Development of the West in the Late Nineteenth Century

Amber Parness, Ann Pham, & Daniel Ruiz

Expansion & Development of Western Railroads

● Although costly building of the transcontinental railroad required government assistance, its completion would physically unite the West and the Union as well as facilitate a flourishing trade with Asia. Industrial companies would partake in the profitable railroad business by hiring Irish Paddies to build the tracks and fight off hostile Indian attacks. By penetrating environmental barriers, the railroads paved way for the development of flourishing cities on the West Coast.

● The railroads created an enormous domestic market for American raw materials and manufactured goods. It stimulated industrialization, mining, agriculture, and immigration. The railroad business gave opportunities for ambitious individuals to become millionaires, though later corruption and bankruptcies emerged in this competitive and ruthless industry.

Competitors for the West

● Miners: The movement of the miners to the West was stimulated by the diminishing threat of Indians to westward expansion, the railroads, and the gold strikes found in California, Colorado, Nevada, etc. Enticed by the riches of the West, masses of people traveled westward. Once the surface gold was gone, the process of mining would eventually transition into the machinery of business that would lead the once “independent gold washer into another day laborer”.

● Native Americans: The Native population in the Midwest during the 1860s numbered around 360,000. Numerous tribes roamed the Great Plains, and heavily depended on the buffalo as a main resource of surviving. The westward movement of the eastern whites was mainly motivated by the Homestead Act that promoted Western settlement by providing land.

Competitors for the West The expanding whites, as well as the expanding railroad, created tension between the Indians and whites.This head on collision would lead to constant conflicts over violated land treaties with such battles as Wounded Knee (which served as the last armed resistance of the Indians to the gov’t), repression of the natives’ culture by trying to outlaw the Ghost Dance, and eventually integration under the Dawes Act which forced assimilation as well as the movement of tribes to reservations.●Homesteaders: The unemployed, who cluttered around in the city, headed West to become a farmer or a miner and hopefully gain some of the riches of the West. However, the largest proportion of settlers came from the Old Frontier. Most migrants were unskilled farmers lured in by the Homestead Act to find and claim the free land that that was abundantly free.

Competitors for the WestThe land at first was thought to be sterile and uninhabitable up until it was ploughed to a fertile soil which could actually be farmed on.●Ranchers: The massive Great Plains supported the longhorn cattle and along with the newly introduced railroad system, the birth of the meat packing industry as well as the cowboy emerged. The railroad solved the age old problem of slow meat transportation, and the cowboy served to transport it to the train terminals (Long Drive). The Long Drive was very successful up until settlers fenced off territories which interfered with traffic of cattle. The rancher would later adapt from the rough cowboy to a breeder with his own fenced off territory and later also organize (Wyoming Stock Growers Association).

Government Policy Toward American Indians

● In 1881, Helen Hunt Jackson’s A Century of Dishonor chronicled government ruthlessness in dealing with the Indians, thus catalyzing the drive to treat the Indians kindly and persuade them to “walk the white man’s road.” In 1884, Christian reformers persuaded the government to outlaw the sacred Sun Dance, triggering the development of the “Ghost Dance” which was also stamped out in 1890 at Wounded Knee.

● The offspring of this movement to reform Indian policy was the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 which dissolved many tribes as legal entities, wiped out tribal ownership of land, and set up individual Indian family heads with 160 free acres (if they behaved themselves like “good white settlers”) that they would obtain, along with citizenship, in 25 years. By 1900, Indians had lost half of the 156 million acres they had held two decades earlier.

Gender, Race, and Ethnicity in the Far West

● Due to available railroad employments, Asian-American laborers such as the Chinese emerged in the West. Some ten thousand Chinese laborers proved to be cheap, efficient, and expendable. Their qualities were a threat to the new immigrants, especially Irish laborers, who came from southern and eastern Europe in the 1880s. They influenced the gov’t to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 to restrict inflow of Chinese immigrants. Faced with discrimination, the Chinese established China towns to initially live peacefully, but they later influenced U.S. culture.

● In the West, the “Anglo” culture collided directly with Hispanic culture. African Americans, who moved West for railroad jobs, and the Native Americans that remained added ethnic diversity to the West. Women also enjoyed more rights as the Western states of Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming all allowed women suffrage in the late 19th century.

Environmental Impacts of Western Settlement

● By hunting and by grazing their own livestock on the prairie grasses, whites were steadily shrinking the sacred Great Plains bison population. Then, with the development of the railroad, the massacre of herds began. Texas cowboys - in what was known as the Long Drive - drove herds slowly over the plains until they reached a railroad terminal. By 1885, fewer than a thousand buffalo were left.

● In 1859, the Comstock Lode of Nevada had been discovered; silver and gold, worth more than $340 million, was mined from 1860 to 1890. As a result, Nevada was “railroaded” into the Union in 1864. Gradually, as loose surface gold ran out, the age of big business came to the mining industry.

AP QuestionsThe Dawes Severalty Act of 1887:

A.made all Indians American citizens B.established new reservations for the tribes of the northern plains. C. acknowledged the failure of the reservation system. D. established refuges for the nearly extinct bison. E.forced Indian children to go to state-run boarding schools.

AP Questions

Answer: C

The Dawes Act acknowledged the failure of the reservation system.

AP QuestionsThe massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 was the:

A.result of gold being discovered in the Utah territoryB.work of Geronimo and his Apache bands in the SouthwestC.beginning of a decade of Indian wars in the WestD.last armed resistance by Native Americans towards the U.S. governmentE.final battle fought by the Nez Perce under Chief Joseph

AP Questions

Answer: D

Wounded Knee marked the last armed resistance by Native Americans towards the

U.S. government.