The West in the Gilded Age€¦ · AP U.S. History: Unit 6.3 Student Edition The West in the Gilded...

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AP U.S. History: Unit 6.3

Student Edition

The West in the Gilded Age

Themes of the Gilded Age:

Industrialism: U.S. became the world’s most powerful economy by

1890s (exceeding combined output of Britain and Germany; railroads,

steel, oil, electricity, banking

Unions and reform movements sought to curb the injustices of

industrialism.

Urbanization: America was transformed from an agrarian nation to an

urban nation between 1865 (where 50% of Americans were farmers)

and 1920 (where only 25% were farmers). (2% today)

Millions of "New Immigrants" came from Southern and Eastern Europe,

mostly to cities to work in factories.

By 1900 society had become more stratified into classes than any time

before or since.

The “Great West": farming, mining, & cattle frontiers

Farmers increasingly lost ground in the new industrial economy and

eventually organized (Populism). In 1880, 25% of those who farmed did

not own their land. 90% of African Americans lived in the South; 75%

were tenant farmers or sharecroppers.

Politics: hard vs. soft money ('70s & '90s); tariff ('80s); corruption due

to political machines, patronage & trusts (throughout late 19th c.);

election of 1896

HistorySage.com APUSH Lecture Notes

Unit 6.3: The West in the Gilded Age

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Intro: Frederick Jackson Turner: “Significance of the Frontier in

American History” (1893)

"Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history

of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land,

its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward,

explain American development."

A. Turner argued the closing of the frontier had ended an era in American

history.

B. He used the census report of 1890 to explain that settlement of the

frontier had created the American character and spurred American

development.

C. His essay illustrates the psychological power of the frontier in that,

with its passing, Americans began to realize that revitalized

opportunities were also vanishing.

I. "Great West"

A. Spanned from the Great Plains in the east to the California desert in

the west

B. A flood of whites to the area occurred after the Civil War.

1. In 1865, few white people lived in the area (except Mormons in Utah

and scattered Spanish-Mexican settlements in Southwest).

2. Many who came west were Civil War veterans; some were black.

C. Area inhabited by Plains Indians: Sioux and Comanche, southwestern

Amerindians such as Apache and Navajo, and northwestern

Amerindians including Nez Perce and Shoshoni.

D. By 1890, the entire area had been carved into states except for four

territories.

1. Pioneers poured into the vast area in one of the most rapid

settlements of such a vast area in all human history.

2. Expansion was spurred by the Homestead Act of 1862 and the

transcontinental railroad (see pages below)

E. Amerindians stood in the way of expansion on two fronts:

westward from the trans-Mississippi East and eastward from the

Pacific Coast.

F. African-Americans in the West

1. 18% of the California population by 1890

2. Many were involved in the fur trade in 1820s and 1840s.

3. Over 500,000 lived west of Mississippi; many came west as

slaves.

4. After 1877, about 200,000 blacks moved West, many began

homesteading in Kansas or Oklahoma—the “exodusters”

5. As many as 1 in 4 cowboys were black.




II. Americans vs. Amerindians

A. Plains Amerindians

1. The Spanish-introduced horse in 16th, 17th and 18th centuries made

Amerindians more nomadic and war-like as they had more range

and competed for resources.

2. By 1860, tens of thousands of buffalo-hunting Amerindians

roamed the western plains.

a. Their society was organized into tribes, which were usually

subdivided into "bands" of about 500 men and women, each

with a governing council.

b. Women assumed domestic and artistic roles, while men hunted,

traded, and supervised religious and military life.

c. Each tribe’s warrior class competed with others to demonstrate

bravery.

d. Western tribes never successfully united politically or militarily

against white power, thus contributing to their defeat by the U.S.

3. Government policy toward Amerindians:

a. The federal gov’t regarded tribes both as independent nations and

as wards of the state and therefore negotiated treaties with them

that required ratification by the Senate.

b. Tribes were often victimized by corrupt white officials charged

with protecting them.

c. As white settlers moved west, more pressure existed for access to

Amerindian lands.

d. The gov’t frequently violated treaties they made with Native

Americans.

Railroad companies were granted “right-of-way” lands where

the transcontinental railroad was being built plus land grants

near the railroads, thus intruding on Amerindian lands.

e. Concentration policy: 1851, the U.S. gov’t began a policy of

inducing tribes to concentrate in areas to the north and south of

intended white settlement.

f. Concentration was intensified in the 1860s when Amerindians

were herded into still smaller areas – "relocation"

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868): Sioux were "guaranteed" the

sanctuary of the Black Hills in Dakota Territory.

Other tribes were relocated to "Indian Territory" (Oklahoma).

Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in the Department of the

Interior was in charge of Indian reservations.

4. Amerindians surrendered ancestral lands so they would be left

alone and given food, clothing and other supplies.

a. Federal Indian agents were often corrupt, giving poor or damaged

provisions.

Some profited handsomely by embezzling funds.

b. Treaties were often disregarded while lands were seized and




game was killed.

c. Corrupt BIA practices resulted in constant conflicts between tribes

and nearby white settlers.

B. Warfare

1. 1868-1890, constant warfare raged in the West between

Amerindians and whites.

a. U.S. troops were largely composed of Civil War veterans.

20% of all soldiers assigned to the frontier were black (many

served in the Buffalo Regiment and were known by the

Amerindians as “Buffalo Soldiers”).

U.S. forces were led by Generals Sherman, Sheridan ("the only

good Indian is a dead Indian") and Custer.

b. Plains Amerindians were expert fighters who often had state-

of-the-art weapons supplied from fur traders (e.g. repeating

rifles).

2. Sand Creek Massacre, Colorado, 1864

a. 1861, the Cheyenne and Arapaho were forced into the desolate

Sand Creek reservation due to gold mining.

b. Tensions resulted in scattered battles until the Cheyenne

surrendered and reported to gov’t areas.

c. Colonel J. M. Chivington’s militia massacred about 150

Amerindians who had been promised immunity and protective

custody by the gov’t.

3. Sioux War of 1876-1877

a. Began when gold miners rushed to the Black Hills of South

Dakota in1875

b. Warriors led by Sitting Bull attacked U.S. forces after

treaties had been violated.

c. U.S. Army led by Gen. George A. Custer who pursued the Sioux

d. Battle of Little Big Horn (1876)

Custer’s forces clashed with 2,500 well-armed warriors in

eastern Montana led by Crazy Horse.

Custer and his 264 men were completely wiped out; about 150

Amerindians died as well.

e. U.S. reinforcements chased Sitting Bull to Canada where he

received political asylum; hunger forced the Sioux to return and

surrender to the U.S.

4. Nez Perce (located in Idaho)

a. Chief Joseph was a noble and humane leader, who had earlier

helped white settlers and explorers.

b. Nez Perce ceded much land to the U.S. in 1855 in return for a

large reservation in Oregon and Idaho.

Later, the Nez Perce were forced to cede even more land after

gold was discovered.




c. In 1877, the U.S. gov’t ordered the removal of the Nez Perce from

the Wallowa Valley in Oregon by agreement or by force.

d. War ensued and the Nez Perce won several battles before fleeing.

e. The Nez Perce undertook a 75-day, 1,500 mile retreat to Canada.

They sought out Sitting Bull’s camp in Canada but were

subdued only 30 miles from the border -- 1 day’s trip)

f. The Nez Perce were subsequently shipped south to a malaria-

infested camp in Kansas, before their final relocation in Oklahoma.

They had been promised a reservation in the Dakotas but the

U.S. reneged.

Over a third of the tribe died of disease.

g. The Nez Perce were eventually allowed to return to the northwest

but not to the Wallowa Valley.

5. Apache

a. Cochise led a successful 9-year guerrilla war from his base in the

Rocky Mountains

The U.S. offered the Apache a deal but later reneged.

b. Apache were later led by Geronimo (Arizona, New Mexico)

c. He was pursued by the U.S. into Mexico and finally induced to

surrender.

d. Many Apache became successful farmers in Oklahoma, where

they also raised cattle.

6. Wounded Knee (1890)

a. Last major clash between U.S. troops and American Indians

b. The army was sent to end the practice of the sacred "Ghost

Dance" performed by the Dakota Sioux.

Believers of the cult expected buffalo to return and God’s wrath

to wipe the white man from the face of the earth.

Fearful whites (many were Christian reformers on reservations)

successfully urged the U.S. gov’t to make it illegal.

c. 300 Sioux men, women, and children were massacred; 60 U.S.

soldiers were killed.

C. Result of Indian Wars

1. By 1890, effectively all North American tribes were on reservations.

a. The U.S. gov’t felt it was cheaper to feed Indians than to fight

them.

b. Yet, many reservations were grossly ignored by the U.S. gov’t.

2. Killing of buffalo resulted in the Plains Amerindians being subdued

a. Buffalo had been used by Amerindians for food, clothing, shelter,

tools, and religious icons.

b. Originally about 50 million buffalo roamed the plains; reduced to

15 million in 1868 and less than 1,000 by 1885

c. Much of the food supply during railroad construction came from

bison while U.S. Army and agents of the BIA also encouraged




bison slaughter.

3. Railroads transported troops, farmers, cattlemen, sheepherders, and

settlers

Railroads also encouraged killing of buffalo as they sometimes

would disrupt rail lines for days.

o They hired hunters such as “Buffalo” Bill Cody.

4. White diseases ravaged Native Americans, as did alcohol.

D. National sentiment began to urge reform toward Native Americans.

1. Helen Hunt Jackson: A Century of Dishonor (1881)

a. Chronicled the record of gov’t ruthlessness and deceit toward

Amerindians.

b. The work had a similar emotional impact on the public not unlike

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Ramona, a novel written by Jackson in 1884, focused on the

plight of southern California Indians, and was widely read.

c. Jackson’s books inspired a movement to assimilate Amerindians

"for their own good."

2. Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 (Allotment Act)

a. Reflected forced-civilization views of reformers (and western

land speculators)

In effect, sought to eradicate Amerindian culture by forcing

assimilation

b. Provisions

Dissolved many tribes as legal entities

Wiped out tribal ownership of land

Set up individual Amerindian family heads with an allotment of

160 free acres

If Amerindians "behaved" like "good white settlers," they

would get full title to their holdings and citizenship in 25 years.

o The probationary period was later extended.

c. Results:

Accelerated the destruction of traditional Amerindian culture.

o Army-style boarding schools were set up where Amerindian

children were prohibited from exercising any portion of

their culture.

2/3 of Indians’ remaining land was lost

o 1889 and 1892 land rushes took Cherokee, Creek, and

other lands

The Dawes Act remained the U.S. government’s official Indian

policy until 1934 when the Indian Reorganization Act (the

"Indian New Deal") tried to restore the tribal basis of

Amerindian life.

d. Amerindians finally received full citizenship in 1924.




e. Today, 2 million Native Americans live in the U.S., less than 1%

of the total population.

III. Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on the Frontier

A. Established three western frontiers

1. Mining

2. Ranching

3. Farming

B. Towns sprang up along railroad routes

1. Railroads were given land by the U.S. government in alternating

squares miles, 10 miles-wide on each side of the railroad track in a

checkerboard pattern.

2. Railroads sold much of this land to settlers.

3. More people bought land from the railroads than received land from

the Homestead Act.

IV. Mining in the West (first of three frontiers)

A. Mineral-rich areas of the West were the first to be extensively settled.

1. Following prospectors and commercial miners, ranchers and

farmers migrated westward.

2. Copper, lead, tin, quartz, and zinc ultimately became more profitable

than gold or silver.

B. Pike’s Peak, Colorado

1. Gold was discovered in modern-day Colorado Springs in 1858 and

thousands of prospectors rushed West.

2. Though only a few of the 100,000 "59-ers" profited, thousands

stayed in the region to mine silver, or farm grain.

C. Comstock Lode was discovered in Nevada in 1859 (gold and silver)

A big population influx resulted in Nevada’s statehood in 1864.

D. Copper mining developed in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Utah.

Increased demand for copper was due to the increased use of

telegraph wires, electric wires, and telephone wires.

E. Ghost towns emerged when mines petered out and towns were

abandoned.

F. Corporations gradually came to dominate mining which required large

capitalization.




G. Significance of mining

1. Attracted population and wealth to the “Wild West”

2. Helped finance the Civil War

3. Facilitated the building of railroads

4. Intensified conflict between whites and Amerindians

5. Enabled the U.S. gov’t to resume specie payments in 1879

6. Introduced the silver issue into American politics

7. Added to American folklore and literature (e.g. Bret Harte and Mark

Twain)

V. Ranching (second of the three frontiers)

A. The transcontinental railroad facilitated transportation of meat to cities.

1. Cattle were now driven to stockyards (e.g. Kansas City and Chicago).

2. Beef tycoons like the Swift’s and Armour’s emerged.

3. Refrigerator cars allowed transportation of fresh meat from western

stockyards to the East.

B. The "Long Drive"

1. Mexican ranchers had developed ranching techniques later used

by Texans, then by Great Plains cattlemen and cowboys.

Spanish words: rodeo, bronco, lasso

2. Texas cowboys included former Confederate soldiers, northern

whites, blacks, and Mexicans.

3. Cowboys drove herds through the plains until they reached a

railroad terminal (e.g. Abilene and Dodge City in Kansas, Ogallala in

Nebraska, and Cheyenne in Wyoming).

C. Challenges to the "long drive"

1. Homesteaders built barbed-wire fences that were too numerous to

be cut down by the Cowboys.

Barbed wire was invented by Joseph Glidden (1874) who made a

fortune selling it (he produced about 600 miles per day).

2. Terrible winter of 1885-86 & 1886-1887 followed by scorching

summer killed thousands of steer.

3. Overgrazing and overexpansion also took their toll.

4. Ranchers built heartier stock and fenced them into controlled

lands where they could feed and water them to keep them healthy.

D. Latino resistance to white ranching in the Southwest

1. Poor Mexican-American ranchers (Mexicanos) resisted the fencing

in of lands in places such as New Mexico and Las Vegas as large

landowners sought to take control of open lands, some of which

remained public.

a. In 1890, a secret organization called the White Caps (Los Gorras

Blancas) destroyed fences in San Miguel County, New Mexico.




b. Federal troops were called in to protect the fences.

c. In response Mexican-American ranchers began running for office

and controlled the balance of power between both the Republican

and Democratic parties.

2. In Texas, the Anglo community dominated the older Latino

communities through authorities such as the Texas Rangers.

VI. Farming (the third western frontier)

A. Homestead Act of 1862

1. Federal lands were effectively given away to encourage settlement

of the West.

2. Settlers could acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it

for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee averaging about

$30 (as low as $10).

Residency on land was required for ownership.

3. Or, land might be acquired after 6 months’ residence at $1.25/acre.

4. The new policy was a departure from previous federal land policy of

selling land for revenue.

B. Results

1. About 500,000 pioneer families migrated west (20,000 by 1865).

Yet, five times as many families purchased lands from railroads,

land companies, or states, instead of under the Homestead Act.

2. Thousands of homesteaders, maybe 2/3, were forced to give up in

the face of inadequate 160 acre plots and drought, hail, and

ravage from insects.

3. Ten times more of the public domain belonged to promoters, not

farmers.

Corporations used "dummy" homesteaders to grab the best

properties containing lumber, minerals, and oil.

4. The federal trend of "free land" lasted until 1934.

C. Development of the “Great American Desert”

1. Black prairie sod (e.g. Kansas) could now be developed with

special plows.

Rich land shattered the myth of the “Great American Desert.”

2. Railroads played a role in taming the West.

a. Profitable marketing of crops

b. Induced Americans and European immigrants to buy cheap lands

3. Improved irrigation techniques helped deserts to bloom (e.g.

Mormons in Utah)

4. Tough strains of wheat resistant to cold were imported from Russia.

5. Flour-milling process by John Pillsbury of Minneapolis, increased

grain demand.

6. Barbed-wire gave farmers more protection against trespassing cattle.




VII. End of the Frontier

A. Incredible population growth occurred in the West from the 1870s to

1890s.

1. New states: Colorado (1876) North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana,

Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming

The Republican congress in 1889 admitted several new states to

buttress their control in Congress over the Democrats.

2. Utah was admitted in 1896 after it banned polygamy in 1890.

B. Oklahoma Land Rush, April 22, 1889

1. U.S. made available to settlers vast stretches of land formerly

occupied by the Creeks and Seminoles in the district of

Oklahoma.

2. Nearly 100, 000 "boomers" or "eighty-niners" poured in from the

Oklahoma border.

a. By day’s end, nearly 2 million acres had been settled.

b. "Sooners" were land-grabbers who claimed land illegally before

the land rush began.

3. By year’s end, Oklahoma had 60,000 inhabitants and Congress made

it a territory.

4. In 1907, it became "the Sooner State."

C. The 1890 census revealed that for the first time in U.S. history, a

frontier line was no longer discernible.

1. All unsettled areas were now broken by isolated bodies of

settlement.

2. Yet, more millions of acres were taken up after 1890 than between

1862 and 1890.

3. Once the frontier was gone, farmers could not move west in

significant numbers.

They had to stay and fight to improve their situation by organizing

for political purposes.

D. "Safety valve" theory

1. Supposedly, during depressions, unemployed city-dwellers moved

west to farm and prosper.

2. In reality, few urbanites in eastern centers migrated to the frontier

during depressions.

a. They did not know how to farm or could not raise necessary funds

for transportation, livestock, and machinery.

b. Most settlers who moved west came from farms on the older

frontier.

c. In fact, near century’s end, many farmers moved to the city.

3. Free acreage did lure immigrant farmers who would otherwise

have lived in overcrowded eastern slums.




4. The frontier did lure restless and adventurous spirits, mostly young

men, who wanted to achieve the "American Dream"

5. The frontier did have a psychological impact on easterners who

could, if they desired, flee to the frontier.

May have had an impact in wage increases for eastern workers.

VIII. Large-Scale Farming and the Mechanization of Agriculture

A. The Mississippi region experienced an agricultural revolution after the

Civil War.

1. Large-scale farmers invested heavily in machinery to produce food

on an industrial scale.

a. They employed steam power for plowing, seeding and harrowing.

b. The twine binder (1870s) and the combined reaper-thresher

(“combine”—1880s) radically increased production.

c. As large agricultural interests, these wealthy farmers became

business people who were heavily dependent on the banking,

railroad, and manufacturing interests.

2. Large-scale farmers concentrated on a single cash-crop such as

wheat or corn.

a. America became the world’s breadbasket and meat producer.

b. The farm attained the status of a factory.

c. Some of the farms became enormous (e.g. Minnesota and North

Dakota, and California’s Central Valley)

3. Large-scale commercial agriculture run by entrepreneurial

capitalists of the New South, spread beyond the plantations into

white small farming regions.

B. For farmers, the post-war era represented one of most wrenching

changes in American history.

1. "Crop lien" system: basis of the commercialization of southern

agriculture.

a. A planter or merchant extended a line of credit (at exorbitant

interest rates) to a struggling farmer.

It was virtually impossible for farmers to get out of debt.

Resulted in many poor white and black farmers becoming

landless tenant farmers or sharecroppers.

b. Credit merchants who came to power in the post-Reconstruction

South acquired much land at the expense of small farmers.

1870s: 20% of Southern farmers were tenants, mostly freed

slaves.

1910s: 50% of farmers were tenants, many were newly

landless whites.

c. The oppressive system of farming in the South resulted in the

massive migration of white and black Americans out of the

Southern cotton belt.




Largest population shift in American history (most of whom

were white).

2. Some small-scale farmers, unskilled in business, blamed banks

and railroads rather than their own shortcomings for their losses.

3. Gave rise to Populist movement of victimized farmers.

C. Economic problems plaguing farmers

1. Deflated currency and low food prices were the chief worries

among farmers.

2. Natural disasters caused by freezing temperatures, insects, and

diseases compounded the problems farmers faced

3. Government-added woes

a. Farmers’ land was often overvalued, making property taxes

higher.

b. Protective tariffs hurt the South as manufactured product prices

increased

Farmers’ products were unprotected in the competitive world

market.

4. Agricultural-related trusts gouged farmers: barbed-wire trust,

fertilizer trust, harvester trust, and railroad trust (freight rates)

5. Farmers were underrepresented politically and poorly organized.

©2014 HistorySage.com All Rights Reserved This material may not be posted on any website other than HistorySage.com

Terms to Know

Frederick Jackson Turner Plains Indians

“exodusters” Sioux Treaty of Ft. Laramie, 1868

Bureau of Indian Affairs Buffalo Regiment

Sand Creek Massacre, 1864 Sitting Bull General George Custer

Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876 Crazy Horse

Nez Perce, Chief Joseph Apache, Geronimo “Ghost Dance”

Wounded Knee, 1890 Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of

Dishonor, 1881

Dawes Severalty Act, 1887 three western frontier: mining, farming,

ranching Comstock Lode “long drive”

cowboys barbed-wire, Joseph Glidden

Homestead Act, 1862 twine binder “combine”

John Pillsbury Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889

1890 census “safety valve” thesis crop-lien system

Essay Questions

Note: This unit is the highest probability area for the AP exam! In the past

10 years, 9 questions have come wholly or in part from the material in this Unit. This sub-unit is a high probability area for the AP exam. In the past 10 years, 3

questions have come wholly or in part from the material in this sub-uint. Below are some questions that will help you study the topics that have appeared on previous exams.

1. Analyze factors for the conflict between Americans and Amerindians in the

West.

2. Analyze the impact of the transcontinental railroad on the economic

development of the West.

3. Discuss the revolution in farming that occurred in the South and West after the Civil War




Bibliography:

College Board, AP United States History Course and Exam Description (Including the

Curriculum Framework), 2014: History, New York: College Board, 2014

Brinkley, Alan, American History: Connecting with the Past, 14th ed., New York: McGraw Hill,

2012

Foner, Eric & Garraty, John A. editors: The Reader’s Companion to

American History, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1991

Frasier, James W., By the People, A History of the United States, Boston: Pearson 2015

Kennedy, David M., Cohen, Lizabeth, Bailey, Thomas A.: The American Pageant (AP Edition),

13th edition, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006

Nash, Gary: American Odyssey, Lake Forest, Illinois: Glencoe, 1992

Painter, Nell Irvin, Standing at Armageddon: The United States, 1877-

1919, New York: W. W. Norton 1987

Schultz, Constance G., The American History Videodisc Master Guide,

Annapolis: Instruction Resources Corporation, 1995

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