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Manifest Destiny (1845)
Stated that the US was destined to expand to the Pacific Ocean
Louisiana Purchase
1803 purchase of the Louisiana territory from France. Made by Jefferson, this doubled the size of the US.
Indian Removal Act/Trail of Tears
The Indian removal act was when President Andrew Jackson made native Americans move out of their territory. The Cherokee Indians were forced to walk for days to reach their new territory many natives died on the trail.
Trail of Tears (1838)
Andrew Jackson favored pushing all Amerindians west of the MS River. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 provided for federal enforcement of this policy, Jackson defied the Supreme Court in the case of Worcester v. Georgia in 1832, which would allow Indians to stay.
Texas Annexation 1845
Although most Texans favored annexation by the U.S., relations with Mexico and Texas's slave status were obstacles. Many politicians (Northern) didn't want to tip power in the senate to pro-slavery states.
Mexican-American War
(1846-1848) The war between the United States and Mexico in which the United States acquired one half of the Mexican territory.
Mexican Cession, 1848
Land that Mexico ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. This territory included CA, NM, NV, AZ, UT, TX, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The addition of so much land to the United States exacerbated conflict over the expansion of slavery because some Northerners feared that the extension of slavery into California and New Mexico would deter free laborers from settling there.
Homestead Act of 1862
this allowed a settler to acquire 160 acres by living on it for five years, improving it and paying about $30
California Gold Rush
1849 (San Francisco 49ers) Gold discovered in California attracted a rush of people all over the country and world to San Francisco; arrival of the Chinese; increased pressure on fed gov. to establish a stable gov. in CA
Union Pacific Railroad
A railroad that started in Omaha, and it connected with the Central Pacific Railroad in Promentary Point, UTAH
Central Pacific Railroad
A railroad that started in Sacramento , and connected with the Union Pacific Railroad in Promentary Point, UTAH
Transcontinental Railroad
Completed in 1869 at Promontory, Utah, it linked the eastern railroad system with California's railroad system, revolutionizing transportation in the west
Cattle Kingdom
The Great Plains from Texas to Canada where many ranchers raised cattle in the late 1800's
Abilene, Kansas
a town that grew because of the cattle trade. The Chisholm Trail ended here and the railroad began here making it an important western town. Farmers sold their food and other stores and hotels provided the cowboys with food and a place to sleep.
Boomtown
a town undergoing rapid growth due to sudden prosperity.
Joseph McCoy
a livestock owner who realized railroads could send meat to populated eastern cities by transporting longhorns and other bovines north through the railroad. He also built large cattle pens called stockyards
Chinese workers
Labor group of the Transcontinental Railroad who was treated poorly
Promontory Point, Utah
where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met; joined the railroads to create America's first transcontinental railroad
standard time zones
Major railroad companies divided the nation into 4 different zones to divide time.
Industrial Revolution
Americans started to move from an agricultural society to one based on industry. Americans moved from the country or rural areas into cities or urban areas. This created a middle class society in America. Innovations in industry such as textile mills and steam engines made goods easier and cheaper to get
Colonel Custer
Colonel Custer's Seventh Cavalry, nearly half of them immigrants, set out to suppress the Indians (Sioux Indians led by Sitting Bull in the Black Hills) and to return them to the reservation. Attacking what turned out to be a superior force of some 2,500 well-armed warriors camped along the Little Bighorn River in present-day Montana, the "White Chief with Yellow Hair" and his 264 officers and men were completely wiped out in 1876 when two supporting columns failed to come to their rescue. But in a series of battles across the northern plains in the ensuing months, the US Army relentlessly hunted down the Indians who had humiliated Custer.
Sioux Wars
The Sioux Wars lasted from 1876-1877. These were spectacular clashes between the Sioux Indians and white men. They were spurred by gold-greedy miners rushing into Sioux land. The white men were breaking their treaty with the Indians. The Sioux Indians were led by Sitting Bull and they were pushed by Custer's forces. Custer led these forces until he was killed at the battle at Little Bighorn. Many of the Indian were finally forced into Canada, where they were forced by starvation to surrender.
Battle of Little Big Horn, 1876
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer's Last Stand, was an engagement between the combined forces of the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne tribes against the 7th Cavalry of the United States Army. The most famous of all of the Indian Wars, the remarkable victory for the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne occurred over two days on June 25-26, 1876 near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory. The U.S. cavalry detachment, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, lost every soldier in his unit.
Treaty of Fort Laramie
1851 treaty that restricted Indians to specific areas away from the major trails
Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse
Chiefs of the Sioux tribe who defeated Custer at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Sioux
tribe that lived in plains near the Rockies; primary resource was the buffalo
nomadic lifestyle
moving from place to place following herds and depending on the environmental conditions
Great Plains
vast grassland between the mississippi river and the rocky mountains
Great Plains Tribes
These nomadic tribes, such as the Sioux, Blackfoot, Cheyenne, Crow, and Comanche, had given up farming in colonial times after the introduction of the horse by the Spanish. By the 1700s, they had become skillful horse riders and their lives centered on hunting buffalo. (p. 343)
Buffalo Soldiers
Nickname for African-American soldiers who fought in the wars against Native Americans living on the Great Plains during the 1870s
buffalo
An animal that was used by the Plains Indians for food, shelter, and clothing.
Battle of Wounded Knee (1890)
The last major armed conflict between the Lakota Sioux and the United States. On December 29, 1890, five hundred troops of the U.S. 7th Cavalry, surrounded an encampment of Lakota Sioux with orders to disarm the Indians and escort them back to the railroad for transport to Omaha, Nebraska. Shooting broke out near the end of the disarmament, and accounts differ regarding who fired first and why. By the time it was over, twenty-five troopers and one hundred and fifty-three Lakota Sioux lay dead, including sixty-two women and small children. Many of the dead on both sides may have been the victims of "friendly fire" as the shooting took place at point blank range in chaotic conditions.
Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce
Led a group of Indians on a trek trying to escape to Canada, eventually surrendered "I will fight no more forever" and were forced to move to a reservation in OK.
Black Hills of South Dakota
Gold was discovered here
Black Hills Gold Rush
(1874-1877) Gold Rush in Sioux Indian Territory.
2nd Treaty of Fort Laramie
1868 Guaranteed the Indians rights to the Black Hills, South Dakota for hunting and sacred purpose
Dawes Act of 1887
tried to civilize Indians and make them more little settlers by giving them land to farm, instead it harmed their native culture
Assimilation
the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another
Sarah Winnemucca
This Paiute Indian gave lectures on the problems of the reservations in the 1870's
natural resources
Materials or substances such as minerals, forests, water, and fertile land that occur in nature and can be used for economic gain
Pikes Peak
The discovery of gold in 1858 which sent minors on a frantic rush to the Dakota territory, Montana, and Colorado.
Comstock Lode
First discovered in 1858 by Henry Comstock, some of the most plentiful and valuable silver was found here, causing many Californians to migrate here, and settle Nevada.
panning for gold
Searching for gold by collecting, then washing gold-bearing gravel in a pan
mining
After gold and silver strikes in Colorado, Nevada, and other Western territories in the second half of the nineteenth century, fortune seekers by the thousands rushed to the West to dig. These metals were essential to U.S. industrial growth and were also sold into world markets. After surface metals were removed, people sought ways to extract ore from underground, leading to the development of heavy mining machinery. This, in turn, led to the consolidation of the mining industry, because only big companies could afford to buy and build the necessary machines.
Geronimo and the Apache
Avoided capture; fled to Mexico; also had to surrender the last Native American surrender to U.S government.
reservation
land set aside by the United States government for Native Americans
Pony Express (1860-1861)
This mail service was established to carry mail from Missouri to California in 10 days. Morse's telegraph outdid the Express, so it closed down quickly.
cowboy
a mounted herder hired by cattle owners in the U.S. to look after their stock; figured most significantly in American history from the end of the Civil War until the 1890s
Exodusters
the African Americans migrating to the Great Plains state (ie: Kansas & Oklahoma) in 1879 to escape conditions in the South
Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889
Former Indian territory was opened to white settlement in 1889. Possession was through a land run - whoever could stake their claim first.
- Some 50,000 settlers competed in the race and it marked the last of the government lands being opened for settlement in the West.
Sodbusters
name given to Great Plains farmers because they had to break through so much thick soil, called sod, in order to farm
Wovoka and the Ghost Dance
A peaceful form of resistance. A dance that was meant to communicate to with their ancestors. Wovoka wanted it to be peaceful and nonviolent for everyone to come together as a community.
Homestead Act of 1862
this allowed a settler to acquire 160 acres by living on it for five years, improving it and paying about $30
Morrill Land Grant Act
of 1862, in this act, the federal government had donated public land to the states for the establishment of college; as a result 69 land- grant institutions were established.
supply and demand
an economic concept that states that the price of a good rises and falls depending on how many people want it (demand) and depending on how much of the good is available (supply)
Munn vs. Illinois
(1877) Supreme Court ruled that stated could regulate businesses clothed w/ a "public interest" including railroads. Went against "Granger laws" in which farmers wanted to fix max freight rates and warehouse charge against grain elevators
National Grange Movement
Organized by Oliver H. Kelley primarily as a social and educational organization for farmers and their families. By the 1870s however, the Grange organized economic ventures and took political action to defend members against the middlemen, trusts, and railroads.
Gold Standard
A monetary system in which paper money and coins are equal to the value of a certain amount of gold
Free Silver Movement
Free, unlimited coinage of free silver, which would cause inflation. Supported by farmers, Democrats, the Populist Party, Westerners and Southerners
Inflation
a general increase in prices and fall in the purchasing value of money.
Populist Party
U.S. political party formed in 1892 representing mainly farmers, favoring free coinage of silver and government control of railroads and other monopolies
William Jennings Bryan
Democratic candidate for president in 1896 under the banner of "free silver coinage" which won him support of the Populist Party.
Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889
Former Indian territory was opened to white settlement in 1889. Possession was through a land run - whoever could stake their claim first.
- Some 50,000 settlers competed in the race and it marked the last of the government lands being opened for settlement in the West.
