APUSH II: Unit 1Chapter 18: Conquest and Survival of

the West, 1860 - 1900Essential Question:

What economic, political, & migratory factors led to the end of the western

frontier by 1890?

What is the “West”?

For each era, define what the “West” was & what role the West played in American life:

(a)1750

(b)1800

(c)1850

A SMALL REVIEWAmerican Expansion & Manifest Destiny

Trends in Antebellum America: 1800-1860

1. Greater democracy & the return of the two-party system

2. Emergence of a national market economy3. Increase in federal power4. New intellectual & religious movements5. Social reforms6. Further westward expansion

Trends in the Gilded Age: 1865 - 1900

1. Political and Business Corruption2. Growth of the National Market Economy3. The Railroad and the Second Industrial

Revolution4. New Grassroots Movements5. Social reforms6. The Concurring of the West

Manifest Destiny

• The spread of settlers beyond U.S. borders led to widespread calls for annexation of newly-settled lands

• The term “Manifest Destiny” was 1st used in 1845 by newspaper editor John O’Sullivan, who said:– God wants the USA (“His chosen nation”) to

become stronger– Expansion of American democracy & economic

opportunities were a good thing

“American Progress” by John

Gast, 1872

“American Progress” by John

Gast, 1872

The Oregon Trail – Albert Bierstadt, 1869

The Oregon Trail – Albert Bierstadt, 1869

THE IMPACT OF THE CIVIL WAR1865

The “New South”?

“Jim Crow” reigned supreme as whites legally segregated the South into 2 distinct societies

Few significant economic or political changes in the South took place until

the 1940s

America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900

The NorthThe North:Experienced a “2nd Industrial Revolution,”

mass immigration, & urbanization

America in the Gilded Age: 1870-1900

The WestThe West:Manifest Destiny

continued after 1865 as miners homesteaders,

& ranchers headed West

Effects of the War• Political changes:

–With no Southern opposition, Republicans passed new laws the often favored Northern industry and trade with the lucrative west: Morrill Tariff (1861), Homestead Act (1862), Morrill Act (1862), Pacific Railroad Act (1862), & Legal Tender Act (1862) and National Bank Act (1863), ie “Greenbacks”

INDIAN PEOPLES UNDER SEIGE

Section 1

The Plains Indians In 1865, 2/3 of all Indians lived on the Great Plains

Tribes of several 1,000 people were subdivided into bands of 100s which made it difficult for the U.S. to negotiate treaties

Their culture was dependent

upon the buffalo & the horse

Searching for an Indian Policy• Before the Civil War, the West was

“one big reservation”–The Indian Intercourse Act (1834)

forbade whites from entering “Indian country” without a license

Searching for an Indian Policy• But…rapid Western expansion in the

1850s brought a new Indian “concentration policy” with distinct boundaries for each tribe “as long as the waters run and grass grows”

Searching for an Indian Policy• Concentration did not last as whites ignored

these boundaries:– Sand Creek Massacre (1864)—Col John

Chivington attacked 700 sleeping Indians in CO after a peace agreement was signed

– Sioux War (1865-1867)—gold miners wanted a Bozeman Trail (across Sioux hunting grounds) to connect mining towns; Sioux murdered 88 U.S. soldiers

Buffalo Soldiers

- Civil Wars Vets-Following the tradition of raising all black regiments in the north during the Civil War, the “Buffalo Soldiers” US 10th Calvary Regiment was formed in 1866 as the first peacetime, all-black regiment-Participated in many of the Indian Wars as well as serving to protect the US Mail Service over hostile territory-Went on to serve in the Spanish American War (Battle of San Juan Hill) and WWI

THE INTERNAL EMPIRESection 2

The Mining Bonanza• Mining was the 1st magnet to attract settlers to

the West• CA (1849) started the gold rush, but strikes in

Pikes Peak, CO & Carson River Valley, NV (1859) set off wild migrations to the West:– Comstock Lode = $306 million– John Mackay’s Big Bonanza made him richest man

in world

Mining Regions of the West

Discoveries of gold & silver led to overnight mining towns

Individual “placer miners”placer miners” took little skill or money to start, but could not reach deep lodes

Corporations had the expensive machinery (“hydraulic mining techniques”) to extract

most of the gold in the West

Mining Bonanza• ¼ to ½ of the mining population

was foreign born:– Latin American miners

brought experience & new techniques

– Chinese brought a tireless ethic

• Led to hostility & riots:– Foreign Miners’ Act in 1852

charged a monthly mining fee

Immigration Control

Burlingame Treaty (1868)

Exclusion Act (1882)

• established friendly relations with China

• granted China “most Favored Nation” status

• encouraged Chinese immigration

• allowed congress to suspend Chinese immigration

• Chinese immigrants were permanent aliens

• Originally intended to only be used for 10 years– Not repealed until 1943– Excluded Chinese from

marrying Whites

Exodusters

• Exodusters were black farmers who moved West to escape Southern crop liens & Jim Crow Laws

• Led by Benjamin “Pap” Singleton• 1878: 6,000 African Americans fled to Kansas

– 1879: 15,000

CALIFORNIASutter’s Mill and the 49ers

The California Gold Rush

• The discovery of gold in 1848 led to a massive influx of prospectors in 1849 (the “forty-niners”):– Few miners struck it rich– The real money made in CA was in

supplying miners with food, saloons, & provisions

– The gold rush led to a population boom, increase in agriculture, & multicultural Californian society

Gold Rush

• 1848 - James Marshall at Sutter Mill

• Most Americans did not start traveling west until 1849…hence the name “49ers”

San Francisco before the gold rush

San Francisco after the gold rush

THE OPEN RANGESection 3

The Cattle

Bonanza

In the 1860s, cattle ranching boomed

Ranchers used the

“open range” to graze

longhornsBy 1867, ranchers started using trains to ship cattle to Chicago

Cattle and the West

•Birth of ‘cow towns’ across the west•Abilene, Dodge City, Kansas City

The Cattle Bonanza• ½ of all cowboys were

black & ¼ were Mexican

• By 1880, the “open range” was ending:– Wheat growers,

homesteaders, & barbed wire blocked the range

– Many switched to raising sheep

Community and Conflict

• Personal violence was commonplace in the cattle towns and mining camps.

• Horse theft rose rapidly during the peak years of the cattle drives.

• During the 1870s, range wars turned violent when farmers, sheep ranchers, and cattle ranchers battled over the same land.

• By the mid-1880s the cattle business went bust. – Overstocking led to herds depleting sparse grasslands. – Bad weather from 1885 to 1887 killed 90 percent of

western cattle, and prices plummeted.

Cowboys•Originated in Mexico (where cowboy tools came from)•Former slaves used skills from plantation to be good cowboys•End of the open range and refrigerated train ended practical cowboys by 1886

FARMING COMMUNITIES ON THE PLAINS

Section 4

The Farming Bonanza• The U.S. gov’t offered incentives for farmers

to settle the West:– Homestead Act (1862)—gave 160 acres of land if

families pledged to live there for 5 years– Other gov’t acts helped develop western lands by

planting trees & building irrigation systems– Due to land grants, RRs were the largest western

landowners

Work, Dawn to Dusk

• Farm families survived and prospered through hard work.– Men’s work tended to be seasonal.– Women’s activities were usually more routine.– Children worked running errands and completing chores

by about age nine.• Community was an important part of life.

– People depended on neighbors for help in times of need and for a break from the hard work and harsh climate.

• The barter system developed due to lack of cash.

Women in the West

• Few women worked on the open range.• Some 50,000 women worked as prostitutes

in the West during the second half of the nineteenth century. – There were few jobs for women and many

resorted to prostitution simply to pay the bills.• Their life was quite harsh and seldom paid

well.

Soddies

• In 1887, Lizzie Chrisman filed the first homestead claim in Nebraska

• "Soddies" were constructed of stacked layers of cut prairie turf, fortified by a thick network of roots

• The roofs, often supported by timber, were usually covered with more sod, straw, and small branches

The Farming Bonanza• In 1870, homesteaders pushed West &

adapted to the harsh farming conditions:–Farmers used dry farming techniques

& planted tougher varieties of wheat –New machinery sped harvesting &

planting; led to bonanza farms–By 1890, the U.S. became a major crop

exporter

Range Wars

• Reduced access to grassland• Ethnic and religious prejudice toward

Mexican-American, Basque and Mormon shepherds

• 1883-84 Fence-Cutter’s War

Rails Across the Continent• In 1862, Congress authorized the

transcontinental railroad:– Union Pacific worked westward from

Nebraska (Irish laborers)– Central Pacific worked eastward from CA

(Chinese immigrants)– May 10, 1869 the 2 tracks met at

Promontory Point in Utah• By 1900, 4 more lines were built to the Pacific

Rails Across the Continent

• Railroads held great power in developing and settling the West.– Railroads delivered crops and cattle to eastern markets and

brought back goods.• Railroads put communities “on the map.”

– Railroads in the West preceded settlement.– Towns along the railroad lines flourished.

1st transcontinentaltranscontinental railroad connected the west coast to eastern cities in 1869

Chinese workers made up a large percentage of laborers

on the western leg

Irish workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the eastern section

The End of the ‘West’• By 1890 the Frontier was gone

– 1880s had seen a severe drought, a harsh winter, and the enclosure of the cattle routes

– 1896: The Klondike Gold Rush opened a new frontier in Alaska

• The heyday of the “Wild West” was actually a short lived period in American history

• Turner’s Frontier Thesis– Turner’s “rugged individualism” became the

prevailing view

THE WORLD’S BREADBASKET Section 5

New Production Technologies

• Preparing western lands for cultivation was a difficult process because of the tough sod.

• New technologies greatly increased the amount of land that could be farmed– Development of the Combine – combined the reeper

and the harvester• Through federal aid, land-grant colleges, and

other sources of scientific research, farmers developed new techniques for cultivation.

Timber Cultures Act, 1873

• Supplement the Homestead Act

• 160 additional acres for $30

• 40 acres must be planted with trees

• Environmental Planning

National Reclamation Act, 1902

• aka Newland Act• Build dams to create

irrigation for farmland in the West

• (Signed into law by Roosevelt)

The Toll on the Land

• Farmers destroyed existed plant and animal species and introduced new ones.

• Replacing buffalo with cattle and sheep, introduced animals that ate grasses down to the roots and created the possibilities of huge dust storms.

• Commercial agriculture took a heavy toll on existing water supplies.

• The federal government created the Forest Service to safeguard watersheds.

Competition

• The high cost of improving land let many farmers to be in debt for decades despite the low initial land costs

• Western farmers increasingly saw themselves at odds with Eastern manufacturers and railroad tycoons

THE WESTERN LANDSCAPE Section 6

Nature's Majesty

• Writers described in great detail the wonder of nature’s majesty in the West.

• The federal government created national parks in 1871, and sent a team of scientists and photographers to record the region’s beauty.

• Landscape painters from the Rocky Mountain School piqued the public’s interest in the West.

The Legendary Wild West

• More popular presentations emphasized the West as a source of “vigorous manhood.”

• Thousands of “dime novels” appeared that portrayed the region in romantic, heroic terms.

• Wild West show promoters like “Buffalo Bill” Cody brought the legendary West to millions of people around the world.

The “American Primitive”

• The West continued to captivate American imagination. – The public sought depictions of bold cowboys and exotic savages.

• Charles Schreyvogel, Charles Russell, and Frederic Remington helped to shape Americans’ perception of the region.

• Scholars like Alice Cunningham Fletcher studied Indians and began to develop a scientific understanding of their lives.

• The Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts incorporated a large dose of tribal lore into their character-building programs.

TRANSFORMATION OF INDIAN SOCIETIES

Section 7

Reform Policy and Politics

• The federal government’s tradition of treating Indian tribes as separate nations ended in 1871.

• Reformers like Helen Hunt Jackson advocated policies designed to promote Indian assimilation and eradicate distinct tribal customs.

• The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was a disaster for most Indians and undermined tribal sovereignty. – Individuals were granted land if they chose to sever from their

tribes.– Indian religions and sacred ceremonies were banned along

with the telling of Indian myths.– “Indian schools” forbade Indian clothing styles, language, and

even hair fashions.

The Ghost Dance

• A Paiute prophet, Wovoka, had a vision that a divine judgment was coming and led the Sioux to practice the Ghost Dance. – White authorities grew fearful and demanded an

end to the practice.

• An incident led whites to gun down 200 people at Wounded Knee.

Searching for an Indian Policy• In 1867, the U.S. formed the Indian

Peace Commission :– Ended Bozeman Trail plans – Made “small reservations” in the

Dakota & Oklahoma territories• Few Native Americans settled into these

reservations peacefully:– Red River War (1874)– Little Big Horn (1876)– Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)The discovery of gold in South Dakota

led a Sioux army of 2,500 to ambush & kill Lt Col Custer & his 197 soldiers

Indian Wars• Battle of Litter Bighorn (1876): The discovery of

gold in South Dakota led a Sioux army of 2,500 to ambush & kill Lt Col Custer & his 197 soldiers– “Custer’s Last Stand” set off demands for revenge

among Americans• Wounded Knee (1890): The U.S. army was

ordered to stop Sioux “ghost dances” & machine gunned 200 men, women, & children

• Black soldiers in the U.S. army called “buffalo soldiers” were used to fend off Indian attacks in the West

The End of Tribal Life• In 1871, the U.S. adopted its 4th Indian

policy: Assimilation –U.S. citizenship was offered to all

Indians who farmed, lived away from their tribe & “adopted the habits of civilized life”

–Dawes Severalty Act in 1887 offered farms (160 acres to families & 80 to men) & the protection of U.S. laws

The End of Tribal Life• The final blow to Indian culture came

with annihilation of buffalo:–Began with the construction of the

transcontinental RR in 1860s–From 1872 to 1874, 3 million

buffalo were killed each year

The Final Fling• In 1889, Congress responded to demands to

open the Oklahoma Territory to white settlement

• On April 22, 1889, about 100,000 “Boomers” & “Sooners” flooded into the last “Indian land”– White migrants claimed 2 million acres in

Oklahoma homesteads– Moved out Creeks & Seminoles

Lands Lost by Native Americans (1894)Indian Reservations TodayIndian Reservations Today

Conclusions: The End of the Frontier • By 1890, the western frontier ended

–Miners, ranchers, & cowboys flooded West at the expense of Indians who were restricted to smaller & smaller reservations

–Westerners were commercially connected to Eastern markets but would grow increasingly frustrated by the economic & political concentration of power in the East

CONCLUSIONS

The Myth of the Wild West

Horatio Alger• 1987 FRQ #4: “Popular

fascination with the cowboy, the pioneer, and the stories of Horatio Alger in the period 1870-1915 reflected Americans’ uneasiness over the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society.” Assess the validity of this statement.

Frederick Jackson Turner• The Significance of the

Frontier in American History• Frontier Thesis• Spirit and success of the US

was tied to westward expansion

• Evolutionary Model• Unique and Rugged

American identity• American Exceptionalism?

The Costs of Expansion

• The impact of territorial expansion:– Historian Fredrick Jackson Turner noted in

the 1890s that expansion shaped Americans into an adventurous, optimistic, & democratic people

– But, expansion created sectional conflicts between the North & South, especially over slavery

• Essential Question:–What economic, political, &

migratory factors led to the end of the western frontier by 1890?