APUSH - Spiconardi

 What images come to mind when you envision the American West post-Civil War?

A welcome, warm and hearty, do we give the sons of toil To come to the West and settle and labor on free soil; We've room enough and land enough, they needn't feel alarm – O! come to the land of freedom and vote yourself a farm. Then come along, come along, make no delay; Come from every nation, come from every way. Our lands, they are broad enough - don't be alarmed, For Uncle Sam is rich enough to give us all a farm.

 Homestead Act (1862)  Act that allowed a settler to acquire as much as 160 acres of land by living on it for 5 years, improving it, and paying a nominal fee of about $30  The land given to the settlers usually had terrible soil and the weather included no precipitation

 Morrill Act  Act that set aside 140 million acres of federal land that states could sell to raise money for public universities  Grant colleges land so they could provide educational programs for agricultural and mechanics

 Problems  Land was not suited for agricultural without modifying the environment  “Great American Desert”  Native American Indians were already living on the land (leads to conflict)  Many of the farms were repossessed  Fraud  False claims on land  Weather  Blizzards in the winter  Lack of rainfall to grow wheat and grain

 John Wesley Powell  Union veteran who led an expedition into the West  Issued the Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States  160-acre homesteads were not compatible with dry regions of the Great Plains  Called for the building of irrigation systems, canals, and dams  At first, after much debate, Congress did not act, but eventually provided funding for canals and dams

 Conservationist began to fear overdevelopment of the West  Perhaps the federal government should not sell all of the public land  Yellowstone National Park  In 1872, Congress set 2 million acres aside for the world’s first national park  The Northern Pacific Railroad company lobbied Congress for a national park to support railroad tourism  U.S. Fisheries Commission  Made recommendations to address the declining commercial fish population

 Most settlers were motivated by the possibility of economic improvement  Population  Union soldiers  Scandinavian immigrants  After a depression hit northern Europe Norwegians and Swedes came in great numbers (especially in Minnesota and the Dakotas)  Former slaves  The Great Plains represented a promised land of freedom  Native American Indians  Chinese Immigrants