Westward Expansion Flashcards

Grade 4 · Social Studies · Flashcards

Key terms, people, and places from America's westward movement in the 1800s.

Flashcards

Westward Expansion: The movement of American settlers into western territories during the 1800s
Manifest Destiny: The 19th-century belief that the U.S. was meant to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
Louisiana Purchase: The 1803 deal in which the U.S. bought 828,000 square miles of land from France
Lewis and Clark: Explorers who mapped the western United States for President Jefferson between 1804 and 1806
Sacagawea: A Shoshone woman who guided and interpreted for the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Oregon Trail: A 2,000-mile trail from Missouri to Oregon used by hundreds of thousands of pioneers
Pioneer: A settler who moved into unsettled western territory to farm and build a new life
California Gold Rush: The mass migration to California that began in 1849 after gold was discovered
Covered Wagon: A canvas-covered wagon used to carry a family's belongings on the western trails
Reservation: Designated lands where the U.S. government forced Native American tribes to live
Homestead Act (1862): A law that gave settlers 160 acres of western land for free if they farmed it for five years
Transcontinental Railroad: The railroad completed in 1869 that connected the eastern U.S. to California
Frontier: The edge of settled territory beyond which land was wild and largely unexplored by settlers