Topic 10

Chapter 25 Section 1

The Cold War Begins

Section 2

Westward Expansion and the American Indians

Topic 10

Section 1


The Cold War Begins

Section 2

Westward Expansion and the American Indians

• Compare the ways Native Americans and white settlers viewed and used the land.

• Describe the conflicts between white settlers and Indians.

• Evaluate the impact of the Indian Wars.

Objectives


The Cold War BeginsWestward Expansion and the American Indians

Section 2

Terms and People

• reservation – specific area set aside by the federal government for the Indians’ use

• Sand Creek Massacre – 1864 incident in which Colorado militia killed a camp of unarmed Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians

• Sitting Bull – Sioux chief respected as a fighter and spiritual leader

• Battle of the Little Big Horn – 1876 battle in which the Sioux defeated U.S. troops led by Colonel George Custer



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Terms and People (continued)

• Chief Joseph – leader of the Nez Percés who surrendered after trying to lead a group of Indian refugees to Canada

• Wounded Knee – 1890 confrontation between U.S. cavalry and the Sioux that marked the end of Indian resistance in the Ghost Dance War

• assimilate – to adopt the culture and civilization of the dominant group in a society

• Dawes General Allotment Act – 1887 law that divided reservation land into private family plots



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How did the pressures of westward expansion impact Native Americans?

As American settlers continued to push west, they increasingly came into conflict with Native Americans.

Such conflict often led to violence, with tragic results.



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After the Civil War, about 250,000 Indians lived in the lands west of the Mississippi.

• Had different belief systems• Spoke different languages• Lived in different types of

houses• Ate different foods

Native Americans came from many diverse cultures.



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The diverse Indian peoples, however, shared a common view toward nature—a view that conflicted

with that of many white Americans.

Native Americans saw themselves as part of nature and viewed nature as sacred.

Many white Americans viewed the land as a resource to produce wealth.



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During the 1800s, the government carried out a policy of moving Indians out of the way of white settlers.

Indians were forced into reservations, no longer free to roam the Plains.

At first, Indians in the East were moved west, into the Indian Territory of the Plains.As frontier settlers continued pushing west, however, this plan changed.



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Two other crises also threatened Native American civilizations.

Disease

Loss of the buffalo

Settlers introduced diseases to which Indians had no immunity.

Settlers slaughtered buffalo herds.



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Some Native Americans fought to defend their lands.

The Sand CreekMassacre saw an unarmed camp of Indians under the U.S. Army protection killed by Colorado militia.

But attacks and retaliation led to distrust—and to tragedy.

Promises were made and peace treaties were signed, but they often were broken.



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Frustration turned to violence as the government moved to crush Indian resistance.

• The Red River War led to the defeat of the Southern Plains Indians.

• The Sioux were victorious at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

• Chief Joseph and the Nez Percés surrendered after attempting to retreat to Canada.



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Fearful of insurrection, government officials tried to ban the practice.

The ritual preached that white settlers would be banished and the buffalo would return.

As their way of life slipped away, some Indians turned to a religious revival based on the Ghost Dance.



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However, he was killed in a confrontation with U.S. troops.More than 100 Indians who fled were killed at Wounded Knee.

The Indian Wars were over.

In an effort to end the Ghost Dance, the government attempted to arrest Sitting Bull.



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Some critics attacked government policies and defended the Indians’ way of life.

Most leaders, however, hoped that Native Americans would assimilate into American life.



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• Replaced the reservation system with an allotment system

• Granted each Indian family its own plot of land

• Specified the land could not be sold for 25 years

In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes General Allotment Act to encourage assimilation.



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• Analyze the impact of mining and railroads on the settlement of the West.

• Explain how ranching affected western development.

• Discuss the ways various peoples lived in the West and their impact on the environment.

Objectives



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Terms and People

• vigilante – self-appointed law enforcer

• transcontinental railroad – rail link between the eastern and western United States

• land grant – land given by the federal government for building railroads

• open-range system – system in which ranchers did not fence in their property, allowing cattle to roam and graze freely



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• Homestead Act – 1862 law in which the government offered farm plots of 160 acres to anyone willing to live on the land for five years, dig a well, and build a road

• Exodusters –African Americans who migrated from the South to the West after the Civil War



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What economic and social factors changed the West after the Civil War?In the late 1800s, miners, rail workers, ranchers, and farmers moved to the frontier in hopes of building better lives.

The industrial and agricultural booms they created helped transform the West.



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The discovery of gold and silver created the first great boom in the West—mining.

• With each new find, prospectors rushed to the site, hoping to strike it rich.

• Others followed, bringing food and supplies.

Mining camps quickly sprang up.

Many camps grew into thriving communities.



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• In the early days, vigilantes took the law into their own hands.

• As towns grew, they hired marshals and sheriffs.

Because they had no judges or jails, miners often set their own rules for administering justice.

Some towns, however, disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Boomtowns turned to ghost towns

when the gold and silver ran out.



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• Could afford the heavy equipment needed to bring mineral ores out from deep underground

• Were supported by the government with cheap land

Large companies soon took over the mining business from individual prospectors.



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The railroads soon began work to fulfill a longtime goal—to build a transcontinental railroad linking the East and the West.

As industries grew in the West, so did the need for railroads to transport goods and people.

The government supported this goal through:• loans • land grants



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In 1863, the Central Pacific headed eastward from Sacramento. The Union Pacific headed westward from Omaha.

They finally met at Promontory, Utah, in 1869.



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• Tied the nation together

• Moved products and people

• Spurred industrial development

• Stimulated the growth of towns and cities

• Encouraged settlers to continue to move west

Work on the railroad had been difficult and dangerous. But it brought tremendous changes to the country.



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The railroad boom encouraged another western boom—the cattle boom.

For years, ranchers had used an open-range system for raising livestock.

• Property not fenced in

• Cattle were branded, then grazed freely

• Cowboys rounded up the cattle each spring



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Cowboys then drove cattle north to the rail lines, so they could be transported to market.

The long, hard cattle drives could last for months.

They ended at railroad towns, called cow towns.



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Reasons the open- range system ended

The invention of barbed wire made fencing cheap.The supply of beef exceeded demand and prices dropped.

Extreme weather led to the death of herds.

By the mid-1880s, however, the cattle boom was coming to an end.



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Like miners and ranchers, farmers also moved west, looking for a better life.

Railroad companies encouraged pioneer settlement. So did the government.

Under the 1862 Homestead Act, the government gave land to farmers willing to tend it.

Easterners, Exodusters, and immigrants soon poured onto the Great Plains.



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Life on the Plains was difficult and lonely.

With little wood available, homesteaders

made houses from sod.

Storms, droughts, and locusts ruined crops.



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New inventions and farming methods, however, made life easier.

• Barbed wire

• Stronger plow

• Grain drill

• Windmill

• Dry-farming techniques



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For many Americans, the West was a place to build new lives. But it also was a place of conflict.

• Cattle destroyed crops• Sheep ruined grasses• Mining runoff polluted water• Control of resources disputed

Economic rivalries

Social conflicts• Prejudice• Discrimination• Ethnic tensions



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The last land rush took place in 1889, when the government opened the Oklahoma Territory to homesteaders.

“boomers” lined up to stake claims

“sooners” sneaked in early to take the best ones

The next year, the government declared there was no land left for homesteading.

The frontier closed.



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Section 3



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• Analyze the issue of corruption in national politics in the 1870s and 1880s.

• Discuss civil service reform during the 1870s and 1880s.

• Assess the importance of economic issues in the politics of the Gilded Age.

Objectives



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Terms and People• spoils system – a system in which politicians

awarded government jobs to loyal party workers with little regard for their qualifications

• civil service – a system that includes federal jobs in the executive branch

• Pendleton Civil Service Act – a law passed in 1883 that established a Civil Service Commission, which wrote a civil service exam

• gold standard – using gold as the basis of the nation’s currency



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Why did the political structure change during the Gilded Age?

Congress passed few laws between 1877 and 1900, in an era marked by inaction and political corruption.

The Gilded Age raised questions about whether or not democracy could succeed.



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• Neither political party achieved control of both the White House and Congress for more than two years in a row.

• Presidents during the Gilded Age were elected only by slim margins.

Between 1877 and 1897, party loyalties were evenly divided.



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Corruption plagued national politics as many officials accepted bribes.



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Writers, such as Mark Twain, expressed concerns over the corruption.

This system made the political parties extremely powerful.

The spoils system, in which party supporters received government jobs regardless of their qualifications, shifted power to a few.



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A movement arose to promote civil service reform.

Ending the spoils system was difficult.

Change finally happened, in part, because President James Garfield was assassinated by a man who believed the Republican Party owed him a job.



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Chester A. Arthur became President and supported civil service reform.

In 1883, he signed into law the Pendleton Civil Service Act,

which established a merit-based system for government employment.



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Tariffs taxed imported goods, which supported American industry but increased consumer prices.

Monetary policy disputes concerned the gold standard, where gold became the basis of the nation’s currency.

The economic issues of tariffs and monetary policy caused debate during the Gilded Age.



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Monetary policy centered on a debate over the Coinage Act of 1873.

Some people wanted to use only gold as money.

Some wanted to use both gold and silver.

Bankers were worried silver would undermine the economy. Farmers favored it to create inflation and raise their income.



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Section 4



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• Analyze the problems farmers faced and the groups they formed to address them.

• Assess the goals of the Populists, and explain why the Populist Party did not last.

Objectives



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Terms and People• Oliver H. Kelley – a Minnesota farmer and

businessman who organized the Grange

• Grange – an organization of farmers who joined to learn about new farming techniques, to call for the regulation of railroad and grain elevator rates, and to prompt the establishment of the ICC

• Populist Party – a political party formed in 1892 on a platform of silver coinage, government ownership of the railroads, and fighting the corrupt and unresponsive elite



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• William Jennings Bryan – the Democratic nominee for president in 1896, who supported many Populist principles including silver coinage, and who toured the country to speak directly to voters

• William McKinley – the Republican candidate for president in 1896, who followed a traditional strategy of letting party workers campaign for him



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What led to the rise of the Populist movement, and what effect did it have?

Millions of Americans moved west after the Civil War to pursue the American dream.

A variety of factors made their lives extremely difficult, which led to the social and political revolt known as Populism—and created one of the largest third party movements in American history.



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People moving to the West and South in the late 1800s knew that their lives would not be easy.

Problems facing the farmers of the West and South

They did not anticipate many problems that made survival nearly impossible.

low prices for cropshigh transportation, equipment, and loan costsdroughtreduced influence in politics



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Frustrated by these problems, farmers began to organize.



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Farmers created groups to address their problems.

These groups formed a network called the Granger movement. The Grange was formally organized by Oliver H. Kelley in 1867 and gained a million members.

The Grange declined after the 1870s, but Farmers’ Alliances became important reform organizations that continued the Grange’s goals.



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The spread of the Farmers’ Alliances led to the formation of the Populist Party in 1892.

The Populist platform, outlined at the party’s 1892 convention in Omaha, NE, called for:

coinage of silveran income taxgovernment ownership of railroadsbank regulations



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The debate over monetary policy was an important issue of the day.

Those who wanted a gold standard were on one side.

Those who wanted to use silver—including the Populist Party—were on the other.



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The Populists did well in 1892, electing three governors, five senators, and ten congressmen.

The Populist candidate for president received one million votes in that election.



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An economic depression began in 1893 and labor unrest and violence broke out. The Populist Party grew.

In 1896, a young lawyer named William Jennings Bryan spoke at the national Democratic convention.

The speech, with its Populist message of “free silver,” moved Democrats to nominate Bryan. The Populist Party chose to give him their support.



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William Jennings Bryan campaigned against Republican candidate William McKinley in a way that had never been seen before.

He toured the country,talking directly to voters.



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McKinley won against Bryan in 1896 and in 1900.

Bryan’s emphasis on money reform wasn’t popular with urban workers.



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The Populist Party was weakened by supporting William Jennings Bryan on the Democratic ticket.

It survived another decade, but its viability as an alternative to the two major parties was over.

Many of the reforms sought by the Populists became a reality.The new campaigning style used by Bryan became the norm.

Topic 10

Education

Transcript of Topic 10