1. Challenges in the Late 1800s (1865-1914)
Lesson 2 The West Is Transformed

2. Challenges in the Late 1800s (1865-1914)
Lesson 2 The West Is Transformed
Learning Objectives
Analyze the impact of mining and railroads on the settlement of the West.
Explain the impact of physical and human geographic factors on the settlement of the Great Plains.
Analyze treatment of Chinese immigrants and Mexican Americans in the West.
Discuss the ways various groups used land in the West and conflicts among them.

3. Challenges in the Late 1800s (1865-1914)
Lesson 2 The West Is Transformed
Key Terms
vigilantes
transcontinental railroad
land grants
open-range system
Homestead Act
Exodusters
Las Gorras Blancas

4. Mining and the Growth of Railroads
The West was swept by enormous change after the Civil War. As railroads increased access, settlers, ranchers, and miners permanently transformed millions of acres of western land. Mining was the first great boom in the West. Gold and silver were the magnets that attracted a vast number of people. Prospectors from the East were just a part of a flood that included people from all around the world.

5. Mining and the Growth of Railroads
Mining Towns Expand Across the West
Mining Becomes Big Business
The Transcontinental Railroad Impacts the Frontier
Railroads Spur Settlement and Growth

6. Mining and the Growth of Railroads
The hope of wealth from gold and silver drew many Americans west. Analyze Maps Where were the biggest gold mining regions? How do you think gold discoveries affected migration?

7. Mining and the Growth of Railroads
Many boomtowns, such as this one in Leadville, Colorado, were built quickly to accommodate miners in search of minerals.

8. Mining and the Growth of Railroads
Analyze Data Based on the dates of admission in this timeline, during which decade did the most population growth in the West probably take place?

9. The Cattle Industry Boom
Cattle ranching fueled another western boom. This was sparked by the vast acres of grass suitable for feeding herds of cattle. Once the railroad provided the means to move livestock to eastern markets, the race was on for land and water.

10. The Cattle Industry Boom
Longhorns and Vaqueros
Cowboys and Cattle Drives
Cow Towns
The Open Range Comes to a Close

11. The Cattle Industry Boom
Mexican vaqueros developed an efficient system, later adopted by American cowboys, for raising and managing cattle.

12. The Cattle Industry Boom
Ranching was an important economic activity throughout much of the West. Analyze Maps How might the physical geography of the West have affected where ranching most flourished?

13. Farmers Settle the Plains
The Great Plains were the last part of the country to be heavily settled by white people. The region was originally set aside for Indians because it was viewed as too dry for agriculture. Yet, with the coming of the transcontinental railroad, millions of farmers moved into the West in the last huge westward migration of European Americans in the mid to late 1800s.

14. Farmers Settle the Plains
Westward Migration and Settlement
Homesteading the Plains

15. Farmers Settle the Plains
Settlers on the relatively dry, treeless Great Plains used the available sod to build homes for their families.

16. Farmers Settle the Plains
Analyze Data How did the growth of innovative technology allow the Great Plains to support a larger population and more profitable economic activities?

17. Minorities Encounter Difficulties
From the 1850s onward, the West had the widest diversity of people in the nation. With fewer than 20 percent of the nation’s total population, it was home to more than 80 percent of the nation’s Asian, Mexican and Mexican American, and Native American residents. Almost all of the nation’s 100,000 Chinese immigrants lived in the West.

18. Minorities Encounter Difficulties
Economic Issues Challenge Chinese Immigrants
Land Ownership Proves Difficult for Mexican Americans
Mexican Americans Defend Property Rights

19. Minorities Encounter Difficulties
Frequently faced with job discrimination, some Chinese immigrants managed to start their own businesses. These immigrants pose proudly in front of their own grocery store.

20. Struggles and Change Across the West
There is a sharp contrast between the picture of the West depicted in novels and movies and the reality of life on the Plains. The West was a place of rugged beauty, but it was also a place of diversity and conflict.

21. Struggles and Change Across the West
Tension Over Economic Resources
Prejudices and Discrimination
Population Growth Ends the Frontier

22. Struggles and Change Across the West
Miners used a great deal of water in their mining operations, often with negative consequences for farmers and ranchers.

23. Struggles and Change Across the West
Immigrants continued to migrate west in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Analyze Graphs Did the percentage of immigrants in the West increase proportionally with the total population?

24. Quiz: Mining and the Growth of Railroads
What caused the building of the Transcontinental Railroad to be delayed?
A. debates over routes
B. the Civil War
C. need for private investors
D. lack of government finance

25. Quiz: The Cattle Industry Boom
What contribution did Mexicans make to cattle ranching?
A. Mexicans established many western “cow towns.”
B. Mexican railroads moved cattle from west to east.
C. Mexican vaqueros were experts in working with cattle.
D. Mexicans taught cattle ranchers how to round up cattle.

26. Quiz: Farmers Settle the Plains
What was the purpose of the Morrill Act of 1862?
A. to encourage people to move westward
B. to set aside land for future homesteading
C. to resettle former slaves on agricultural lands
D. to encourage the development of better farming methods

27. Quiz: Minorities Encounter Difficulties
Why did many Mexican Americans in the southwest lose their land in the late 1800s?
A. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo did not protect their property rights.
B. Americans of Mexican descent were not allowed to own land after 1882.
C. Mexican Americans gained land rights in Mexico in exchange for U.S. claims.
D. They were not able to prove legally in the courts that they owned the land.

28. Quiz: Struggles and Change Across the West
Which use of western land negatively affected everyone?
A. unwise usage of water
B. building of railroad lines
C. competition for grazing land
D. destruction of crops by cattle