Chapter 26 The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution 1865–1896

Democrats: became silverites Republicans: gold bugs (supporting big business)

What happened to settlement after the Civil War ended?

When the Civil War ended, the frontier line was still moving westward toward the "100th Meridian," which marks the eastern edge of the West, America's driest region. A long, irregular line of settlement stretched north through central Texas up to the Canadian border. Between this settlement line and the established areas on the Pacific coast, there were very few white settlers. The exceptions were Mormon communities in Utah, some trading posts and gold camps, and several scattered Spanish Mexican settlements throughout the Southwest.

What was the Great West like?

It included mountains, plateaus, deserts, and plains, and was mostly the dry homeland of Native Americans, buffalo, wild horses, prairie dogs, and coyotes. Just 25 years later—by 1890—this entire area had been divided into states and the four territories of Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and "Indian Territory," or Oklahoma.

How many Indians were there in 1860?

360, many of them spread across the vast grasslands west of the Missouri River.

What are the Plains Indians?

Plains Indians refers to the diverse groups of Native American tribes that inhabited the Great Plains region of North America, known for their nomadic lifestyle, reliance on bison hunting, and rich cultural traditions. These tribes, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Comanche, developed complex social structures and spiritual beliefs deeply connected to the natural world and their environment.

How did the Cheyenne and the Sioux change?

Riding on horses introduced by the Spanish, peoples like the Cheyenne and the Sioux changed within just a few generations from walking, crop-growing villagers to wide-ranging nomadic traders and very efficient buffalo hunters—so efficient that they threatened to wipe out the vast bison herds that had attracted them to the plains in the first place.

What did the white soldiers and settlers who moved onto the plains before the Civil War do?

They worsened the already fierce hatred among the Native Americans and eventually weakened the foundations of Native American culture. White newcomers unknowingly spread cholera, typhoid, and smallpox among the native peoples of the plains, with devastating results. Just as harmful, whites put more pressure on the shrinking bison population by hunting and by grazing their own livestock on the prairie grasses.

What happened as buffalo herds decreased?

fighting increased among the Plains tribes for increasingly scarce hunting grounds.

What marked the beginnings of the reservation system in the West?

The federal government tried to calm the Plains Indians by signing treaties with the "chiefs" of various "tribes" at Fort Laramie in 1851 and at Fort Atkinson in 1853. The treaties marked the beginnings of the reservation system in the West. They set boundaries for the territory of each tribe and tried to separate the Native Americans into two great "colonies" to the north and south of a path of intended white settlement.

Whose authority did many Native Americans recognize?

Native Americans, living in scattered groups, recognized only the authority of their immediate families or perhaps a group elder.

What type of Indians were the Plains Indians?

they were nomadic

What did the federal government do to the Indians in teh 1860s?

In the 1860s the federal government strengthened this policy and forced the Native Americans into even smaller areas, mainly the "Great Sioux reservation" in Dakota Territory and Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma, into which dozens of southern Plains tribes were pushed. The Native Americans gave up their ancestral lands only when they had received serious promises from Washington that they would be left alone and provided with food, clothing, and other supplies.

What did the federal Indian agents do?

They gave the Indians defective goods.

What happened after the Civil War?

fierce fighting between Native Americans and the U.S. Army raged in various parts of the West. Army troops, many of them recent immigrants who had, ironically, fled Europe to avoid military service, faced skilled opponents in the Plains Indians, whose excellent horsemanship gave them surprising mobility.

What are Buffalo Soldiers?

African American US Army personell

What were the INdian wars in the West like?

Aggressive whites sometimes shot peaceful Native Americans on sight

What happened to General George Armstrong Custer after the Civil War?

He was demoted to colonel and turned into an Indian fighter

What is the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868?

The sprawling "Great Sioux reservation" was guaranteed to the Sioux tribes

What caused the Battle of the Little Bighorn?

Custer had led an expedition into the Black HIlls of South Dakota (part of the Sioux reservation) and announced that he had discovered gold. Crowds of greedy gold-seekers swarmed into the Sioux lands. The angry Sioux, helped by the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, went to war, inspired by Sitting Bull.

What occured in the Battle of the LIttle Bighorn?

Colonel Custer's 7th Cavalry, nearly half of them immigrants, set out to suppress the Native Americans and to return them to the reservation. Attacking what turned out to be a larger 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 about 250 officers and men were completely wiped out in 1876.

What happened after the Battle of the LIttle Bighonr?

The Native Americans' victory didn't last long. In a series of battles across the northern plains in the following months, the U.S. Army relentlessly hunted down the Native Americans who had defeated Custer.

Who was Sittign Bull?

Sitting Bull was a prominent Lakota Sioux chief and spiritual leader known for his resistance against U.S. government policies aimed at displacing Native American tribes during the westward expansion. He played a crucial role in the struggle to preserve Native American culture and land, famously leading his people during the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, where they achieved a significant victory against U.S. forces. His leadership not only symbolized the fight for indigenous rights but also highlighted the cultural tensions between Native Americans and settlers expanding into the West.

What were the Apache tribes of Arizona and New Meixco like?

They wree the most difficult to defeat. Led by Geronimo, whose eyes showed hatred of the whites, they were chased into Mexico by federal troops using the sun-flashing heliograph, a communication device that impressed the Native Americans as "big medicine." Scattered remains of the warriors were finally persuaded to surrender after the Apache women had been sent to Florida. The Apaches eventually became successful farmers in Oklahoma.

What broke the spirit of the Indians/

The harsh policy of the whites. The defeated Native Americans were finally confined on reservations, where they could in theory maintain their cultural independence but were actually forced to live a miserable existence as dependents of the government.

What caused the “taming” of the Indinas?

The "taming" of Native Americans was driven by several factors. A key factor was the federal government's readiness to use military force to back its land claims. Equally important was the railroad, which carved a path through the heart of the West, allowing unlimited numbers of troops, farmers, cattlemen, sheepherders, and settlers to move west. Native Americans were also devastated by diseases brought by white settlers, to which they had little immunity, and by alcohol, which they had even less resistance to. Most significantly, the near extinction of the buffalo, a vital resource for the Plains Indians' nomadic lifestyle, sealed their fate.

What happened to the Buffalo population?

MIlliions of buffalo covered hte western plains when white Americans first arrived. They were essential to Indians. Their meat provided food, their dried dung was used as fuel, and their hides were used for clothing and tools. After the Civil War, about 15 million buffalo still lived on the western plains.

Why were buffalo killed in droves?

The mass killing of buffalo began in earnest with the building of the railroad. The animals were killed for their hides, for a few choice cuts of meat, or just for fun. Train passengers would shoot at the animals from windows for entertainment. This widespread slaughter left fewer than a thousand buffalo alive by 1885, putting them in danger of extinction.

Waht did Helen Hunt Jackson do?

Helen Hunt Jackson, who wrote children's books from Massachusetts, made Americans aware of the treatment of Native Americans in 1881 when she published A Century of Dishonor. The book described the government's cruel treatment of Native Americans.

What were the opinions on what to do with the Indians?

Some wanted to treat Native Americans kindly to convince them to adopt white ways. Others supported the current policy of forcing them onto reservations and punishing them harshly. Neither side respected Native American culture. Christian reformers, who often ran schools on reservations, sometimes withheld food to force Native Americans to give up their tribal religions and adopt white culture. In 1884, these reformers and military leaders convinced the federal government to ban the sacred Sun Dance.

What is the Ghost Dance?

a late 19th-century religious movement among Native American tribes, particularly the Lakota Sioux, that sought to restore their traditional way of life and bring back deceased ancestors through ritual dances and a belief in a renewed Earth free from white settlers

What caused the Battle of Wounded Knee?

The army stopped a “Ghost Dance” by the Dakota Sioux in 1890.

What ws the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887?

Following the reformers' views on forced assimilation, the act dissolved many tribes as legal entities, ended tribal ownership of land, and gave individual Native American family heads 160 acres. If they behaved like "good white settlers," they would get full ownership of their land and citizenship in twenty-five years.

When did all Natives get citizenship?

1924

What was the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania?

In 1879, the government had already funded the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania, where Native American children, separated from their tribes, were taught English and white values and customs.

What did the Dawes Act attack?

The Dawes Act directly attacked tribal organization and tried to make independent individuals out of Native Americans. This law ignored how traditional Native American culture depended on tribal land ownership, literally taking the land away from them.

What was the Dawes Act?

The Dawes Act directly attacked tribal organization and tried to make independent individuals out of Native Americans. This law ignored how traditional Native American culture depended on tribal land ownership, literally taking the land away from them.

What reversed the Dawes Act?

the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934

What happened to the population under the new federal policieis?

Under these new federal policies, despite their flaws, the Native American population began to increase slowly.

What helped the mining industry?

the defeat of the Indians and the arrival of hte railroad

What discovery in 1858 shook Colorado?

gold in the Rockies, which became known as the Pikes Peak gold rush

Why did fifty-niners rush to NEvada in 1859?

the Comstock Lode was discovered

When was Nevada made a state?

1864

What attracted people to western states?

gold and silver strikes

What are Helldorados?

Roughs towns that appeared in the desert. . Every third building was a saloon, where dirty miners drank poor-quality liquor in the company of willing women. Lynch law and vigilante justice, as in early California, kept some order in these towns.

What caused ghost towns?

When the mines ran out and the miners left the Helldorados, they left behind ghost towns in the empty deserts.

What gradually took over the mining industry?

big business. Individual miners with their pans were replaced by companies with their expensive equipment and trained engineers.

Why was the mining frontier important?

the mining frontier played an important role in settling the continent. It attracted people and wealth while spreading news about the Wild West. Women as well as men found opportunities, running boarding houses or working in prostitution. They gained a kind of equality on the rough frontier that earned them the right to vote in Wyoming (1869), Utah (1870), Colorado (1893), and Idaho (1896) long before eastern women could vote.

What did the discovery of precious metals do?

The discovery of precious metals helped pay for the Civil War, helped build railroads, and made the conflict between whites and Native Americans worse. The production of silver and gold allowed the Treasury to resume using metal coins in 1879 and brought the silver issue into American politics.

What were the “Silver Senators”?

They wer from sparsely populated western states that used their influence to help silver miners.

What were the cattle of Texas used for and why?

they were killed mainly for their hides because there was no profitable way to sell their meat.

How was the problem of selling the cattle’s meat solved?

The problem of selling was solved when the transcontinental railroads reached the West. Cattle could now be shipped alive to stockyards, and under businessmen like the Swifts and Armours, the highly industrialized meatpacking business became a major part of the economy. Using the giant stockyards at Kansas City and Chicago, meatpackers could ship fresh products to the East Coast in new refrigerator cars.

What was the “Long Drive?”

Texas cowboys would drive herds of 1,000-100,000 cattle over teh open plains until they reached a railroad terminal to send them to slaughterhouses. The animals ate government grass along the way.

What kept the Long Drive profitable?

as long of grass was available

What ended the Long Drive?

The railroad created the Long Drive, and the railroad ended it, mainly because the trains ran both ways. The same rails that carried cattle from the open range to kitchens brought out homesteaders and sheepherders. Both these newcomers built barbed-wire fences that were too numerous for cowboys to cut down. Also, the terrible winter of 1886–1887 left thousands of confused cattle starving and freezing. Too much expansion and overgrazing also took their toll, as cowboys slowly gave way to farmers.

What did cattle ranches turn to to survive?

Cattle ranchers had to turn cattle-raising into a big business and avoid overproduction to survive. Breeders adapted by fencing their ranches, storing winter feed, importing better bulls, and raising fewer but larger and meatier cattle. They also began organizing. The Wyoming Stock-Growers' Association, particularly powerful in the 1880s, essentially controlled the state and its legislature.

What allowed farmers to finish settling the American West?

the Homestead ACt

What did the Homestead ACt of 1862 do?

This law let settlers get 160 acres of land by living on it for five years, making improvements, and paying about $30. This was a big change from before when public land was mainly sold to make money for the government. Now land was being given away to quickly fill empty areas and support family farms, which were seen as essential to democracy.

Why did the Homestead Act often turn out to be unfair?

The standard 160 acres was enough in the wetter Mississippi area but was too small in the dry Great Plains. About two-thirds of homesteaders had to give up their fight against drought.

What did the Homestead Act lead to?

The Homestead Act also led to widespread cheating. About ten times more public land ended up with land-grabbing businesses than with actual farmers. Dishonest companies would use fake homesteaders—often their employees or foreigners bribed with money or alcohol—to claim the best properties with timber, minerals, and oil.

What helped developo the farming West?

Railroads played a big role in developing the farming West by helping sell crops. Some railroad companies convinced Americans and European immigrants to buy the cheap land that the government had given to the railroads.

What was the climate of the GReat Plains like?

The windswept prairies were mostly treeless, and the tough ground had been packed hard by millions of buffalo.

What was the soil of the GReat Plains like?

Early explorers and trappers had assumed the soil was poor because it didn't get much rain and didn't have many forests. But once the prairie soil was broken with iron plows pulled by oxen, the earth proved surprisingly fertile.

Who are Sodbusters?

"Sodbusters" moved onto the prairies. Without trees for building and fuel, they made homes from the sod they dug from the ground and burned corncobs for heat.

Why did settlers in the 1870s push farther west?

Attracted by higher wheat prices caused by crop failures elsewhere in the world, settlers in the 1870s unwisely pushed farther west, onto the poor lands beyond the 100th meridian.

What is the 100th meridian?

That imaginary line running north to south from the Dakotas through west Texas divided two climate regions—a well-watered area to the east and a semi-dry area to the west.

What laid beyond the 100th meridian line?

beyond the 100th meridian so little rain fell that farming was impossible without massive irrigation

What is dry farming and what was its long term effect?

After a drought in the 1880s, the new technique of "dry farming" developed on the plains. This method of frequent shallow plowing was supposedly better for the dry western environment, but over time it created a finely pulverized surface soil that later contributed to the notorious "Dust Bowl."

What did farmers grow instead of corn in the western environment?

farmers stopped growing corn and switched to sorghum and other grains that needed less water.

What were the government-funded irrigation projects in the Great Amiercan DEsert like?

Dams controlled the Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado Rivers.

What allowed Colorado to become a state in 1876?

The Centennial State was created after the Pikes Peak gold rush

What became states in 1889-1890?

North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and Wyoming

What happened when the federal government made available to settlers large areas of plains formerly occupied by Indians in the district of Oklahoma?

Many armed and impatient "sooners" illegally entered Oklahoma Territory before it was officially opened and had to be removed by federal troops. On April 22, 1889, when the territory was legally opened, about 50,000 "boomers" waited at the boundary line. At noon, a bugle sounded, and a wave of "eighty-niners" rushed in on horses and wagons to claim land.

When did Oklahoma become a state?

1907

What happened by 1890?

All the unsettled areas were now broken into by isolated groups of American settlers.

What steps were taken to preserve the land that was left?

The government set aside land for national parks—first Yellowstone in 1872, followed by Yosemite and Sequoia in 1890.

What were the effects of the closign of hte frontier?

Its disappearance ended a romantic phase of the nation's development and created new economic and psychological problems.

What were Americna farmers like?

They rarely stayed permanently on their land. The land, sold for a profit as settlement increased, was often the settler's most profitable crop.

What is the safety valve theory?

The idea is that during hard times, unemployed city people simply moved west, started farming, and did well. In truth, relatively few city dwellers, at least from the crowded eastern cities, moved to the frontier during economic depressions. Most didn't know how to farm, and few could afford to transport themselves west and then pay for livestock and expensive machinery.

Wher in America was the actual safety valve?

the real safety valve by the late nineteenth century was in western cities like Chicago, Denver, and San Francisco,

in which region did the federal government play the biggest role in its economic and esocial development?

the trans-Mississipi West

Howsdid the situation of American farmers change?

They had once grown their own food, made their own clothing, and traded for other necessities with neighbors. Now high prices encouraged farmers to focus on growing single "cash" crops, like wheat or corn, and use their profits to buy food at general stores and manufactured goods. Farmers were becoming both consumers and producers in the world economy.

What were large-scale farmers like?

Large-scale farmers, especially in the huge grain-producing areas of the Mississippi Valley, were now both specialists and businesspeople. As parts of the vast industrial machine, these farmers were closely connected to banking, railroads, and manufacturing. They had to buy expensive machinery to plant and harvest their crops.

What increased the speed of harvesting wheat?

The speed of harvesting wheat increased dramatically in the 1870s with the invention of the twine binder and then in the 1880s with the "combine"—the combined reaper-thresher, which was pulled by twenty to forty horses and both reaped and bagged the grain.

What were the effects of the mechanization of agriculture after the Civil War?

agricultural modernization forced many struggling farmers off the land, increasing the new industrial workforce. As the rural population steadily decreased, the remaining farmers achieved amazing levels of production, making America the world's leading food producer.

How was the farm becoming like an outdoor grain factory?

Bonanza wheat farms in Minnesota and North Dakota were enormous. By 1890 at least six of them were larger than fifteen thousand acres.

What was agriculture like in California?

Agriculture was big business from the beginning in California's incredibly productive (and heavily irrigated) Central Valley. California farms, created from huge Spanish-Mexican land grants and railroad holdings, were from the start more than three times larger than the national average. With the railroad refrigerator car in the 1880s, California fruits and vegetables, grown on large tracts by poorly paid migrant Mexican and Chinese farmworkers, sold at high profits in eastern urban markets.

What determined the price of grain?

global market conditions

What were the main concerns of farmers?

Farmers in the North, South, and West were frustrated by low prices and a deflated currency. Many had taken out mortgages when crop prices were higher, but as prices fell over time, their debts became harder to repay. What once seemed like a manageable debt grew larger in real terms, which farmers viewed as unfair—even though creditors often accused them of being dishonest for complaining.

What had caused deflation?

There weren’t enough dollars in circulation, which pushed prices down.

What cycle were farmers trapped in?

Despite working hard, they operated at a loss year after year and relied on their savings to survive. Farm machinery increased grain output, which lowered prices and drove them further into debt.

What were mortgages on farms like?

Farmers faced extremely high interest rates on their mortgages, ranging from 8 to 40 percent, often charged by agents of eastern loan companies.

What allowed for farm tenancy to become more popular than farm ownership?

The new industrial system—farmers were sinking into a status similar to Old World serfdom.

What is serfom?

a system where a person (a serf) is bound to a piece of land and to the will of its owner (the lord), lacking freedom to move or leave without permission, and often obligated to work the land.

How did nature turn aginst farmers?

Swarms of grasshoppers would occasionally destroy entire prairie farms, leaving only the mortgage behind. In the South, the cotton-boll weevil wreaked havoc by the early 1890s. The land itself was deteriorating—floods worsened the damage of erosion, which had already stripped the topsoil from millions of once-fertile acres. Expensive fertilizers became urgently needed to help restore the land.

What began in the summer of 1887 and were the effects?

A series of droughts hit the trans-Mississippi West, beginning in summer 1887. Whole towns were abandoned.

How did the government (local, state, and national) burden the farmers?

Their land was assessed too high for tax purposes, and they paid heavy local taxes. High protective tariffs benefited manufacturers by shielding them from competition, allowing them to sell their goods at higher prices. In contrast, farmers had to sell their products in a global market where prices were low and competition was fierce. At the same time, they had to buy manufactured goods at high prices in the domestic market, which was protected by those same tariffs. This created an unfair situation where farmers were paying more for goods while receiving less for their own products.

How did corporations exploit farmers?

Farmers were exploited by powerful corporations and trusts, such as the harvester, barbed-wire, and fertilizer trusts, which controlled production and manipulated prices to their advantage. Additionally, middlemen bought goods from companies and then sold them to farmers at higher prices, making it harder for farmers to afford what they needed. Operators of grain warehouses and elevators also charged excessive storage fees, further draining the farmers' earnings. This created a situation where farmers had to pay more for supplies and services while getting less for their own crops.

How did railroad companies control grain growers?

Freight rates were extjremely high and if they complained, the railroad operators could retaliate by letting their grain spoil in damp conditions or refusing to provide them with cars when needed, making it even harder for farmers to make a profit.

Why did the farmers fail to organize until the days of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal?

In 1890, farmers still made up nearly half the population, but they were poorly organized. Farmers were independent and individualistic, resisting any kind of consolidation or organization, and no one among the farmers successfully led them to restrict production