Western Expansion

Geography• Early 1800’s: “Great American Desert”

(Miss. River to the Rocky Mtns.)–Very fertile soil–Mtns. Had valuable minerals –Indians succeeded at ranching & farming

1850’s

• Pioneers farm & ranch in the west• Expanded during Civil War• Food & raw materials for soldiers• Post-War soldiers move west

Transportation

• Was extremely difficult until railroad

• 1863-1869 Transcontinental Railroad opened up the West to the country

Trans RR map

Conflict

• Problems: American wanted to move West; Indians already lived there

• Early 1800’s: Great Plains = “one big Indian Reservation; Indians ancestral & legal homeland

Indian tribes map

1840’s

• Americans settled in Oregon & California

• U.S. adopts a policy of concentration: tribes must allow settlers free passage & must confine their hunting to specific areas

• Concentration failed

–Buffalo roamed

–1858 Colorado gold rush, settlers invaded Indian territory

Sand Creek Massacre

• 1864: Chief Black Kettle agreed to an armistice

• Col. Chivington & 1,000 troops attacked

• Ignored white & American flags

• Killed 450 Indians

Sioux Wars: 1862-1868• 1862-63: Sioux raided white settlements

in Minnesota; Little Crow was killed• 1865: U.S. builds roads through Sioux

land• 1866: Chief Red Cloud & Sioux

ambush & kill 83 federal soldiers

• Reservation: plots of poor land where Indians were confined & closed off from society

• Technology: telegraph, RR, professional military, colt revolver & other weapons

End of the Indian Wars

• 1875: Gold in the Dakotas (Sioux land)

• 1876: Battle of Bighorn (Custer’s Last Stand) - last Indian victory

• 1877: Nez Perce & Chief Joseph run off their land (1500 miles)

• 1886: Geronimo’s resistance in New Mexico

• 1890: Wounded Knee; U.S. massacred 200 Sioux women & children

• Thousands of Indians die from starvation, battle, and exposure

Destruction of Indian Life

• RR, hunters, & settlers killed thousands of buffalo

• Fewer buffalo = fewer Indians

• Indians became dependent upon the U.S. gov’t for food, clothing, etcetera

• Bureau of Indian Affairs: gov’t agency that attempted to assimilate the Indians into American culture

• 1887: Dawes Act

–reservations are broken into smaller plots

–Americanization is sped up

Cattle Industry• Rooted in Mexican vaquero tradition

• Tame & wild cattle bred together creating new breeds

• RR vital to success

• Dodge City, Cheyenne, Wichita, & Topeka

Ranching

• Problems: cattle lost weight during cattle drives; 1884 Kansas forbid TX cattle except during winter

• Solutions: Extend RR north; establish northern ranches

• Europeans & Easterners invest in cattle

• Land was cheap, grass & cattle were free

• overgrazing & overproduction

• Bad weather affects prices

• Result: few companies controlled cattle industry

Farming• Exodus of 1879: the migration of poor

Southern blacks to the West• Homestead Act 1862:

–160 acres of land to each head of family–must live there 5 yrs. minimum–must improve the land

• Timber Culture Act - 1873• Desert Land Act - 1877• Timber & Stone Act - 1878• Farm life:• sod houses, cow chips, everyone

worked

Technology

• Combine, reaper-thresher• improved plows • windmills • barbed wire• refrigerated RR cars

• Bonanza farms: large farms financed by outside capital

• California - wheat, grapes, wine, raisins

• Florida - citrus fruits

Mining• Colorado, Cali., Nevada, Montana,

Alaska

• placer mining: mining the deposits of a streambed

• quartz mining: blasting rock from a mountainside

• Used Mexican & Chinese labor

• Levi’s & J.C. Penny

• Gold, silver, timber

• copper, lead, borax

Lumber• Washington, Oregon, Cali.• Used for mine tunnels & houses• Douglas Firs 8-10 ft., Redwoods 20-

30 ft. thick• log drive: floating logs downstream

to a lumber mill• output increased 500% w/ tech.

Alaska-Final Frontier• 1867: bought for 2 cents per acre from

Russia

• William Seward

• 1880’s gold strike

• 1896 Klondike gold strike

• Mink, beaver, sable furs, copper, coal, timber, fish

Twice the size of Texas!!

Impact of the Frontier• Turner Thesis - the western frontier helped

distinguish America from Europe

• dime novels: cheap fiction books from popular post-Civil War authors

• Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show

• 1916 - National Park Service: created & established Yellowstone & Niagara Falls