Westward Expansion Vocabulary List
lode
a rich vein of gold or silver
transcontinental
across a continent from coast to coast
boom
a sudden demand for something
territory
areas in the United States that were not yet states and without the
government representation and protection that states have
Manifest Destiny
belief of many Americans in the 1840’s that the United States should
own all the land between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans
reservation
a limited area of land set aside for Native Americans
massacre
a general slaughter
treaty
an agreement made between two parties
exodusters
blacks who moved west after the Civil War
vaquero
Spanish word for cowboy
sodbuster
plains farmer
emigrant
one who moves within their country to a new location
Homestead Act
the government offered 160 acres of land for free to anyone who
worked the land for five years, (it was an attempt to give poor
Easterners a chance to own land in the west)
Promontory Point
the point at which the Union and the Pacific railroad lines met to
create a transcontinental railroad
homesteaders
farmers who moved to the Great Plains after taking advantage of the
Homestead Act
Cattle drive
Moving cattle hundreds of miles north from Texas to railroad lines
Cow towns
Cattle held in pens until they could be loaded onto rail cars and
shipped to markets in the East
Sod house
Houses of sod-soil held together by grass roots