Western Expansion. Geography Early 1800’s: “Great American Desert” (Miss. River to the Rocky...
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Transcript of Western Expansion. Geography Early 1800’s: “Great American Desert” (Miss. River to the Rocky...
Western Expansion
Geography• Early 1800’s: “Great American Desert”
(Miss. River to the Rocky Mtns.)–Very fertile soil–Mtns. Had valuable minerals –Indians succeeded at ranching & farming
1850’s
• Pioneers farm & ranch in the west• Expanded during Civil War• Food & raw materials for soldiers• Post-War soldiers move west
Transportation
• Was extremely difficult until railroad
• 1863-1869 Transcontinental Railroad opened up the West to the country
Trans RR map
Conflict
• Problems: American wanted to move West; Indians already lived there
• Early 1800’s: Great Plains = “one big Indian Reservation; Indians ancestral & legal homeland
Indian tribes map
1840’s
• Americans settled in Oregon & California
• U.S. adopts a policy of concentration: tribes must allow settlers free passage & must confine their hunting to specific areas
• Concentration failed
–Buffalo roamed
–1858 Colorado gold rush, settlers invaded Indian territory
Sand Creek Massacre
• 1864: Chief Black Kettle agreed to an armistice
• Col. Chivington & 1,000 troops attacked
• Ignored white & American flags
• Killed 450 Indians
Sioux Wars: 1862-1868• 1862-63: Sioux raided white settlements
in Minnesota; Little Crow was killed• 1865: U.S. builds roads through Sioux
land• 1866: Chief Red Cloud & Sioux
ambush & kill 83 federal soldiers
• Reservation: plots of poor land where Indians were confined & closed off from society
• Technology: telegraph, RR, professional military, colt revolver & other weapons
End of the Indian Wars
• 1875: Gold in the Dakotas (Sioux land)
• 1876: Battle of Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand) - last Indian victory
• 1877: Nez Perce & Chief Joseph run off their land (1500 miles)
• 1886: Geronimo’s resistance in New Mexico
• 1890: Wounded Knee; U.S. massacred 200 Sioux women & children
• Thousands of Indians die from starvation, battle, and exposure
Destruction of Indian Life
• RR, hunters, & settlers killed thousands of buffalo
• Fewer buffalo = fewer Indians
• Indians became dependent upon the U.S. gov’t for food, clothing, etcetera
• Bureau of Indian Affairs: gov’t agency that attempted to assimilate the Indians into American culture
• 1887: Dawes Act
–reservations are broken into smaller plots
–Americanization is sped up
Cattle Industry• Rooted in Mexican vaquero tradition
• Tame & wild cattle bred together creating new breeds
• RR vital to success
• Dodge City, Cheyenne, Wichita, & Topeka
Ranching
• Problems: cattle lost weight during cattle drives; 1884 Kansas forbid TX cattle except during winter
• Solutions: Extend RR north; establish northern ranches
• Europeans & Easterners invest in cattle
• Land was cheap, grass & cattle were free
• overgrazing & overproduction
• Bad weather affects prices
• Result: few companies controlled cattle industry
Farming• Exodus of 1879: the migration of poor
Southern blacks to the West• Homestead Act 1862:
–160 acres of land to each head of family–must live there 5 yrs. minimum–must improve the land
• Timber Culture Act - 1873• Desert Land Act - 1877• Timber & Stone Act - 1878• Farm life:• sod houses, cow chips, everyone
worked
Technology
• Combine, reaper-thresher• improved plows • windmills • barbed wire• refrigerated RR cars
• Bonanza farms: large farms financed by outside capital
• California - wheat, grapes, wine, raisins
• Florida - citrus fruits
Mining• Colorado, Cali., Nevada, Montana,
Alaska
• placer mining: mining the deposits of a streambed
• quartz mining: blasting rock from a mountainside
• Used Mexican & Chinese labor
• Levi’s & J.C. Penny
• Gold, silver, timber
• copper, lead, borax
Lumber• Washington, Oregon, Cali.• Used for mine tunnels & houses• Douglas Firs 8-10 ft., Redwoods 20-
30 ft. thick• log drive: floating logs downstream
to a lumber mill• output increased 500% w/ tech.
Alaska-Final Frontier• 1867: bought for 2 cents per acre from
Russia
• William Seward
• 1880’s gold strike
• 1896 Klondike gold strike
• Mink, beaver, sable furs, copper, coal, timber, fish
Twice the size of Texas!!
Impact of the Frontier• Turner Thesis - the western frontier helped
distinguish America from Europe
• dime novels: cheap fiction books from popular post-Civil War authors
• Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show
• 1916 - National Park Service: created & established Yellowstone & Niagara Falls