Westward Expansion

before manifest destiny;

Pre Civil War - Americans were settled along the East Coast meaning; the thirteen colonies, port cities, across atlantic from Europe, difficulty getting to the west (no transportation)

manifest destiny

the idea that the U.S was destined to expand its territory across NA, from the atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. It was belief that it was justified and inevitable, and God’s will.

this is where it all starts violence, risks, success, and beginnings.

Free Land and adventure:

Frontier - Unsettled land

Causes of westward expansion -

Great Plains - Middle of the U.S. Texas - Dakotas, Breadbasket of America because the fertile land produces crops to feed Americans and people around the world.

Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Montana.

The Homestead Act - bill passed by Congress that offered 160 acres of free land to any American citizen who would farm it for five years. < which is the deed, ownership of the land.

only 40% fulfilled the deed while 60% did not.

California Gold Rush - In 1849, gold was discovered in California.

Nevada - Discovery of gold and silver in Nevada. It was the largest discovery of silver ever made.

Boom Town - An area that grew quickly after gold or silver was discovered

Ghost Town - After resources (ores) were gone boom towns became ghost towns.

New Technology - due to mining communities and adventure.

Subsides - gifts of money or land to the railroad companies

gave 130 million acres of land to railroad companies > buying and treaties with Native Americans.

Transcontinental Railroad - Connects the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast. (Cenral Pacific and Union Pacific Companies helped create this transportation)

Telegraph lines - a series of dots and dashes, representing letters and numbers, according to Morse code, printed on a paper tape at the receiving station. Replaced the Pony Express. Allowed communication to be faster.

New Transportation, New Farms

The Cattle Kingdom - a region dominated by the cattle industry, its ranches, trails and cow towns. (since it started from the east, the people from the east imported cows to the west.)

  • long drives - moving cattle place to place

  • cattle kingdom origin

    nickname for the region of the Great Plains, extending from Texas to Canada where ranchers raised cattle on the open range in the late 1800s.

Cattle Ranching - Another industry grew in the west, especially raising longhorns which could survive in dry western texas

Ranches benefits

  • great way to make money in early 1800s

  • settlers saw an oppurtunity to make money from ranches

  • cattle could be raised and sold for profit

  • many became rich as cattle prices boomed (importing from east)

    fact - Longhorns sold for 3-4$ each in Texas. In the North and East, cattle sold for $40 per head.

Barbed Wire - settlers began using barbed wire for cattles to not go anywhere.

Dry Farming - farming method that depends on plowing after every rain to trap moisture in the soil, helps crop wheat.

People

Pioneer - The first settlers in the west

Sodbusters - farmers who settled on the Great Plains

Exodusters - escape violence and discrimination of the south (people starting new beginnings in the west.)

Prospector - A person who looks for gold

Henry Comstock - discovered gold and silver in Nevada.

Forty Niners - People who went to California to look for gold

Vaqueros: Western cowhands of Hispanic background, they introduced riding, roping, and branding skills.

TCR, Transcontinental Railroad -

a railroad that crosses the continent and connects east to west

Golden Spike - most audacious and significant undertakings in American history – completion of the world's first transcontinental railroad, connecting east to west.

Who helped create the TCR -

Pacific Railway Act - sudsides for companies to build railroads.

Central Pacific Co. - ran tracks to california to east chinese (chinese immigrants)

Union Pacific Co. - ran tracks to nebraska towards west. (most built by irish immigrants)

Immigrants - from china and ireland built the railroads with low wages.

Positive and Negatives of TCR -

Positives impact of TCR -

travels faster

connects the country east to west

new markets for trade

more western territories grew population and became states

Negative impacts of TCR -

land owned by Native Americans

workers were paid little

dangerous work

buffalo population destroyed



Native Americans of the West

  • Siox Indians

  • Nez Perce

  • Cheyenne

  • Apache

  • Cherokee

  • Navajo

Cultures

  • Native American value nature above everything. No one can own land, it belongs to everyone

  • Horses and buffalo were very important to them, Horses used for travel and buffalo supplied food, shelter, clothing, utensils, and tools

  • Tribes spoke different languages but communicated through sign language and picture writing

  • Organized religions and rituals

  • Nomadics

Nomadics - traveled from place to place looking for buffalo

Fort Laramie Treaty - the first major treaty betwen the US gov and Plains Indians. The treaty recognized Indian claims to the Great Plains. Once gold was found in Colorado in 1858, the treat was violated.

Treaty - agreement between two or more parties

The Indian Removal Act

president Andrew Jackson signed the act in 1850;

fored native americans to move west of the mississippi river

many died along the way

the journey of the trail of tears.

Reservation - land set aside for Native Americans, many reservations were on poor land for farming or hunting, often no food or supplies. > wanted to leave

Plains Indians

  • nomadic people

  • followed buffalo

How Buffalo was used

  • fat is soap and cooking oils

  • tails became whips

  • bones became weapons, clubs

  • the brain was processed to leather

  • skull religion purposes

  • stomach were pots or buckets

  • poop as fuel

  • hair became pillows, ropes, housedresses

  • horns are cups, spoons, ladles

  • muscle > jerky

Indigenous - Natives

Tipi - lodging for Native Americans on the Plains

Buffalo Soldiers - African American soldiers who were saved in military after CW > station to western frontier > fought in Indian Wars.

Carlisle Indian Industrial School

  • founded by Richard C. Pratt

  • Forced assimilation of Native Americans to White culture

  • Assimilation - process of becoming part of another group, separating your culture

Battles within US ARMY AND Native Americans

Chivington Massacre/Sand Creek Massacre - John Chivington led an attack on a peaceful Cheyenne Village and killed 150 men, women and children.

Battle of Little Bighorn - Colonel George Custer’s soldier discovered gold in Black hills of SD, major defeat to the US army, Custer’s last stand, Sioux last victory < crazy horse as an ally.

Dawes Act - allowed the government to break up reservations and divide the land among individual families

Ghost Dance - dance done by NA to express hope that buffalo would return and the settlers would go away.

Wounded Knee - ten years later, sitting bull was killed as police arrested him. Many Sioux left the reservation in protest. The Us Army caught up with them and 300 Sioux died at Wounded Knee Creek in SD.

extra vocab

Supply - amount of good or service

Demand - the amount of people that want the supply

Patriarch - man of the house

Matriarch - woman of the house

Exploit - take advantage of for ones benefit

Time zone - a geographic region in which the same standard time is used

Long drive - a trip of several hundred miles on which ranchers led their cattle to railroads and distant markets

Homestead - to earn ownership of land by living on it

National Grange - network of local farmers’ groups

Cooperative - cash-only store where farmers bought from each other

Populism - an appeal to the common people