1860-1900 Looking to the west

Moving west The events and conditions that drove American and immigrants west are called push-pull factors. Many farmers, former slaves, and other workers were displaced after the Civil War and could not afford eastern farmland. They were pushed west looking for a new start, cheaper farmland, or religious and ethnic freedoms. The West also pushed outlaws on the run. People were pulled by government incentives to settle the great open spaces. Railroads carried people west and also sold settlers portions of land. States sold western land to land speculators cheaply, who then resold it to settlers for a large profit. The Homestead Act in 1862 sold public land very cheaply and created more than 372,000 farms. The government also protected the rights of farmers, miners, and ranchers by giving them firm private property rights protected under the law. Settlers came from far and wide. German and Scandiavian immigrants sought farm land in the West. Irish, Italians, European Jews, and Chinese settled in West Coast cities and moved west. Benjamin “Pap” Singleton led groups of southern blacks west on a mass “Exodus.” These settlers called themselves “Exodusters.” They were fleeing the violence and exploitation that followed Reconstruction for a better life.

QTC: push-pull factors What were the Push-Pull factors associated with westward expansion? Push Factors Pull Factors

Push – Pull Factors Push Civil War displacement 2nd Chance (re-do) Ethnic/Religious oppression Pull Pacific Railway Act Railroad expansion Morrill Land-Grant Act Land speculators Homestead Act

Conflict with the native americans Settling the Great Plains, the vast territory between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains, brought settlers into conflict with Native Americans. Most Plains Indians were nomads, people who roamed from place to place following their main source of food—herds of buffalo. Competition for land caused a clash between settlers and the Plains Indians. Settlers believed they had the right to take the land because they would produce more food and wealth. Between 1861 and 1890 battles raged between the United States army and Indian groups. The Indians were outgunned and usually suffered heavy casualties, but they continued to fight. Some key battles were the Sand Creek Massacre that defeated the Cheyenne, and the Battle of Little Big Horn, in which the Sioux killed General Custer and all his troops. The last conflict was the Massacre at Wounded Knee where American troops killed 200 unarmed Sioux men, women, and children. The government put the defeated Indian nations on reservations, lands set aside for these people. Another government policy of assimilation tried to force Indians to adopt the American culture by giving up their religions, traditions, landguages, and customs. In 1887 the federal government passed the Dawes Act that divided reservation land into plots. Most land was unsuitable for farming, and most Indians had no desire to farm or own land. In 1889 Congress opened up the Indian Territory to thousands of settlers, called boomers and sooners, pushing Indian groups into smaller areas.

Mining, ranching, farming Once the Indian wars were over, miners, ranchers, and farmers flooded into the West. From California, mining moved inland when gold was discovered in CO. Mining became big business when gold was too far underground. Individual miners left, and corporations took over. Americans learned about ranching from Mexicans in the SW, and when the Indians were removed and the buffalo killed, cattle ranching boomed on the Great Plains. Thousands of cattle were herded each year by cowboys and made the long drive to railroad towns. As the demand for beef grew, some ranchers became cattle barons, operating spreads of millions of acres of grasslands. For homesteaders, people who farmed claims under the Homestead Act, life was not easy. Most began by living in a soddie, a house of tough prairie soil. Plowing the prairie soil was backbreaking work. Insects were everywhere, and plagues of grasshoppers often wiped out a field of grain. Falling crop prices created debt. Some families headed back east, buy most pulled together to make a living. Plains farmers welcomed technological improvements in the 1870’s, including steam-powered corn huskers and wheat threshers. Like ranching, farming soon became big business and bonanza farms appeared. These farms, vast estates each devoted to a single cash crop, were owned by corporations and made possible an enormous increase in the nation’s food output. The frontier was full of legend and stereotypes. Some were true, like Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows, others exaggerated. The Turner thesis likened American character to frontier life. By 1890 the Census Bureau announced the official end of free western land.

Populism Great Plains farmers in the late 1800s faced major economic difficulties. When businesses suffered a downturn, crop prices dropped. Tariffs helped protect them from foreign competition but also hurt farmers by raising prices on manufactured goods and farm machinery. Farmers formed alliances and organized protest groups such as the Grange to pressure lawmakers to regulate businesses that farmers depended on. A major political issue for farmers was the money supply. In 1873, to prevent inflation, the government changed from a bimetallic standard, in which money was backed by gold or silver, to a gold standard. Silver miners and western farmers called for free silver, the unlimited coining of silver to increase the money supply. The government responded by passing the Sherman Silver Purchase Act that increased the amount of silver purchased by the government every year. In 1891 alliances of farmers formed the People’s Party. The platform of the Populists had five main ideas: increased circulation of money, unlimited coining of silver, a progressive tax, government ownership of communications and transportation systems, and an eight-hour work day. Populist William Jennings Bryan ran for the presidency in 1896 with his Cross of Gold Speech, but lost. In the end, populism faded when times improved and crop prices began to rise. But the Populists had begun a movement that would be carried on in the early 1900s.