The Gilded Age: Western Expansion 1865-1900 The Gilded Age: “golden” period of massive economic expansion, mass production, and westward expansion from 1865-1900, but under the “gold” the nation was plagued by corrupt politics, social inequalities, exploitive business practices and Indian genocide. Mr. G.A. Hawkins U.S. History Sam Houston MSTC

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion toward the Western United States. Migration = the reason for migration was to try an create a better life for American Settlers. However, the motivation for expansion is often fueled by profit and at times leads to cultural conflict and denial of individual

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion to the Western part of the United States. Transcontinental Railroad = completed in 1869. Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads were joined to crate a single line from Omaha Nebraska to the Pacific Ocean. Trunk lines established. Used to develop the Great Plains. Trains led to growth and development of railway stations that led to towns, cities, and commercial industry. They not only transported people but manufactured goods and raw materials.

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion toward the Western part of the United States. Horatio Alger Jr. = published a series of novels that promoted the ideas of self reliant individualism. Based on Rags to Riches stories. Ideas eventually led to Lassies-faire capitalism and free enterprise. Pull yourself up from your bootstraps, you control your own destiny, work hard to succeed, determination is half the battle. All slogans that deal with the idea of Self reliant. This ideas have come to be characterized with being an American.

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion. The Dawes Act = (Also known as the Dawes General Allotment Act of 1887) required that Indian lands be surveyed and that American Indian families receive an allotment of 160 acres of reservation land for farming. Any land that remained would be sold. This had a great impact on Navajo. They didn’t like farming and led to the decline of their people. This opened the Plains to white settlements.

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion. The Homestead Act = permitted any citizen or intended citizen to select any surveyed land up to 160 acres and to gain title to it after 5 years residence if the person cultivated the land. These sales resulted from lands that were confiscated from the Native Americans.

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion towards the Western United States . Concept of Property Rights = Native American’s did not recognize the European concept of property rights. To them the land, the buffalo, the trees, and the sky belonged to all. The felt free to roam the land with no desire to claim it. Property rights were protected by the 5th and 14th amendments to the Constitution. Native Americans did not qualify as they were not U.S. Citizens until 1924.

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion toward the Western United States. Open range ranching and later farmers = plains area was expanded with the Transcontinental railroad, miners, ranchers, and later farmers. Mining towns developed, ranchers got lands who were interested in open range ranching, and farmers got land to farm so that they could feed the country. All of these actions began to break up reservations into individual pieces of land.

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion towards the Western United States. Demographic Pattern = Demographics or demographic data refers to a selected population characteristics as used in government, marketing or opinion research. They tend to describe the changes in demographics in a population over a period of time.

The Gilded Age: People, events, and things that caused expansion to the Western United States.