1. Westward Expansion

2. U.S. Land Acquired in the 1800s: Encouraged Westward Expansion
Time period from approximately where the U.S. expanded from East to West
Examples: Settling of the Louisiana Territory and the Mexican Cession

3. Manifest Destiny
Americans believed they should own all the land from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean; coast to coast.
Therefore when America acquired new land we began “westward expansion”.

4. Factors
Negative conditions that pushed people to move away from their homeland to a different region

5. Examples of Push Factors What would make someone want to leave the East or the South?
Loss of land and homes in the South during Civil War
Shortage of land in the East (too expensive)
Business failure in the East or South
Religious persecution (Mormons)
Trouble with the law

6. Pull Factors
Positive conditions that pulled or attracted people to move elsewhere by their own choice

7. Examples of Pull Factors What would attract someone to the West?
Free land from the government – Homestead Act
Job opportunities – mining, cattle ranching, farming
Adventure- cowboys, mountain men

8. Pacific Railway Acts (1862/64)
U.S. government gave RR companies land in exchange for building the western railroads.
Law signed by Lincoln during the Civil War
175 million acres were given to the RR’s.
RR’s sold this land to settlers to pay for the construction of the rails.
RR’s made over $500 million in profit.

9. Land Speculators
Much of the land was bought by speculators who bought it from the railroads and then sold it to individual settlers at huge profits. =

10. Morrill Land-Grant Act (1862)
Also signed by Lincoln during the Civil War
The federal government gave state governments millions of acres of western lands to be used for colleges
The colleges were to specialize in agriculture and mechanical arts.
Agriculture and Mechanical College of Texas (now called Texas A & M)

11. Homestead Act (1862)
The federal government granted 160 acre sections of western land for a $10 fee.
In order to receive a permanent deed the applicants had to
farm the land for at least 5 years
be 21 years old or the head of a household
be an American citizen (or applying)
build a house on the land (12’ x 14’)
live on the land 6 months every year

12. Homestead→Manifest Destiny
In 1862 the U.S. Government passed the Homestead Act of 1862.
This law opened settlement of the Great Plains and gave people a chance to become landowners.
Remember Tocqueville’s observation  about difference between old school Europe and the new American’s was the ability to acquire land.
The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, it connected the eastern USA with the west and helped settle the frontier of the West

13. The Transcontinental Railroad Railroads would have a significant impact on the economic, cultural, and social development of the Western United States
Opinions differed as to which route to take.
Should it go through the North or along a southern route?
The resulting Civil War caused the Transcontinental Railroad to be built along a northern route from Omaha, Nebraska to Sacramento, California.
Travel time would decrease from months to a few days.

14. “The Wedding of the Rails” Central Pacific and Union Pacific
1st TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD
May 10, 1869 at Promontory, Utah
“The Wedding of the Rails”
Central Pacific and Union Pacific

15. The Transcontinental Railroad finished in 1869
The Transcontinental Railroad finished in (draw the RR on your map)
Promontory, Utah

16. Impact of the Railroads
Railroads brought growth and new settlement all across the West.
The railroads enabled people, supplies, and mail to move quickly and cheaply and safer across the plains and the mountains.
The largest cities and towns developed where major railroad lines met.
Because of their rapid growth, western territories began to apply for statehood. Nevada, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington all became states from 1864 – 1890.

17. The Railroad spurs the growth of other industries.
The lumber industry grows, because wood is needed to build the train tracks.
The steel industry grows because steel is needed to build the tracks.
The coal industry grows because coal is needed to fuel the train.
The growth of these industries opens thousands of new jobs for workers.

18. Many Immigrants, such as Irish, Mexican and Chinese found jobs building the Railroad.
Certain jobs were so dangerous only immigrants were willing to do them
Railroad companies often preferred to hire Chinese immigrants because they were cheaper
Due to the number of immigrants that entered the country many Americans began to have “nativist” attitudes
Nativism is the extreme dislike/hatred of immigrants

19. Chinese Exclusion Act
Due to the nativists’ fear of immigrants taking their jobs America passed the Chinese Exclusion Act
Banned anyone from immigrating from China to the USA
Placed new restrictions on those Chinese already living here by restricting their ability to move/travel
Chinese children born in the USA were denied Citizenship

20. Miners Help Westward Expansion
I hope I find gold and become rich!

21. Gold Rush-1849 - 1870 Gold was discovered in California in 1849.
The Comstock Lode, a Bonanza, was later discovered in Nevada.
Klondike Gold Rush—Gold found in Yukon, near Alaska in 1896
Immigrants, such as Mexicans, Chinese and the Irish, went to work in the mines.
BY /3 WESTERN MINERS WERE CHINESE
Immigrants were treated poorly with long hours, low pay and very dangerous work.

22. MINERS (on your map create a symbol and mark these areas)
SERIES OF GOLD STRIKES
COLORADO--PIKES PEAK 1859 (CO)
NEVADA--COMSTOCK LODE (NV)
CALIFORNIA (CA)
Other states that had gold strikes:
IDAHO (ID)
MONTANA (MT)
ARIZONA (AZ)
SOUTH
DAKOTA (SD)

23. Boom towns and Ghost towns
Gold or Silver strike
Miners arrive and build a small town.
More people come to sell supplies.
Real houses get built.
Boom Town
Gold or silver production falls – decreases.
Miners move on.
The town is abandoned.
Ghost Town

24. Working on the mine

25. FARMERS/SETTLERS Help Westward Expansion
(Exodusters,Sodbusters Or “Soddies”)
Used Dry Farming techniques on the Great Plains
Were Homesteaders
took advantage of the Homestead Act

26. African Americans who moved west were called Exodusters.
Many African Americans moved to the West from the 1840s to late 1890s.
They were escaping the difficult life in the South
where Whites practiced Jim Crow Laws and denied African Americans their new Constitutional Rights
(13th, 14th and 15th amendments)

27. Exodusters moving West.
I hope there’s no KKK.
Maybe we can vote in the West.

28. People traveled West on wagon roads, on the railroad, and by steamship.

29. A difficult life for Farmers
Farmers had to cut through thick, hard earth called sod.
Winters were harsh; cold, windy with a lot of snowstorms called blizzards.
Summers were hot and had little rain.
Farmers had to use a technique called dry- farming (growing crops that needed little water.)
Sometimes grasshoppers would eat all the crops.

30. Plowfarms, plows and families in front of their sodhouses
Plowfarms, plows and families in front of their sodhouses. (soddies and sodbusters)

31. The Cattle Kingdom

32. DEMAND for BEEF SPURS GROWTH
Prior to civil war – pork was preferred
People began snubbing pork – unwholesome
National beef binge!!!
Growth of cattle ranches

33. Cowboys and Vaqueros

34. Ranchers and Cowhands drove the cattle to the Transcontinental Railroad.

35. Why did the Cattle Kingdom fail?
When: MID 1880’S
Why:
Over Expansion
We produced too much beef which lead to price declines
Weather –
Cold And Hot (extremes)
Cattle Fever –
spread and causes whole herds to die
BARBED WIRE –
Ended Open Grazing And Cattle Drives
SHEEP –
became Popular because they required less land

36. Why did the Cattle Kingdom fail?

37. The Great Plains

38. The location of the Great Plains.

39. Great Plains
Vast grasslands between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains
Before 1850 it was home to 10 million Native Americans and 60 million buffalo

40. Buffalo roamed the Plains.

41. The buffalo is used for tepees, clothes, tools, food and more.

42. So how did westward migration impact Native Americans of the Great Plains?

43. Native Americans Native Americans will be “dealt with” in 3 strategies
1—Move
2—Kill
3—Assimilate

44. Indian Removal Policy (1st Strategy Move)
Indian Removal Act (Andrew Jackson) moved 5 eastern tribes across Mississippi into “Indian Territory” (Okla.)
1860’s - “Removal” would also become the official government policy for the Great Plains tribes

45. The buffalo hide business becomes popular and settlers kill millions of buffalo—helps to force many Native Americans onto reservations.

46. Reservations Federal land set aside (reserved) for Native Americans
The goal was to “civilize” Native Americans by forcing them to farm the land rather than hunt.
Meanwhile white settlers took Native American ancestral land for farming or mining.
They were forced to remain on these lands by treaties they usually could not read and did not understand.

47. BROKEN PROMISES!
The United States government made many treaties with the Native Americans not to fight and not to touch certain areas of their land.
For example, The Fort Laramie Treaty was a treaty made with the Cheyenne tribe, where Americans said an area of land belonged to the Cheyenne forever!
However, when gold was discovered there, the Americans forced them to sign a new treaty giving up the land.
The United States government broke many treaties with the Native Americans.

48. Indian Reservations in 1885

49. B. I. A. Bureau of Indian Affairs
Part of the U. S. Department of the Interior
Managed delivery of food and supplies to the reservations
Usually corrupt workers- stole supplies and sold them for their own profit while Indians starved

50. So if YOU were a Native American, forced off your land, and moved onto a reservation, where your children were dying from disease, cold, and starvation How might you respond ?

51. VIOLENCE

52. So begin the great “Indian Wars” of the 19th Century
2nd Strategy (Kill)
So begin the great “Indian Wars” of the 19th Century

53. The Great Plains Indian Wars
1862 – The Dakota War (Minnesota)
1864 – Sand Creek Massacre (Colorado)
1876 – Battle of Little Big Horn (Montana)
1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre (S. Dakota)

54. The Lakota Tribe and the Massacre at Wounded Knee 1890

55. Wounded Knee Massacre 1890
Sitting Bull now back on the South Dakota Reservation encouraged the Lakota Sioux to practice the Ghost Dance ritual.
The ritual frightened whites who thought the Indians were preparing for war.

56. The Ghost Dance Purification ritual performed by many plains tribes
Believed the ritual would restore their traditional way of life
Dancers joined hands and danced in a circle.
Sometimes they danced for days until they fell “dead” and saw visions of their dead ancestors.

57. The Ghost Dance
Dancers wore a “Ghost Shirt” - a sacred costume made of white cotton painted with symbols.
Lakota believed the shirt protected them from the white man’s bullets.

58. The Ghost Dance

59. Wounded Knee Massacre
The 7th Cavalry was sent to arrest Sitting Bull. They shot and killed him.
His followers men and 230 women and children - were rounded up at a creek called Wounded Knee.
As the Indians were being disarmed, a gun went off. Soldiers began firing and killed over 200 Lakota.

60. Encampment at Wounded Knee

61. The Dead of Wounded Knee

62. Medicine Man Dead at Wounded Knee

63. Mass Burial at Wounded Knee

64. What was the ultimate goal of the U. S
What was the ultimate goal of the U.S. government concerning any Native Americans that survived the Indian Wars ?

65. Assimilation (3rd Strategy)
The process of making one society part of another. Usually the dominant society forces its culture and values on the subordinate culture.

66. Indian Boarding Schools
Created for the purpose assimilating Native American children and operated by the BIA.
Children were removed from the reservation and placed in all Indian schools. The Carlisle School in Pennsylvania was the first.
Operated from 1879 to 1919.
Over 10,000 children attended.
26 other similar schools were established during this time period.

67. Indian Boarding Schools
Students were
forbidden to speak their native language
forbidden to practice their native religion
required to take a “Christian” name
forced to cut their long hair
required to wear European style clothing

68. Indian Boarding Schools
"A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one, and that high sanction of his destruction has been an enormous factor in promoting Indian massacres. In a sense, I agree with the sentiment, but only in this: that all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man…It is a great mistake to think that the Indian is born an inevitable savage. He is born a blank, like all the rest of us. Left in the surroundings of savagery, he grows to possess a savage language, superstition, and life. . .”
Col Richard Pratt, Founder of the Carlisle School

69. Indian Boarding Schools

70. Indian Boarding Schools

71. Indian Boarding Schools

72. The Dawes Act - 1887 Divided reservation land into individual plots.
Each Indian family was given 160 acres to farm.
Any leftover reservation land was given to whites.
The goal was to make Indians self-supporting and make them believe in private property like (white) Americans do.
The idea was offensive to most Indians and many sold their land to whites or were cheated out of it.

73. Laws today protect Native American Reservations.

74. COSTS OF EXPANSION NEAR EXTINCTION OF BUFFALO DAMAGE TO ENVIRONMENT
DISPLACEMENT OF NATIVE AMERICANS
TREATMENT OF IMMIGRANTS