1. The Transformation of the West 1860-1900
Key Events
Set the Stage

2. A. Land Ordinance of 1785 and NW Ordinance of 1787
Blueprint for expansion
Territories into states

3. B. Louisiana Purchase
Double size of US
Remove foreign threats

4. C. Indian Removal Act of 1830 and Trail of Tears
Open Land in South and Midwest
Precedent of Govt. involvement

5. D. Gold Rush of '49 Quick Rich Scheme Captures of Imagination
California ready for statehood

6. E. Kansas/Nebraska Act
Funding for RR
First Reservations

7. Factors that encourage Western Settlement Post Civil War
A. Impact of the Civil War
New Life far from War

8. Factors that encourage Western Settlement Post Civil War
B. New Technologies

9. Feb. 10, 2017 Discuss Chapter 17 Questions The Western Frontier
HW: Read Vision Chapter 18.1 and answer questions 1-5
Students will be able to explain the relationship among territorial expansion, westward movement of the new population, new immigration, growth of cities, and the admission of new states to the Union.

10. Westward Movement What factors drove people west? Economic incentive
Farming
Mining RR
Ranching
Markets
Forced relocation
For Indians
Reservations
Legislation
Homestead Act
Morrill Act

11. Laws Homestead Act (1862) Problems?
Gave 160 acres (for a $10 fee) to anyone who would live on land and farm it for 5 years
Attracted easterners and immigrants from Europe
Problems?
160 acres not sufficient in dry Great Plains
Speculators took advantage of the law (only about 11% of land went to pioneer farmers)

12. Laws
Morrill Act
Set aside funds for the creation of agricultural schools and colleges (“Tech” and “A&M” type schools)

13. Oklahoma 1889
Land that was once set aside for the American Indians, was opened for settlement in 1889
Hundreds of homesteaders took part in the last great land rush in the West
The next year, the US Census Bureau declared the entire frontier-- except for a few pockets-- had been settled

14. What was life like on the Great Plains?
Life on the Plains
What was life like on the Great Plains?
Many hardships!!!
Droughts, floods, blizzards, insects
Lack of irrigation sources
Distance from neighbors/isolation
Building materials
Soddies – sod homes

15. The Mining Frontier
A series of gold and silver strikes kept the flow of hopeful prospectors pushing into the West.
Rich strikes created boomtowns overnight. Most became ghost towns, but a few such as San Francisco, Sacramento, and Denver, became prosperous cities.
Most of them were more like industrial cities.
In many mining towns, half the population was foreign born

16. Chinese Exclusion Act
About one-third of the western miners in the 1860s were Chinese immigrants.
1882– political pressures from western states moved Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act
Prohibited further immigration to the US by Chinese laborers
Immigration from China was severely restricted until 1965
The was the first major act of Congress to restrict immigration on the basis of race and nationality

17. Railroads Transcontinental RR
1862– The Pacific Railroad Act authorized the construction of a new transcontinental RR
1869 – Promontory Point, Utah
Labor force?
Mexican, Chinese, Irish
Effects?
Spurred agri. by connecting markets
Could ship cattle and grain to the East faster
Hastened decline of buffalo
Useful in the Army’s battle against the Native Americans

18. Cattle Ranching Era of the Cowboy – 1870-90 (peak 1880-85)
Made possible by?
RR – connecting markets
Indian relocation
Longhorn breed (capable of long drives)
Willing labor
Problems/decline:
Wild market fluctuations = massive debt
Overgrazing
Farmers vs. free rangers
Barbed wire (Joseph Glidden)
Expansion of RR
No need for long drives

20. Changes in West Effects of westward movement: Indian Wars
End of Indian way of life
Women’s rights
Conservation movement emerges
Literary genres emerge

21. Indians What led to the end of the Indians’ way of life?
Relocation to reservations
Dawes Act (1887)– goal?
End communal way of life
Promote American individualism
Broke up reservations into small pieces (private property)
Too small for profit, sold to whites for cheap
Proponents wanted assimilation – Helen Hunt Jackson & others
When that failed, they opted for relocation
How did Indians respond?
Many resisted – led to continuation of Indian Wars
US gov’t often broke treaties (land, food, etc)
Tribes often didn’t follow treaties
De-centralized power

24. Indian Wars Famous examples of resistance:
Nez Perce – Pacific NW – Chief Joseph surrenders when his people tried to flee to Canada
Sioux – spread from Dakotas to Wyoming
1876 – battle of Little Bighorn – “Custer’s Last Stand” – US 7th Cavalry (led by George A. Custer) vs forces of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse – all 200+ US troops killed
Cheyenne – Ft. Robinson – break out of captivity, then hunted down and killed
Indian Wars

25. Indian Life Buffalo: Overhunted by whites & Indians
Many Plains Indians were not originally from Plains – had been forced west by US gov’t
Plains overcrowded, buffalo over-hunted
Also their trails disrupted by farming

26. Indian Life
Ghost Dance – Sioux perform dance to ask for better hunting, agriculture, etc.
Dance looks menacing to US scouts
US cavalry arrests/kills Sitting Bull
US cavalry massacres over 300 Sioux men, women, children at Wounded Knee in 1890
Sand Creek massacre in 1864 (Cheyenne)
End of the Indian Era

27. Women’s Rights New states and territories in west:
Women’s suffrage in WY in 1869, Utah in 1870
Why in west and not east?
West – women’s work more visible
Wanted women’s “sensibilities” to tame wild west
Encourage settlement
Offset black votes
Women still did not have national suffrage until 1920

29. Movements Conservation
Movement to protect land from development, mining, deforestation, etc.
Land used for parks (Yellowstone, Yosemite, etc.)
John Muir leader of movement

32. Movements Literature:
Dime novels – cowboys, gunslingers, lawmen, outlaws, bank robbers, etc.
More myth than reality
Still shapes our concept of the west