Social studies test

• Alamo: A mission, and later fort, that served as a battle ground during the Texas Revolution.
• Boomtown: A town that grows rapidly due to sudden prospersity.
• Donner Party:An ill-fated group of pioneers who migrated to California from the Midwest
• Forty Niners: A nickname for a person who took part in the 1849 California Gold Rush
• Covered Wagon: A vehicle made from wood and canvas primary used to cross the U.S
• Ghost Town: A town that is deserted because the economic activity that supported it ended
• Gold Rush: A discovery of gold that brings on a wave of miners seeking their fortune
• Gunslinger: People in the American West that were skilled with a gun and considered dangerous
• Frontier: A geographical area that lies near or beyond a boundary, especially the western U.S. before settlement
• Kansas-Nebraska Act: An act that created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and which ultimately stoked tensions over slavery
• Missouri Compromise: Legislation that admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state in an effort to preserve the balance of power in Congress
• Homestead Act: A law that gave people free land in the west to live on and develop
• Manifest Destiny: A belief that American settlers were divinely entitled to control North America
• Mexican-American War: A war between the U.S. and Mexico caused by a border dispute following the annexation of Texas
• Telegraph: A system for transmitting messages along a wire with coded signals
• Louisiana Purchase: An acquisition from France by the United States for a territory of land west of the Mississippi
• Oregon Trail: An early American wagon thoroughfare that spanned from Independence Missouri to Oregon City, Oregon
• Pioneer: An American settler who migrated westward from the thirteen colonies and developed the land
• Republic of Texas: A sovereign state in North America lasting from 1836 to 1846
• Northwest Territory: The first post-colonial organized incorporated area. Includes land west of Pennsylvania, northwest of the Ohio River, and east of the Mississippi
• Reservation: Areas of land set aside by the government and managed by Native American tribes
• Westward Expansion: The 19th century movement of settlers into the American West
• Transcontinental Railroad: A railroad system that connects the east and west regions of the United States
• false: The Alamo was a fort that later became a home to Spanish Missionaries
• True: People from all over the world came to California to search for gold
• True: The Homestead Act gave people free land to live on and develop
• False: The U.S. had to persuade France to sell the entire Louisiana Territory
• false: The United States lost 55% of its land after the Mexican- American War
• True: Before the transcontinental railroad, people used the Oregon Trail
• False: The Pony Express was only in operation for four years
• False: The Golden Spike was the first spike that started the Transcontinental Railroad