| A | B |
|---|
| Farmer’s Alliance | Group of farmers who organized to pressure Congress to regulate railroads and banks that had been treating farmers unfairly |
| Dawes Act | Law stating that Native American tribes would no longer be recognized as nations, reservations disbanded, and all natives would be dealt with individually, thus hastening assimilation |
| Mining | Industry that both literally and figuratively changed the face of the west and America, by providing both jobs and natural resources |
| Transcontinental railroad | Cross country rail line that brought people and goods west and helped expand the country both geographically and financially |
| Migration | Movement of people from one place to another, usually for jobs. |
| Homestead Act | Law that gave 160 acre plots of land to Americans moving west if they agreed to live on it and improve it over a period of five years |
| Frontier | An area that was considered uninhabited wilderness |
| Morrill Land Grant Act | Law that gave land to states to establish agricultural colleges aimed at improving farming practices. (University of Missouri is one such example) |
| Exodusters | Former slaves who moved west to places like Kansas and Oklahoma to escape the harsh treatment in the South |
| Manifest Destiny | The belief that the United States had a God given right to expand across the country |
