chapter 17 the west: exploiting an empire america past and present
Post on 27-Dec-2015
221 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Beyond the Frontier
• 1840: Settlement to Missouri timber country • Eastern Plains have rich soil, good rainfall• For first 2/3 of 19th century, Americans
believed the land west of the Mississippi River to be uninhabitable ~ “Great American Desert”
• High Plains, Rockies semi-arid• Most pre-Civil War settlers head directly for
Pacific Coastp.482-483
Crushing the Native Americans
• 1865: Nearly 250k Indians in western US• Displaced Eastern Indians• Native Plains Indians
• By the 1880s • Most Indians on reservations• California Indians decimated by disease
carried by whites during 1849 Gold Rush
• By the 1890s Indian cultures crumble p.483
Life of the Plains Indians:Political Organization
• Plains Indians nomadic, hunt buffalo• Skilled horsemen (brought by Spanish during the
1500s) ~ Changed their lives ~ After the buffalo, the horse was most important
• Tribes develop warrior class • Wars limited to skirmishes, "counting coups"
• Tribal bands governed by chief & council • Different tribes communicated through the use
of a highly developed sign languagep.483-484
Life of the Plains Indians: Social Organization
• Sexual division of labor• Men hunt, trade, supervise ceremonial
activities, clear ground for planting• Women responsible for child rearing, art,
camp work, gardening, food preparation
• Equal gender status common• Among Sioux, there was little difference in
status. Each respected for his/her skillsp.484-485
“As Long as Waters Run”:Searching for an Indian Policy
• Indian Intercourse Act of 1834 excludes any white from Indian country without a license
• Land regarded as Indian preserve• 1851 ~ Assigned definite boundaries to each
tribe• Sioux ~ Dakota country north of Platte River• Crow ~ Area near Powder River
• Many Native Americans refused to stay in their assigned lands & settlers poured into Indian lands
p.485
“As Long as Waters Run”: Searching for an Indian Policy
• Cheyenne & Arapaho battled w/ gold miners in Colorado. Tired of fighting, they asked for peace & were moved to Sand Creek
• COL John Chivington leading a group of CO militia massacred sleeping men, women, & children ~ The Sand Creek Massacre• Gave orders to “kill & scalp all, big & little”
• Many protested & Congress appointed an investigating committee, but Indians were, nonetheless, moved elsewhere p.485-486
“As Long as Waters Run”: Searching for an Indian Policy
• Sioux War of 1865–1867 ~ Sioux revolted, again over gold miners.• Govt announced it planned to connect the gold camps with the
Bozeman Trail• Chief Red Cloud, was determined to stop the trail
• Dec 1866 ~ When pursed by an army column under CPT Wm Fetterman, Red Cloud lured the group into an ambush & killed all 82 soldiers.
• Debate over Indian policy• Humanitarians want to “civilize” Indians• Others want firm control and swift reprisal
• Humanitarians win with "small reservation" policy• Dakota & Oklahoma Territories p.485-486
Final Battles on the Plains• Small reservation policy fails
• Young warriors refuse restraint• White settlers encroach on Indian lands
• Final series of wars suppress Indians• Nov 1869 ~ Battle of the Washita, Roger Mills County,
OK ~ NW of Elk City near Cheyenne• Indians had been raiding settlers in KS, CO, TX• Chief Black Kettle killed
• 1876 ~ Little Big Horn, Montana: LTC Geo A. Custer & his 265 men killed by 2,500 Sioux warriors (largest Indian force ever assembled) ~ Crazy Horse & Sitting Bull
• Custer’s Last Stand ~ Greatest NA victory over the US Army
p.486-487
The End of Tribal Life• Sioux War ended major Indian warfare in the
West• 1887: Dawes Severalty Act
• Destroys communal ownership of Indian land• Gives small farms to each head of a family• Indians who leave tribes become U.S. citizens
• Extermination of buffalo deals devastating blow to Plains Indians
• 1900 = 250k Native Americans• 1492 = 5M• Once possessors of the entire continent, they had
been pushed into smaller & smaller areas & their way of life destroyed p.490-491
Settlement of the West• Unprecedented settlement 1870–1900
• 430M acres settled • Most move west in an attempt to
improve their lot• Things were good in the West
• Rising population drives demand for Western goods• Migration was heaviest during economic
prosperity
p.492
Men & Women on the Overland Trail
• First great movement west was aimed at California & Oregon• Gold Rush of 1849• Overland Trail ~ Usually a family migration
• Started from various points along the Missouri River in the early spring & hoped to get through Rockies before the first snowfall ~ Donner Party
• Under the best of conditions, the trip took 6 months (16 hrs/day)• Common sight was piles of trash, abandoned
wagons, furniture, clothing, etc.p.492-493
Land for the Taking:Federal Incentives
• 1860–1900: Federal Land Grants • 48 million acres granted under Homestead Act• 100 million acres sold to private individuals,
corporations• 128 million acres granted to railroad companies
• Congress offered incentives to development• Timber Culture Act of 1873 ~ Claim 160 acres if you will plant
trees on ¼ of it in 4 yrs ~ Fairly successful• Desert Land Act of 1877 ~ 640 acres at $1.25/acre if irrigated
within 3 yrs ~ Hired hands bought for ranchers (fraud)• Timber & Stone Act of 1878 ~ Land “unfit for cultivation” offered
for $2.5/acre ~ Lumber company fraud p.493-494
Land for the Taking:Speculators & Railroads
• Most land acquired by wealthy investors• Speculators send agents to stake out
best land for high prices• River bottoms, irrigable areas, control water
• As beneficiaries of govt’s policy of land grants, railroads were largest landowners• Recruited buyers from the East & Europe
• Arranged transportation, credit, farming lessonsp.494
Land for the Taking:Water & Development
• Water scarcity limits Western growth• Much of the West receives less than 20
inches of rainfall annually• People speculate in water as in gold
• 1902 ~ Newlands Act: Set aside proceeds from the sale of public lands in 16 western states to finance irrigation in arid (dry) states• Canals, dams, irrigation systems developed
p.494-495
Territorial Government
• New areas were organized into territories under Congress & President• Pres appointed governors & judges, Cong
detailed their duties & set budgets ~ These were very powerful positions
• Good source of jobs for deserving politicians
• Territorial experience produces unique Western political culture
p.495
The Spanish-Speaking Southwest
• Pushing north from Mexico, the Spanish gradually established the present day economic structure of the Southwest• Cattle raising, mining, irrigated farming
• 1880s ~ ¼ of LA County was Spanish speaking & Spanish remained the majority ethnic group in NM until 1940
• Strong Roman Catholic influencep.495-496
The Bonanza West• Quest to “get rich quick” produces
• Uneven growth• Boom-and-bust economic cycles• Wasted resources• ”Instant cities" like San Francisco, Salt
Lake City, & Denver most spectacular examples
• Took Boston 200 yrs to get 1M people, SF did it in 20.
p.496
The Mining Bonanza
• Mining first attraction to the west• Mining frontier moves from west to east
• Individual prospectors remove surface gold• Big corporations move in with the heavy,
expensive mining equipment
• VA City, Nevada ~ Comstock Lode• Produced $306M
• 1874–1876: Black Hills rush overruns Sioux hunting grounds p.496-497
Mining Bonanza: Camp Life
• Camps sprout up with each strike• Camps governed by simple democracy • Men outnumber women two to one• Most men, some women work claims• Most women earn wages as cooks,
housekeepers, & seamstressesp.498
Mining Bonanza:Ethnic Hostility
• 25–50% of camp citizens were foreign-born
• French, Latin Americans, Chinese hated• 1850: California Foreign Miner's Tax
drives foreigners out• $20/month license fee
• 1882: Federal Chinese Exclusion Act suspends Chinese immigration for 10 years p.498
Mining Bonanza: Effects of the Mining Boom
• Contributed millions to economy• Helped finance Civil War, industrialization• Relative value of silver & gold change• Early statehood for Nevada, Idaho,
Montana• Left scars
• Invaded Indian reservations• Pitted hills• Ghost towns p.498-499
Gold from the Roots Up:The Cattle Bonanza
• The far was West ideal for cattle grazing• Cattle drives take herds from Texas to
rail heads in Kansas ~ “Trail Drive”• Conceived by Joseph G. McCoy “The Real”
• Trains take herds to Chicago for processing ~ Longhorns hardy breed
• Profits enormous for large ranchers• Cowboys work long hours for little pay
• Approx 50% were Af Ams & Mexican p.499-500
Gold from the Roots Up:The Cattle Bonanza
• By 1880 wheat farmers begin fencing range
• Mechanical improvements in slaughtering, refrigerated transportation,& cold storage modernize the industry
• 1886 ~ Thousands of cattle die in harsh winter trapped by barbed wire
• Some ranchers switched to sheep p.500-501
Sodbusters on the Plains:The Farming Bonanza
• 1870–1890 farm population triples on plains
• African American “Exoduster” farmers migrate from the South to escape racism• Experienced prejudice, but not as bad
• Water, building materials scarce & expensive
• Sod houses common first dwelling p.502-503
New Farming Methods
• Barbed wire allows fencing without wood• Invented by Joseph F. Glidden, an Illinois
farmer ~ 1883: produced 600 mi/day• Dry farming: Deeper tilling, use of mulch• New strains of wheat resistant to frost• 1885–1890: Droughts ruin farms• Farm technology improved production
• Smooth surface plow (1877), spring tooth harrow (1869), grain drill (1874)
• Small-scale farming adopted p.503-504
Farm Discontent• Sources of discontent
• Weather problems (droughts)• Declining crop prices• Rising rail rates• Heavy mortgages
• The National Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry was founded as a social, cultural & educational organization• Although banned, evolved into a quasi-political
organization ~ Other organizations followed• Trans-Mississippi farmers become more
commercial, scientific, productivep.504-505
The Final Fling
• 22 April 1889: Oklahoma opened for final settlement on the frontier• Nearly 100k people lined up• One day ~ 12k homesteads, 1.92M acres
• OKC ~ 10k• Guthrie ~ 15k
p.506
The Meaning of the West• Historians differ in their interpretation of
the American frontier experience • Frederick Jackson Turner ~ U of Wisconsin
historian (1893) wrote that westward movement shaped customs & character; gave rise to independence, self confidence & individualism.
• Later historians have added that family & community loomed as large as individualism on the frontier
• A multicultural event p.506-507
top related