Trade
Before railroads, most trade in Texas was done using this slow method of land transportation.
What are wagons (or ox carts)?
Railroads helped grow the Texas economy by creating more of these opportunities for workers.
What are jobs?
Railroads had this effect on Texas land, cutting through forests, prairies, and rivers.
What is land destruction (or changing the natural landscape)?
This invention allowed trains to travel faster and farther, replacing horse-drawn carts.
What is the steam engine?
Railroads had this immediate effect on Texas agriculture by allowing farmers to easily send crops to distant markets.
What is increased access to markets?
The arrival of railroads allowed Texas farmers to send crops to this type of distant market for higher profits.
What are out-of-state markets?
This industry, which involved raising animals for meat, grew rapidly in Texas thanks to railroads.
What is the cattle industry?
Railroads often caused the decline of this important animal species, which Native Americans depended on.
What are buffalo (or bison)?
Instead of iron, railroads later used this stronger metal to make tracks more durable.
What is steel?
The expansion of railroads led to the growth of these urban centers in Texas, turning them into important commercial hubs.
What are cities (e.g., Dallas, Houston, San Antonio)?
By the late 1800s, this port city in Texas became a major hub where railroad goods could be shipped by sea.
What is Galveston?
Railroads encouraged the growth of these types of small towns, often built near train stops.
What are boomtowns (or railroad towns)?
Building railroads often led to the overuse of this important natural resource needed for steam engines.
What is water?
This device, invented in the 1800s, allowed railroad companies to communicate quickly across long distances.
What is the telegraph?
This was one major social change caused by railroads in Texas, as people could now travel more quickly and cheaply across the state.
What is increased migration (or population movement)?
The railroads connected Texas to this national trade route that spanned from the South to the North.
What is the Transcontinental Railroad (or northern rail lines)?
The expansion of railroads shifted Texas’s economy from mostly subsistence farming to this more modern type of economic system.
What is a market-based (or commercial) economy?
Explain one way railroad expansion changed farming practices in Texas.
What is: Railroads encouraged more farming on previously untouched land, leading to soil depletion and erosion?
Trains were able to carry more cargo after the invention of this important car, designed to keep goods at low temperatures.
What is the refrigerated railcar (or refrigerator car)?
The rise of railroads contributed to the rapid industrialization of Texas, specifically boosting the production of this resource that fueled factories.
What is coal?
Explain how the railroad's ability to transport goods faster and in larger quantities changed the supply-and-demand relationship for Texas goods.
What is: It increased the supply of Texas goods in distant markets, which could lower prices but also increased demand due to better access, helping Texas grow economically?
Explain one way in which railroads created economic inequality in Texas during the late 1800s.
What is: Railroad companies sometimes gave better shipping rates to large businesses, making it harder for small farmers or merchants to compete?
Railroads created long-term environmental damage by encouraging industries like these two, which cut down forests and dug into the earth.
What are logging and mining?
Explain how the introduction of standardized time zones in the U.S. was connected to the expansion of railroads.
What is: Railroads needed standardized times to safely schedule trains across long distances, leading to the creation of official time zones in 1883?
Railroads had a significant environmental impact on Texas, particularly through the destruction of this type of ecosystem as tracks were laid through prairies and forests.
What are grasslands (or native habitats)?