Western Expansion Intro
Define Transcontinental Railroad and the Homestead Act.
- Railroad that linked the Atlantic and Pacific coast.
-The Homestead Act offered farmers 160 acres of public land in the West for free. Must be 21 years of age and work on the land for five years.
What are subsidies? The U.S. Government gave the Railroad companies subsidies in the form of what?
Incentives/Land
Most of the miners who flocked to the west for the California Gold rush became wealthy. True or False?
False. Most individual prospectors failed to find anything and those that did often eventually sold their claims to large corporations who could dig deep mines with heavy machinery and hire cheap immigrant labor.
Roughly what fraction of American land was owned by the indigenous population in 1850?
50%
Define assimilation
the process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society.
Why did people think that it would be difficult or impossible to farm in the Great Plains? Five reasons.
-Few tress grow in the GP leaving little lumber for building homes and fences
-The soil is tough making it difficult to farm
-Extreme climate (Blizzards, heat waves, high winds)
-15 million buffalo that could trample crops
-Threat of Native American attacks
-Swarms of grasshoppers that would devour everything in the path.
-Believed that land was worthless for farming although GP's holds incredibly fertile soil today.
-Called "Great American Desert"
Name one agricultural advancement
- The mechanical reaper allowed farmers to efficiently harvest large farms
-Steel Plow... Old iron plows struggled to cut through the prairie grasses and soil stuck to its sides. The new steal plow solved both of these problems.
The mining booms especially attracted immigrants from what country?
China
Name two factors that led to the loss of Native American lands
-The Homestead Act
-The Mining booms
-Transcontinental RR
-Oklahoma Land Rush
-Destruction of Buffalo
How did Americans mainly assimilate Native Americans into society?
-Schools
-Children were immersed in white culture and were forced to trim their long hair and speak English.
"Kill the Indian and save the man" said Richard H. Pratt, the army officer who founded the Carlisle school.
Define Manifest Destiny
The belief that God wanted the U.S. to expand its control and culture all the way to the Pacific.
Define Factory Farms
Farms that mass produced crops
Example: One such factory farm in the Dakota Territory cultivated 25,000 acres of wheat, used 200 harrows (large plows dragged by teams of horses), 125 seeding machines, and 155 mechanical reapers and binders to plant and harvest its crops.
Define Nativism
Those who oppose immigration
What treaty put the Great Plain Native Americans (Sioux) on two reservations?
How did western settlement affect Native Americans?
-Displaced them from their land
-forced to engage in battle to protect their land
-forced to assimilate into American culture
Explain the economic effect of the railroads
The railroads brought thousands of workers to the West. Trains carried raw materials like metals and produce east and manufactured goods west. As more tracks were laid, more steel was needed, and the demand boosted the nation’s steel industry.
Explain how factory farms hurt small farmers
The large factory-farms, were producing more crops than Americans could consume. Prices for crops began to fall because of this. Small farmers simply could not produce enough to make a profit with prices so low.
What was the Chinese Exclusion Act?
Banned Chinese individuals from entering America
Gold was discovered on what reservation? How did this spark conflict between the indigenous population (Sioux) and the U.S.?
-Black Hills of the Dakota Indian Reservation
-Thousands of miners had invaded the area, forcing Native Americans to once again fight for their land.
What was the Dawes Severalty Act
The Dawes Act divided lands into small plots for distribution among members of the tribe.
Railroad companies began to promote the Great Plains to encourage further settlement. Companies went to great lengths to advertise the Plains to what group of countries?
Scandinavia.
-In 1882 alone more than 105,000 Swedes and Norwegians settled in the northern Plains, Minnesota and the Dakotas, where the Scandinavian influence remains strong today.
How might have factory farms benefited the United States?
-Factory workers could pay less for food
According to Nativist, why is Chinese immigration detrimental to American families?
-can work low wages
-can live clumped up in a small space
-can survive off eating rats
According to Nativist, Chinese men need little to survive while Americans need to provide for their family, pay rent, and essentially make a decent livable wage. To nativist, Chinese immigration = cheap labor= competition.
What are Ghost Dances?
A set of dances and rituals that indigenous individuals believed would bring back Native American land and cause the whites to disappear.
Who was the leader of the Sioux tribe?
Sitting bull