1. Westward Expansion 5-2.3
Identify examples of conflict & cooperation between occupational and ethnic groups in the West, including miners, farmers, ranchers, cowboys, Mexican and African Americans, and European and Asian immigrants

2. Westward Expansion

3. Competition and Conflict
The journey West often required groups of people to help one another!
However, it also brought a lot of conflict among groups that were competing for access to natural resources in the same region.
Competition and Conflict

4. Competition and Conflict
Remember from last year that you learned- the discovery of gold brought men who were looking for riches westward!
These prospectors competed with one another to find precious minerals
They often created a lawless society.
Competition and Conflict

5. Competition and Conflict
Mining companies that had the right equipment competed with land owners for claims to the richest sites !
Boom towns grew quickly to serve the needs of the miners and just as quickly turned into ghost towns once all of the minerals were gone.
Competition and Conflict

6. Ranchers and Cowboys worked together to develop the cattle industry.
Cowboys drove the herds, owned by the ranchers, across the open plains to the nearest railroad depot and shipped them to processing plants further east.
They competed with rustlers and often came in conflict with the townspeople they encountered along the way.
Ranchers and Cowboys

7. After the Civil War, farmers settled and fenced in large parts of the plains.
These fenced in plains interfered with the open ranges upon which cowboys drove the herds after spring roundup.
The cowboys did not want the land to be fenced in.
The farmers built the fences with the new barbed wire.
The farmers and the cowboys fought over how the western lands should be used and who should use them.
The era of the cattle drive did NOT survive the establishment of farms on the plains.
Ranchers and Cowboys

8. Ranchers and Cowboys

9. Mexican People & Westward Expansion
Many Mexican Americans were also driven from their land. The southwestern part of the United States and the California coast had both belonged to Spain and then Mexico until the Mexican War in the 1840s.
After the war, the Mexicans who were living in land that was given to the United States, were discriminated against.
Many Mexicans lost their land.
Mexican People & Westward Expansion

10. African Americans & Westward Expansion
Due to discrimination in the South, many African Americans were eager to move west.
They hoped that they could own their own land.
One group of African Americans that were encouraged to move was the Exodusters. These people primarily settled in Nicodemus, Kansas.
African Americans & Westward Expansion

11. Exodusters

12. Some European immigrants moved to the West to start new lives.
Many European immigrants were too poor to move to the West and stayed in the industrial cities of the East and Midwest
Many settled in regions with others from their home countries.
European Americans formed communities that engaged in activities and helped each other to be successful .
European Immigrants

13. There were people who didn’t like the immigrants
There were people who didn’t like the immigrants. They resented people who had not be born in the United States. This is called nativism.
Nativism- the resentment of immigrants by people who were born in the United States.
European Immigrants