Chapter 5 - History

Lesson 15

Westward Expansion

The student will

determine the hardships encountered by Great Plain settlers in the late 1800’s (i.e., building materials, natural geography, climatic conditions, isolated communities, lack of revenue).

Between the years 1803 and 1853, the United States grew quickly in size and population. The land from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean was added to the country. About half of the land was purchased. The rest was won in war or gained through the signing of agreements with European countries.

Many Americans in the 1800s believed that the United States was meant to stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. This belief was called Manifest Destiny. Manifest means something that is obvious or easy to see. Destiny means fate, or something that is meant to happen.

Adding Territory

In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte, the leader of France, offered President Thomas Jefferson the French-owned territory called Louisiana.

Louisiana Purchase

Louisiana included the land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains and from the Gulf Coast to the Canadian border.

Louisiana Purchase

Jefferson agreed to buy Louisiana for an initial price of around $15,000,000. The deal that Jefferson and Napoleon made is called the Louisiana Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase was the largest amount of land ever added to the United States at one time.

Louisiana Purchase

This single land purchase doubled the size of the United States. In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico added a strip of land to Arizona and New Mexico.

Adding Territory

Two treaties also changed United States borders. A treaty is a formal agreement between nations. In 1848, a treaty with Mexico gave a large amount of land in the Southwest, including California, to the United States. In 1846, a treaty with Great Britain added an area of the Northwest to the United States.

Westward!

Beginning in the 1840s, many settlers moved west into new states and territories in search of opportunities. Most of them worked as farmers, on ranches, in mining, or in the timber industry.

Westward!

In the 1840s and 1850s, most settlers headed for California and other places along the West Coast. Many traveled on the Oregon or Santa Fe trails.

By the mid-1800s, the United States had a large population in the East, and settlers in states just west of the Mississippi River and on the West Coast. There were few settler on the Great Plains. The Great Plains is a huge area of grassland between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains.

Great Plains

Settling the Great Plains

Settlement of the Great Plains by the United States began in the 1860s as a result of the Homestead Act of 1862. The Homestead Act opened millions of acres of land on the Great Plains for settlement. Farmers who moved to the Great Plains were called homesteaders.

Homestead Act

The Homestead Act declared that anyone who was the head of a household or at least 21 years old could claim up to 160 acres of land. A homesteader had to live on the land, build a home, make improvements, and farm for five years.

Homestead Act

At the end of five years, the government gave the land to the homesteader. Along with Americans from the East, many European immigrants also became homesteaders.

Challenges on the Plains

Making a new life on the Great Plains was not easy. One problem was conflict with other settlers. Homesteaders, ranchers, miners, and cowboys all needed to use the same land and water. When they could not cooperate, they fought.

These battles, called range wars, broke out all over the West from the 1870s until after 1900. Some feuds began because ranchers saw the West as free and open. They believed government laws and homesteading interfered with the life they knew.

Many large ranchers used violence and threats to scare off the homesteaders. In the end, however, the ranchers failed. The homesteaders banded together and elected leaders who supported them.

Homesteaders faced other challenges on the plains. Rainfall was not plentiful, and farmers lost crops because of lack of water. Grasshoppers and fires also destroyed crops.

With no trees, homesteaders had to find other materials to build homes and barns.

Many settlers built sod houses .

Sod is a layer of grass and dirt held together by grass roots.

Sod houses were made of sod blocks. They had roofs of thatch, or grass. Sod houses kept settlers warm in the harsh winters, but they were dirty, and the roofs and walls were often infested.

Resistance to Expansion

Native Americans were greatly affected by the westward expansion of the United States. European settlers seized Native American land and competed for game and other natural resources. Throughout the Great Plains and the West, Native Americans fought with settlers over control of the land and resources.

In the end, Native Americans lost their way of life. Most were forced to move to areas, known as reservations, that were often barren and lacked resources.

Trail of Tears

Asian Immigrants in the West

Miners from China flocked to California when gold was discovered there in 1848. By 1870, there were around 49,000 Chinese in California.

At first the Chinese miners were accepted because the supply of gold seemed limitless. However, when gold became scarce, the Chinese were pushed out of the mines. They moved to the cities of California, where they cleaned clothes, worked in people’s homes, and started businesses.

Chinese in California

Central Pacific Railroad

Thousands of skilled and brave Chinese worked for the Central Pacific Railroad building the Transcontinental Railroad. Without them, the railroad could not have been built as quickly.

What effect did the Homestead Act of 1862 have on settling the Great Plains?

A. It united farmers and ranchers. B. It transferred a large portion of land

from France to the US. C. It increased Chinese immigration. D. It opened millions of acres of land

for settlement.

What effect did the Homestead Act of 1862 have on settling the Great Plains?

D. It opened millions of acres of land for settlement.

How were Native Americans affected by the westward expansion of the US? A. They found work building the

transcontinental railroad. B. Settlers took they land and competed for

resources. C. They made money selling their land to

settlers. Their way of life was adopted by the

homesteaders.

How were Native Americans affected by the westward expansion of the US?

B. Settlers took their land and competed for resources.

What obstacles did farmers on the Great Plains face? A. Crops were often destroyed by lack

of water, grasshoppers, or fires. B. Land was too expensive for most

settlers to afford. C. Very little land was available to

farm. D. Native Americans drove European

settlers out of the Great Plains.

What obstacles did farmers on the Great Plains face?

A. Crops were often destroyed by lack of water, grasshoppers, or fires.