Westward Expansion: Causes, Effects, and Costs
Drills chronology, key vocabulary, and cause-and-effect reasoning on the Louisiana Purchase, Manifest Destiny, and the displacement of Native nations. Grade 6.
18 questions · Timeline · Multiple choice · Fill in the blank · Short answer · Analysis
This worksheet guides sixth-grade students through the major events, causes, and consequences of American westward expansion from 1803 to 1869. Beginning with the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, it moves through Manifest Destiny, the Oregon Trail, the Indian Removal Act, and the completion of the transcontinental railroad. It consistently asks students to consider whose story is told — and at whose cost. The timeline section builds chronological reasoning; the multiple-choice and fill-blank sections reinforce key vocabulary and historical facts; the short-answer questions push students to analyze competing perspectives and trace cause-and-effect relationships across decades. It aligns with C3 Framework standards for historical thinking and works well as a unit review or formative assessment.
Westward Expansion: Causes, Effects, and Costs — Grade 6
Read each section's directions carefully and answer every question using what you have studied about westward expansion.
Remember
- The Louisiana Purchase (1803) roughly doubled U.S. territory; France sold approximately 828,000 square miles for $15 million.
- Manifest Destiny was the widely shared belief that U.S. expansion across the continent was both inevitable and justified.
- Westward expansion displaced hundreds of Native nations through removal laws, broken treaties, and the loss of sovereignty.
Part A — Place each event on the westward expansion timeline
Read each event and write its number at the correct year on the printed timeline below.
American Westward Expansion, 1800-1870
- 1.
The United States completes the Louisiana Purchase, roughly doubling the nation's territory.
- 2.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition reaches the Pacific coast, completing the westward leg of its journey.
- 3.
Congress passes the Indian Removal Act, authorizing forced relocation of Native nations east of the Mississippi River.
- 4.
The Great Migration sends the first large organized wagon train of settlers along the Oregon Trail.
- 5.
The Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads meet at Promontory Summit, completing the transcontinental railroad.
Part B — Choose the best answer for each question
Read each question and choose the one best answer from the four options given.
- 6.
What was the main purpose President Jefferson stated for sending Lewis and Clark west in 1804?
- A.To map the Louisiana Territory and find a water route to the Pacific Ocean
- B.To negotiate peace treaties with Native nations east of the Mississippi River
- C.To establish military forts along the Missouri River for national defense
- D.To search for gold and silver deposits in the newly purchased territory
- 7.
Which of the following best describes the effect of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 on Native nations?
- A.It forced Native nations living east of the Mississippi River to relocate west of it
- B.It granted full U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans within U.S. borders
- C.It established permanent protected reservations in the southeastern United States
- D.It created a boundary separating U.S. and Native-controlled lands in the Southeast
- 8.
Why was the Oregon Trail significant to westward expansion during the 1840s and 1850s?
- A.It provided a roughly 2,000-mile overland route connecting Missouri to the Pacific Northwest
- B.It was the first railroad line constructed across the Rocky Mountains
- C.It connected the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico for steamboat travel
- D.It was the official military route used to move U.S. Army troops to California
- 9.
What was the most direct effect of completing the transcontinental railroad in 1869?
- A.Settlement of western territories accelerated as cross-country travel time dropped sharply
- B.The Oregon Trail became the primary route for settlers heading to the Pacific coast
- C.Congress passed the Homestead Act to encourage farming in the eastern United States
- D.Native nations successfully negotiated new treaties granting them railroad land rights
- 10.
Which nation sold the Louisiana Territory to the United States in 1803?
- A.France
- B.Spain
- C.Britain
- D.Mexico
Part C — Fill in each blank to complete the statement
Write the word or phrase that correctly completes each statement in the blank provided.
- 11.
The belief that the United States had a right and duty to expand westward across the entire North American continent was called ____.
- 12.
The forced relocation of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia to present-day Oklahoma in 1838 became known as the ____.
- 13.
The Homestead Act of 1862 offered 160 acres of federal land to citizens who agreed to live on and farm the land for ____ years.
- 14.
The transcontinental railroad was built by the Union Pacific heading west and the ____, which built eastward from Sacramento.
- 15.
The policy of confining Native nations to defined tracts of land supervised by the federal government was called the ____ system.
Part D — Answer each question in two to three sentences
Answer each question in two to three complete sentences, using specific evidence to support your reasoning.
- 16.
Explain two ways in which westward expansion harmed Native nations. Use at least one specific example in your response.
- 17.
Explain how the Louisiana Purchase eventually led to political conflict over slavery in the United States.
- 18.
How did westward expansion affect white settlers and Native nations differently? Use specific evidence to support your response.
Answer key
Part A — Place each event on the westward expansion timeline
- 1.1803 - the U.S. purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for approximately $15 million.
- 2.1805 - Lewis and Clark reach the Pacific Ocean after departing the Missouri River corridor in 1804.
- 3.1830 - the Indian Removal Act gives the federal government authority to remove Native nations to land west of the Mississippi.
- 4.1843 - the Great Migration of 1843 brings the first large organized wagon train of settlers westward to Oregon.
- 5.1869 - the transcontinental railroad is completed at Promontory Summit in Utah Territory on May 10.
Part B — Choose the best answer for each question
- 6.To map the Louisiana Territory and find a water route to the Pacific Ocean
- 7.It forced Native nations living east of the Mississippi River to relocate west of it
- 8.It provided a roughly 2,000-mile overland route connecting Missouri to the Pacific Northwest
- 9.Settlement of western territories accelerated as cross-country travel time dropped sharply
- 10.France
Part C — Fill in each blank to complete the statement
- 11.Manifest Destiny
- 12.Trail of Tears
- 13.five
- 14.Central Pacific
- 15.reservation
Part D — Answer each question in two to three sentences
- 16.Example: Westward expansion harmed Native nations in several concrete ways. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 forced nations such as the Cherokee off their ancestral lands and onto brutal forced marches to unfamiliar territory, causing thousands of deaths on the Trail of Tears in 1838-1839. As settlers and the railroad pushed further west, Native nations also lost access to hunting grounds and the ability to govern themselves — a destruction of sovereignty that permanently disrupted their political, economic, and cultural lives.
- 17.Example: When the United States purchased the Louisiana Territory in 1803, Congress faced a new question: would slavery be permitted in the states carved from that land? Free states and slave states each wanted to protect their power in Congress, and the debate grew serious enough that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 tried to resolve it by drawing a geographic boundary. However, that boundary only delayed the conflict, because every new western territory reopened the same argument about whether slavery would be allowed to spread.
- 18.Example: For many white settlers, westward expansion brought economic opportunity: the Homestead Act of 1862 offered 160 acres of land to those willing to farm it, and the transcontinental railroad made the journey faster and safer than the Oregon Trail had been. For Native nations, however, the same expansion brought forced displacement and the loss of sovereignty — removal policies pushed them off ancestral lands, and the steady spread of settlement and the railroad brought more settlers into territories where Native peoples had lived for generations.
What this sheet teaches
- Place five key events of westward expansion in correct chronological order on a printed timeline.
- Explain cause-and-effect relationships linking the Louisiana Purchase to later conflicts over land and sovereignty.
- Compare the impact of westward expansion on white settlers and on Native nations using historical evidence.
Notes for the adult
- Students often treat Manifest Destiny as an official government policy; clarify it was a widely held cultural belief, not a law.
- If students conflate the Trail of Tears with all removal policy, use the 1838 Cherokee forced march as a specific case study.
- A student is ready to move on when they can trace cause and effect from the Louisiana Purchase through railroad settlement and loss of Native sovereignty.
What is on the page
Printed on one side, Westward Expansion: Causes, Effects, and Costs runs to four parts and 18 exercises. Timeline, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank and short-answer work, in that order, so a student who has understood the material has to show it in more than one form before the page is finished.
Part A Place each event on the westward expansion timeline prints a timeline labeled "American Westward Expansion, 1800-1870", eight ticks running from 1800 to 1870 — 70 years across the page — and five events to place on it. Part B Choose the best answer for each question asks five multiple-choice questions with four printed options each. Part C Fill in each blank to complete the statement gives five sentences with a blank each and no word bank, so the wording has to come from the student. Part D Answer each question in two to three sentences is three short-answer questions with nine ruled lines between them, which is the part of the sheet that takes the longest.
Nine ruled lines are printed for written answers on Westward Expansion: Causes, Effects, and Costs, which decides how long it takes more than the question count does. The answer key prints on its own page at the end, so the sheet can be handed out without it.
What it asks of the student
Westward Expansion: Causes, Effects, and Costs puts about 623 words of reading in front of the student — the fact box, the directions, every question, and every printed option. That is the number worth checking against a class before it goes out, because a sheet that is pitched right on the history and wrong on the reading fails for the same child either way. The longest single prompt on it runs to 25 words.
Writing runs the other way on Westward Expansion: Causes, Effects, and Costs: nine ruled lines for three of the 18 exercises, and the full answer key comes to 402 words. Everything else is answered in a blank, in a box, or on the map itself, which is why the sheet takes a lesson rather than a homework slot.
Where this one sits
Westward Expansion: Causes, Effects, and Costs is one of ten US History: Events & Eras sheets on this site and one of 16 written for grade 6. It is the only one on westward expansion, so nothing else here repeats it.
The closest things to it are Timelines and Sequencing in U.S. History (grade 7) and American Revolution: Causes and Effects Worksheet (grade 5). If Westward Expansion: Causes, Effects, and Costs lands well, those are the ones to reach for next; if it lands badly, the analysis sheets a grade either side are usually the adjustment rather than a different topic altogether.
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