrants |
Promontory Point | place in Utah where the Union Pacific met the Central Pacific and connected the transcontinental railroad |
Chinese Immigrants | made up 80% of the Central Pacific railroad workers |
Red Cloud | told the Union Pacific workers they were scaring away the buffalo |
General William Tecumsah Sherman | warned the Native Americans that nothing would stop the building of the railroads |
Homestead Act of 1862 | law that offered free land to American citizens and immigrants who were willing to start new farms on the Great Plains. |
Homesteaders | settlers who claimed land through the Homestead Act |
Sod House (soddy) | houses made from sod on the Great Plains |