manifest destiny

the belief that the United States was meant to expand across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Homestead Act of 1862

A law that gave settlers 160 acres of free land if they built a home, farmed it, and lived there for 5 years. It helped settle the West but displaced Native Americans.

Exodusters

African Americans who moved west, especially to Kansas, after the Civil War to escape racism and find land.

Pacific Railroad Act of 1862

A law that helped build the first railroad across the country by giving land and money to railroad companies.

Purchase of Alaska (1867)

United States bought Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million, adding a large new territory, Called "Seward's Folly'.

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868

An agreement where the U.S. promised the Lakota Sioux the Blank Hills and other lands as part of the Great Sioux reservation in exchange for peace.

Transcontinental Railroad

First railroad to connect the East and West coast of the United States, completed in 1869. It made travel and trade faster, helped settle the West, and united the country by economically and politically.

Grant's Peace policy

President Grant's plan to reduce conflict by moving Native Americans onto reservations and replacing corrupt agents with church leaders to oversee them. This policy helped to "civilize" Native Americans by teaching them farming and Christianity, but it ignored their culture, increased dependence on the government, and often led to more resistance and suffering.

Reservations

Areas of land set aside by the U.S. government where Native Americans were forced to live, often on poor, unfamiliar land. Reservations were meant to controls and isolate Native Americans, breaking their traditional way of life , making them depend on government rations and aid.

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