APUSH II: Unit 1 Chapter 18: Conquest and Survival of the West, 1860 - 1900

1. APUSH II: Unit 1Chapter 18: Conquest and Survival of the West, 1860 - 1900 Essential Question: What economic, political, & migratory factors led to the end of the western frontier by 1890?

2. What is the “West”? For each era, define what the “West” was & what role the West played in American life: • 1750 • 1800 • 1850

3. American Expansion & Manifest Destiny A Small Review

4. Trends in Antebellum America: 1800-1860 • Greater democracy & the return of the two-party system • Emergence of a national market economy • Increase in federal power • New intellectual & religious movements • Social reforms • Further westward expansion

5. Trends in the Gilded Age: 1865 - 1900 • Political and Business Corruption • Growth of the National Market Economy • The Railroad and the Second Industrial Revolution • New Grassroots Movements • Social reforms • The Concurring of the West

6. Manifest Destiny • The spread of settlers beyond U.S. borders led to widespread calls for annexation of newly-settled lands • The term “Manifest Destiny” was 1st used in 1845 by newspaper editor John O’Sullivan, who said: • God wants the USA (“His chosen nation”) to become stronger • Expansion of American democracy & economic opportunities were a good thing

7. “American Progress” by John Gast, 1872

8. The Oregon Trail – Albert Bierstadt, 1869

9. 1865 The Impact of the Civil War

10. The “New South”? Few significant economic or political changes in the South took place until the 1940s “Jim Crow” reigned supreme as whites legally segregated the South into 2 distinct societies

11. America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 The North: Experienced a “2nd Industrial Revolution,” mass immigration, & urbanization

12. America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900 The West: Manifest Destiny continued after 1865 as miners homesteaders, & ranchers headed West

13. Effects of the War • Political changes: • With no Southern opposition, Republicans passed new laws the often favored Northern industry and trade with the lucrative west: Morrill Tariff (1861), Homestead Act (1862), Morrill Act (1862), Pacific Railroad Act (1862), & Legal Tender Act (1862) and National Bank Act (1863), ie “Greenbacks”

14. Section 1 Indian Peoples Under Seige

15. In 1865, 2/3 of all Indians lived on the Great Plains The Plains Indians Their culture was dependent upon the buffalo & the horse Tribes of several 1,000 people were subdivided into bands of 100s which made it difficult for the U.S. to negotiate treaties

16. Searching for an Indian Policy • Before the Civil War, the West was “one big reservation” • The Indian Intercourse Act (1834) forbade whites from entering “Indian country” without a license

17. Searching for an Indian Policy • But…rapid Western expansion in the 1850s brought a new Indian “concentration policy” with distinct boundaries for each tribe “as long as the waters run and grass grows”

18. Searching for an Indian Policy • Concentration did not last as whites ignored these boundaries: • Sand Creek Massacre (1864)—Col John Chivington attacked 700 sleeping Indians in CO after a peace agreement was signed • Sioux War (1865-1867)—gold miners wanted a Bozeman Trail (across Sioux hunting grounds) to connect mining towns; Sioux murdered 88 U.S. soldiers

19. Buffalo Soldiers - Civil Wars Vets Following the tradition of raising all black regiments in the north during the Civil War, the “Buffalo Soldiers” US 10th Calvary Regiment was formed in 1866 as the first peacetime, all-black regiment Participated in many of the Indian Wars as well as serving to protect the US Mail Service over hostile territory Went on to serve in the Spanish American War (Battle of San Juan Hill) and WWI

20. Section 2 The Internal Empire

21. The Mining Bonanza • Mining was the 1st magnet to attract settlers to the West • CA (1849) started the gold rush, but strikes in Pikes Peak, CO & Carson River Valley, NV (1859) set off wild migrations to the West: • Comstock Lode = $306 million • John Mackay’s Big Bonanza made him richest man in world

22. Corporations had the expensive machinery (“hydraulic mining techniques”) to extract most of the gold in the West Individual “placer miners” took little skill or money to start, but could not reach deep lodes Mining Regions of the West Discoveries of gold & silver led to overnight mining towns

23. Mining Bonanza • ¼ to ½ of the mining population was foreign born: • Latin American miners brought experience & new techniques • Chinese brought a tireless ethic • Led to hostility & riots: • Foreign Miners’ Act in 1852 charged a monthly mining fee

24. Exclusion Act (1882) Immigration Control Burlingame Treaty (1868) established friendly relations with China granted China “most Favored Nation” status encouraged Chinese immigration allowed congress to suspend Chinese immigration Chinese immigrants were permanent aliens Originally intended to only be used for 10 years Not repealed until 1943 Excluded Chinese from marrying Whites

25. Exodusters • Exodusters were black farmers who moved West to escape Southern crop liens & Jim Crow Laws • Led by Benjamin “Pap” Singleton • 1878: 6,000 African Americans fled to Kansas • 1879: 15,000

26. Sutter’s Mill and the 49ers California

27. The California Gold Rush • The discovery of gold in 1848 led to a massive influx of prospectors in 1849 (the “forty-niners”): • Few miners struck it rich • The real money made in CA was in supplying miners with food, saloons, & provisions • The gold rush led to a population boom, increase in agriculture, & multicultural Californian society

28. Gold Rush • 1848 - James Marshall at Sutter Mill • Most Americans did not start traveling west until 1849…hence the name “49ers”

29. San Francisco before the gold rush • San Francisco after the gold rush

30. Section 3 The Open Range

31. The Cattle Bonanza In the 1860s, cattle ranching boomed Ranchers used the “open range” to graze longhorns By 1867, ranchers started using trains to ship cattle to Chicago

32. Cattle and the West Birth of ‘cow towns’ across the west Abilene, Dodge City, Kansas City

33. The Cattle Bonanza • ½ of all cowboys were black & ¼ were Mexican • By 1880, the “open range” was ending: • Wheat growers, homesteaders, & barbed wire blocked the range • Many switched to raising sheep

34. Community and Conflict • Personal violence was commonplace in the cattle towns and mining camps. • Horse theft rose rapidly during the peak years of the cattle drives. • During the 1870s, range wars turned violent when farmers, sheep ranchers, and cattle ranchers battled over the same land. • By the mid-1880s the cattle business went bust. • Overstocking led to herds depleting sparse grasslands. • Bad weather from 1885 to 1887 killed 90 percent of western cattle, and prices plummeted.

35. Cowboys Originated in Mexico (where cowboy tools came from) Former slaves used skills from plantation to be good cowboys End of the open range and refrigerated train ended practical cowboys by 1886

36. Section 4 Farming Communities on the Plains

37. The Farming Bonanza • The U.S. gov’t offered incentives for farmers to settle the West: • Homestead Act (1862)—gave 160 acres of land if families pledged to live there for 5 years • Other gov’t acts helped develop western lands by planting trees & building irrigation systems • Due to land grants, RRs were the largest western landowners

38. Work, Dawn to Dusk • Farm families survived and prospered through hard work. • Men’s work tended to be seasonal. • Women’s activities were usually more routine. • Children worked running errands and completing chores by about age nine. • Community was an important part of life. • People depended on neighbors for help in times of need and for a break from the hard work and harsh climate. • The barter system developed due to lack of cash.

39. Women in the West • Few women worked on the open range. • Some 50,000 women worked as prostitutes in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. • There were few jobs for women and many resorted to prostitution simply to pay the bills. • Their life was quite harsh and seldom paid well.

40. Soddies • In 1887, Lizzie Chrisman filed the first homestead claim in Nebraska • "Soddies" were constructed of stacked layers of cut prairie turf, fortified by a thick network of roots • The roofs, often supported by timber, were usually covered with more sod, straw, and small branches

41. The Farming Bonanza • In 1870, homesteaders pushed West & adapted to the harsh farming conditions: • Farmers used dry farming techniques & planted tougher varieties of wheat • New machinery sped harvesting & planting; led to bonanza farms • By 1890, the U.S. became a major crop exporter

42. Range Wars • Reduced access to grassland • Ethnic and religious prejudice toward Mexican-American, Basque and Mormon shepherds • 1883-84 Fence-Cutter’s War

43. Rails Across the Continent • In 1862, Congress authorized the transcontinental railroad: • Union Pacific worked westward from Nebraska (Irish laborers) • Central Pacific worked eastward from CA (Chinese immigrants) • May 10, 1869 the 2 tracks met at Promontory Point in Utah • By 1900, 4 more lines were built to the Pacific

44. Rails Across the Continent • Railroads held great power in developing and settling the West. • Railroads delivered crops and cattle to eastern markets and brought back goods. • Railroads put communities “on the map.” • Railroads in the West preceded settlement. • Towns along the railroad lines flourished.

45. Irish workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the eastern section Chinese workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the western leg 1sttranscontinental railroad connected the west coast to eastern cities in 1869

46. The End of the ‘West’ • By 1890 the Frontier was gone • 1880s had seen a severe drought, a harsh winter, and the enclosure of the cattle routes • 1896: The Klondike Gold Rush opened a new frontier in Alaska • The heyday of the “Wild West” was actually a short lived period in American history • Turner’s Frontier Thesis • Turner’s “rugged individualism” became the prevailing view

47. Section 5 The World’s Breadbasket

48. New Production Technologies • Preparing western lands for cultivation was a difficult process because of the tough sod. • New technologies greatly increased the amount of land that could be farmed • Development of the Combine – combined the reeper and the harvester • Through federal aid, land-grant colleges, and other sources of scientific research, farmers developed new techniques for cultivation.

49. Timber Cultures Act, 1873 • Supplement the Homestead Act • 160 additional acres for $30 • 40 acres must be planted with trees • Environmental Planning

50. National Reclamation Act, 1902 • aka Newland Act • Build dams to create irrigation for farmland in the West • (Signed into law by Roosevelt)