Westward Expansion

Module 2:

America in the 1820s

Factors That Contributed to the

Settlement of the West

Manifest Destiny –

The belief that it was America’s mission to expand from

ocean to ocean, spreading democracy and freedom

Americans believed it was their God-given duty to conquer

the Western territories and unify the Nation

Gold Discovered in California -1849

Homestead Act of - 1862

Transcontinental Railroad -1869

The American Dream

Territorial Expansion of U.S.

1803 Louisiana Purchase

1845 Texas

1848 Mexican-American War:

Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, California,

Nevada, and Utah

By 1850, America gains the Oregon Territory

➢ Great Plains

● Wilderness

• Natural Resources● Gold, Silver, Copper, Trees

➢ The Indians had little contact with the

“white man”• Thought of a vast open land

➢ Great Plains – the grassland

extending through the west-central

portion of the US.

➢ The Great Plains were hunting

grounds for the Indians➢ Valued the land

➢Native American Way of Life

● Worshiped the land and Nature

• Sun Dance

• Ghost Dance

FAMILY LIFE ON THE PLAINS

➢ Lived in small extended families• “it takes a village”

➢Men were hunters, while women helped butcher the game and prepare it

➢ This is called a hunter-gatherer community.• Semi sedentary Life

● Summer, lived on plains, hunted and gathered food

● Winter, lived in low lands to escape harsh winters

➢ Buffalo➢ The Indians hunted the buffalo

• 30 Million Buffalo

➢ Buffalo was the target hunt and they used everything productively

What Happened to the Native

Americans?

Prior to Columbus (1492), between 1-10 million people lived in present day U.S.

By 1800, the number of natives dropped to about 600,000

By 1850, the number was on 250,000—the population of most other groups was rising in America.

Removal becomes Policy

Government Views

Great plains need to be “settled” and improved

Railroads increase expansion west

1834 – Great Plains are a great reservation

1850 – Gov’t creates territories

Boundaries for each tribe

Indian Removal Act of 1830--

--US Federal Government “negotiates” over 90 treaties with N.A. groups to help fund the movement of N.A. tribes from Eastern States….to WEST of the Mississippi River.

16,000 Cherokee, 15,000 Creek, and 14,000 Choctaw---45,000 people are “relocated” relocated to “Indian Territory”--(modern day Oklahoma)

-- Trail of Tears

1838--20,000 Cherokee were “Forced” by the US military to march 800 miles from Georgia to Oklahoma...more than 5,000 died due to weather, poor nutrition and lack of shelter...

Treaty Process

Reservations: small areas of land

within a group’s territory, land

was reserved exclusively for their

use

Natives were encouraged to farm &

have livestock—be more “civilized”

& adopt Christianity

The Federal Government never intended reservations to last forever.

The goal was to assimilationNative Americans into model American citizens.

Assimilation

Government and Assimilation

➢ Assimilation—the idea that Native Americans give up their own believes and take up those of white culture to blend (assimilate) in ● a. Many government officials felt the only way to

ensure Indian survival was absorption into ―white America.

• b. Government established schools where kids were forced to speak only English, wear ―proper clothes, and to change their names to ―American ones.

• c. Government officials tried to convince American Indians to farm but it did not take.

• d. Dawes Act to try and encourage individualism

Indian Resistance

Hundreds of battles, wars, and massacres took place on the Plains between 1865-1890 in an effort to resist reservations and preserve the Indian way of life:

Sand Creek Massacre (1864) US military attack killing 150 native women and

children Sand Creek was the first major attack on the Indians

Red River Wars (1874)● US Army, under command of General Phillip Sheridan, herded

friendly Indians onto reservations and attempted to kill all others

“Destroy their villages and ponies, to kill and hang all warriors, and to bring back all women and children”

-General Phillip Sheridan

Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868

Restricted the Federal Government from taking more land from the Northern Plains Indians for railroads and settlers

Native Americans agree to move to Reservations

Native American Resistance

Battle of Little Big Horn (1876)

Between Sioux (put up greatest resistance) led by Chief Sitting Bull and U.S. cavalry led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer

Custer & more than 200 soldiers killed

Marked the Indian’s final victory

Battle of Wound Knee (1890)

Following the death of Sitting Bull, U.S. cavalry tried to arrest his followers

While surrendering and handing over weapons, a shot rang out=soldiers opened fire

Killed more than 200 unarmed Sioux, including around 70 women & children

THE DAWES ACT - 1887➢ The Dawes Act called for the break up of

reservations and the introduction of natives into American life Native Americans would lose their way of life

US Wanted them to become landowners and Farmers

➢ Most Indian land would soon become white land

Native Americans forced onto dry unlivable land

NATIVE LANDS BY 1894

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE

BUFFALO➢ Whites began to hunt buffalo for fur and sport

(sometimes from trains) – they would only take the fur

➢ 1800: 65 million buffalo roamed the plains

➢ 1890: less than 1000 remained

➢ Indians saw this as a insult and a waste of resources

William F. Cody “Buffalo Bill”

Organizer of Wild West Shows

Killed over 4,300 Bison

Signed a pact with RR Companies to provide Bison Meat to workers

Section 2:

Mining & Ranching

SETTLERS PUSH

WESTWARD

The white settlers began to push Westward in search of land to start a living

● Indians – shared the land

● Settlers- own the land• Gaining wealth from the land

➢ There’s gold in them there hills!!!• 1849 - Gold in San Francisco

• 1,000 people 1848 to over 100,000 in 1849

● Denver, Colorado was a mining town

➢ This lead hundreds of thousands of settlers west into the Great Plains● Irish, Chinese, Germans, Polish, African

Americans

● RR Companies Advertised the West

Settlers push West

➢ Many different people moved westward● a. White Americans from East—mainly middle-class farmers moved in

search of fertile soil while others (Civil War veterans from south) sought a new start.

● b. African Americans from South—moved to escape violence and seek a new life. Biggest rush was called Kansas Fever Exodus of 1870 in which 20,000—40,000 African Americans moved.

Exodusters

● c. Many European immigrants (including Irish, German, and Polish) also sought a new life in the west.

● Advertisements from RR Companies

● d. Chinese immigrants also sought to farm in the west after gold rush was over.

Helped to build RR. Employment

Cattle Business

Cattle Ranchers and big business

Settlers learn ranching from Mexicans

and Spanish settlers

The Chisholm Trail

Drive cattle overland from ranches in Texas to Kansas

railheads. cattle would be sold and shipped eastward.

Demand for Beef

The Civil War soldiers & Population Boom in the

East Coast

The only problem—how to get the cows across

the country?

Longhorns

1. The real-life cowboy:

1. About 55,000 worked on the plains

between 1866 and 1885.

1. About 25% of them were African Americans

2. 12% were Mexican.

The Long Drive:

The overland transport of animals usually lasted about three months.

One Cowboy to every 250-300 heads of cattle.

All in a day’s work:

10-14 hr days

As young as 15 yrs old. Many broken down by the

time they were 40 years old

The Roundup:

Cowboys would herd up all the longhorns they could

find and take off the open range and into a corral.

End of the Open Range

Changes in Ranching

Overgrazing, bad weather from 1883 to 1887 destroy whole

herds

Ranchers keep smaller herds that yield more meat per

animal

Fence land with barbed wire; turn open range into separate

ranches

SECTION 3: SETTLING ON THE

GREAT PLAINS

Homestead Act

➢ 1862 – Congress passed Homestead Act which allowed 160 free acres to any “head of household”● 600,000 Families moved west

● Each homesteader had to live on the land, build a home, make improvements and farm for 5 years before they were eligible to "prove up".

● Race to grab land – best available • RR Companies rush to claim land

• Exodusters – African Americans who from the South to the West.

● Still faced discrimination

● Provide an opportunity to start a life● Law was misused.

• People claimed land, put up fences, took advantage of natural resources

➢ 1871 – Federal government made land available ● Union Pacific and Central Pacific

• Two companies began a race ● Central – Sacramento● Union – Omaha

1860s, Central Pacific goes east, Union Pacific west, meet in Utah

• By 1880s, 5 transcontinental railroads completed • Railroads sell land to farmers, attract many European

immigrants

➢ The West was expanding rapidly – the transcontinental railroad (connected East and West of the USA

➢ In 1869, Americans celebrated the first transcontinental railroad as the Union Pacific’s tracks from NE and the Central Pacific’s from CA met at Promontory Point, UT.

Railroad Expansion

The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1868. The Central Pacific

and Union Pacific railroads met in Promontory Point, Utah and laid a

Golden Spike

Building the RR’s

➢ Chinese Immigrant Workers

● Low wages

● Helped to clear land

Irish Immigrant workers

● Laid down track

2.2m foreign-born settlers between

1870-1900.

The Railroad’s Impact

Transportation of people and goods was quicker and cheaper

New era of interstate trade and commerce

1865 – it cost $3.45 to ship a barrel of flour from NY to Chicago

1890 it costs .68 cents

New jobs – Irish/Chinese

Westward Expansion – Safer/Quicker/Cheaper

Native American wars and removal

SETTLERS ENCOUNTER

HARDSHIPS➢ The frontier settlers faced extreme

hardships – droughts, floods, fires, blizzards, locust plagues, and bandits● Native Americans

● Lack of Natural Resources (Trees)• Used sod (Soddy Homes)

● Advancements• 1837 – John Deere – Steel plow

LOCUST SWARM

JOHN DEERE’S

STEEL PLOW HAD

TO BE PULLED BY

A HORSE OR

MULE

Settlers from all walks of life including newly arrived

immigrants, farmers without land of their own from the East,

single women and former slaves came to meet the challenge

of "proving up" and keeping this "free land".

Norwegian settlers in 1898 North Dakota in

front of their homestead, a sod hut.Families of former slaves who had fled to Canada prior

to the Civil War returned to the United States in the

early 1900s and settled in DeWitty, Nebraska, taking

advantage of the opportunity to own their own land.

Blocks were laid, grass side down, layers

staggered like brickwork, usually in 2 parallel

rows resulting in walls 24 inches thick. Spaces

were left for doors and windows.

The roof was the most difficult and dangerous

part of the house to build. The lack of normal

roofing materials, like wooden shingles or

slate tiles, led to the inventive use of natural

materials. A series of poles held up layers of

brush tied into bundles, mud, grass and sod.

ECONOMIC DISTRESS HITS

FARMERS➢ Educating Farmers

● Morrill Act - gave federal land to the states to help finance agricultural colleges. (1862, 1890)

• Breadbasket of America

• First time federal government provided money for higher education

➢ Farmers hit hard times● Between 1867 and 1887 the price of a bushel of wheat fell

from $2.00 to 68 cents• Farmers couldn’t pay their loans

● Railroad companies charged the farmers high prices to ship grain to buyers

➢ In response, a new type of farm emerged called a Bonanza farm.

• (needed more crops to pay their loans)

➢ Bonanza Farm – huge single-crop farms of 15,000 –50,000 acres.

Section 4: Farmers And The

Populist Movement

Lesson Two Review:➢ 1862 – Congress passed Homestead Act

which allowed 160 free acres to any “head of household”

➢ Many flocked to the “open range” to start their lives – huge farms

➢ Since so many were producing excess crops, prices fell drastically

➢ Railroads also started to charge extremely high prices for crop transportation

➢ Farmers couldn’t keep up and fell into great debt

➢ In addition, bad weather spells were wreaking havoc on the crops

Populist Movement

➢ BIG IDEA:•Farmers united to address economic problems

➢Why it matters:•Many Populist reform issues are still seen today

● Income Tax

● Rights of workers

➢Populist Platform•Increase money supply

•Regulate the banks

•Income tax

•Government regulation of RR’s

HIP HUGHES: POPULISTS MOVEMENT

What is Populism?

• An appeal to the hopes and fears of the common people…

• …especially in opposition to the political, social, intellectual

or economic elite

The Plight of the Farmers

1870s-1880s The numbers of farmers declined from 60% of the population in

1860 to less than 37% in 1900.

They experienced falling prices.

Droughts and storms caused crops to fail

Falling prices

Farmers cannot pay back loans, so banks foreclose on mortgages

A rise in the costs of farm machinery and freight costs

They experienced a heavy tax burden

Dependent upon railroads

Railroads overcharging the farmers

Railroad Abuses

Railroads making secret

deals- bribes

Unfair pricing- long haul

cheaper than short hauls

Use of rebates for large

customers

Politicians

There are three great crops raised in Nebraska. One is a crop of corn, one is a crop of freight rates, and

one is a crop of interest. One is produced by farmers who sweat

and toil the land. The other two are produced by men who sit in

their offices…and farm the farmers.”

~ Nebraska Newspaper

Editorial

Farmers Organize

• The Grange• Founded in 1867 by

Oliver H. Kelley

• Organized social gatherings

and farmer education

• Created cooperatives to

control supply of crops and

buy supplies in bulk

• Granger laws passed in

western states attempted to

regulate railroads

• Farmers Alliances• Endorsed candidates

running for state offices (R

– Midwest, D – South)

• Northern, Southern &

Colored Alliances:

regionalism and racism

limited its effectiveness

Decisions on Railroad Regulation

• Munn v. Illinois,

1877• Intrastate commerce

• States can regulate

POPULIST PARTY IS BORN

➢Populism – the movement of the people

➢ The Populist or People’s Party was formed● The Populist Party (The

People’s Party): formed by farmers, labor leaders, and reformers

THIS POLITICAL CARTOON SHOWS A

POPULIST CLUBBING A RAILROAD

CAR

POPULIST REFORMS

➢ What did the Populists want?

➢ 1. Graduated Income Tax● More $ = higher tax rate

➢ 2. rise in crop prices➢ 3. coinage of silver

➢ (which would increase money supply thus producing a rise in prices received for goods and services)

➢ 4. Lower taxes➢ 5. Restrict Immigration (losing jobs to immigrants)➢ 6. Loans for farmers➢ 7. 8-hr. workday

➢ Political Reforms;➢ 1. Direct election of senators➢ 2. Single terms for presidents

Election of 1892

The Populist Party marked its entrance into national politics in the Election of 1892.

Delegates from several states met in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1892, to draft a political platform and nominate candidates for president and vice president

James Weaver 1st

Populist Candidate for President

Money TroublesPanic of 1893, a financial panic that sent stock

prices plunging, occurred 3 million people lost their jobs – putting

unemployment at 20%

Govt. gold supply depleted, leads to rush on banks

Business, banks collapse

Panic become depression lasted 4 years

J.P. Morgan bails out govt.

Silver or Gold➢ 1. ―Silverite’s favored bimetallism—monetary system

which is backed by gold and silver ● a. Backing with both would make more currency which would make

the value of a dollar worth less—more purchasing power

● b. Supporters believed it would help stimulate the economy

● c. Supporters also believed it would allow farmers and others to be able to pay off their debt to banks

➢ 2. ―Gold Bugs favored gold standard—backing dollars solely with gold

● a. Supporters argued retaining the gold standard would provide a more stable currency

● b. Industrialists and bankers would not lose money from the loans they had made

SILVER OR GOLD?

➢ The central issue of the 1896 Presidential campaign – how is our money backed?

➢ Bimetallism - those who favored using both gold and silver

➢ Gold Standard – American dollar would be backed just by gold

➢ Why did it matter?

➢ People regarded paper money as worthless unless it could be exchanged for gold or silver.

BRYAN AND THE

“CROSS OF GOLD”➢ Republicans favored the Gold standard and

nominated William McKinley

➢ Democrats favored Bimetallism and nominated William Jennings Bryan

➢ Despite Bryan’s stirring words, “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold,”

➢ McKinley won the 1896 election

BRYAN’S CROSS OF

GOLD SPEECH

THE END OF POPULISM

➢With McKinley’s election victory, Populism collapsed, burying the hopes of the farmer

➢Populism left two important legacies:

➢ 1) A message that the people can organize and be heard

➢ Impact of 3rd Political party

➢ 2) An agenda of reforms, many of which would be enacted in the 20th

century The People’s Party Ended But

Left An Important Legacy

Leading to Progressivism