Download - Modernizing America
Modernizing America
From the Wild West to the Big City1860 – 1920
The American West
The Second Industrial Revolution
Life at the Turn of the Century
Go West!
Why?
Sioux
Cheyenne
Nez Perce
Apache
Whites
U.S. Policy
• From forced removal (Jackson 1830)
• To forced relocation to reservations
• and then…
Conflict
• Culture– Nomad lifestyle of Plains Indians– Land should not be owned
• Buffalo– Center of Indians life
• Use everything for life– Whites herd them and kill for hides and sport
War
• Sandy Creek Massacre– 150 women and children
• Battle of Little Big Horn– Sitting Bull defeats Custer
• Wounded Knee
Sitting Bull and George Custer
Native American Warriors
Wounded Knee• Custer’s old cavalry slaughters Sioux tribe
while doing Ghost Dance. Marched them freezing to camp. Shot fired; 300 dead.
• END of Indian wars.
U.S. Policy
• From forced removal (Jackson 1830)
• To forced relocation to reservations
• and then…assimilation
Laws
• Dawes Act– End Reservation system– Make Indians land owners– 160 acres to head of family– 80 to single over 18
Mining and Ranching
Wild Wild West
Cowboys
• Herded Texas longhorns up to Great Plains. Loaded on a train to be shipped to Chicago.
WHY?
• Growing demand for beef in the East because cities expanding.
Cowboys and Wild West
• Dodge City, KS• Tombstone, AZ
• Billy the Kid• Doc Holliday • Wyatt Earp • Buffalo Bill
Immortalizing the West
• E.Z. Judson writer or “dime novels”• Iconized the “wild west”
End of the Cowboy
• Barbed wire• Refrigerated railcar
Railroads
• Railroads open the west
• Irish and Chinese immigrants primary labor
• Transcontinental railroad connects a Promontory Point, Utah
Big Business of Railroads• 1865 - 35,000 miles of track• 1900 – 193,000 miles of track • Greatest impact on America Economy
– National market– Mass consumption – production – Specialization– New industries – Connects east and west– Encourages travel
Railroads Companies
• B & O • Pennsylvania (Reading) • New York
• Make rails compatible• Consolidate competition
Questions
• Who should own the railroads?
• Private businessmen or the government?
Railroad Politics
• Corrupt Railroads– Consolidated rails price, gouged and took
bribes.
– Small farmers were charged high rates
– Big farmers paid bribes
Farming Problems
Life on the Great Plains
• Exodusters-black settlers.
• Soddy- house made out of grass and sod.
Changes in Farming
• Commercialization– Small farmer driven out of business– Buy household goods
• Sears and Roebuck catalogs
• Specialization– Concentrate on one large cash crop
Farming is Big Business
• Bonanza farms-large farms – Hurt smaller farms – Can’t compete.
Prices hurt Farmers
• Machinery expensive-took out loans.• Household good go up.• Railroads raise rates
• Prices for crops began to fall 1870’s.
Wheat Corn– 1867 $2.00 $.78– 1889 .70 .23
Farmers Organize
• Form the Farmer’s Alliances-– educate farmers and lobby the gov’t.
• National Grange Movement – Oliver H. Kelly – Political Actions – Granger Laws passed in states
• Control railroad “short haul” rates
States can regulate “short haul” or inside state hauling but what
about across state lines?
Laws
• Interstate Commerce Act– Sets up ICC that could investigate and penalize
“Unreasonable and unjust” rates or any discriminatory practices by railroads.
• List and explain 2 ways the railroads impacted the U.S. Economy?
• List and explain 2 ways farming changed and the problems farmers face