Essential Question: Warm-Up Question: What economic, political, & migratory factors led to the end of the western frontier by 1890? Warm-Up Question: For each era, define what the “West” was & what role the West played in American life: (a) 1750, (b) 1800, (c)1850 Lesson Plan for Thursday, November 20, 2008: Warm-up question, The American West notes

America After the Civil War: 1870-1900 Industrialization & Urbanization Ranching, Mining, & Farming Reconstruction & Rise of Jim Crow Segregation

America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 The South: By 1877, the South was recovering from the Civil War but was no longer forced to “reconstruct” Industry was regional by 1890: (a) NE had 85% of industry, (b) the sparsely-settled West provided raw materials for industry, & (c) the South was still recovering from war (made tobacco, iron & textiles; but ½ as many manufactured goods as NY state)

The “New South”? Sharecropping We won’t discuss much about the South in this unit because, when Reconstruction ended in 1877, few significant economic or political changes took place until the 1940s “Jim Crow” reigned supreme as whites legally segregated the South into 2 distinct societies

America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 The North: Experienced a “2nd Industrial Revolution,” mass immigration, & urbanization

Railroads, steel, & oil companies formed America’s first monopolies American industry & urbanization grew

America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 The West: Manifest Destiny continued after 1865 as miners homesteaders, & ranchers headed West

Established new states & closed the frontier by 1890 The United States by 1890 Washington North Dakota Montana Idaho Established new states & closed the frontier by 1890 South Dakota Colorado Wyoming

..but this came at the expense of Native Americans Western raw materials fueled eastern factories Crushed Native Americans

Settlement of the West

The Mining Bonanza Mining was the 1st magnet to attract settlers to the West CA (1849) started the gold rush, but strikes in Pikes Peak, CO & Carson River Valley, NV (1859) set off wild migrations to the West: Comstock Lode = $306 million John Mackay’s Big Bonanza made him richest man in world John Mackay earned $25 a minute from his gold/silver lode in Sierra Mountains

Mining Regions of the West Created need for local gov’t, law enforcement, sanitation, businesses, prostitutes Corporations had the expensive machinery (“hydraulic mining techniques”) to extract most of the gold in the West Individual “placer miners” took little skill or money to start, but could not reach deep lodes Mining Regions of the West ; Discoveries of gold & silver led to overnight mining towns

Mining Bonanza Pacific Chivalry: ¼ to ½ of the mining population was foreign born: Latin American miners brought experience & new techniques Chinese brought a tireless ethic Led to hostility & riots: Foreign Miners’ Act in 1852 charged a monthly mining fee Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 suspended Chinese immigration "Courts of Justice Closed to Chinese Extra Taxes to 'Yellowjack'" Pacific Chivalry: “Encouragement to Chinese Immigration”

A cattle bought for $4 in Texas sold for $40 in Kansas In the 1860s, cattle ranching boomed The Cattle Bonanza Ranchers used the “open range” to graze longhorns By 1867, ranchers started using trains to ship cattle to Chicago

The Cattle Bonanza ½ of all cowboys were black & ¼ were Mexican By 1880, the “open range” was ending: Wheat growers, homesteaders, & barbed wire blocked the range Many switched to raising sheep But “range wars” erupted over grazing rights between cowboys & “sheep-boys”