MOVING WESTAmerica Grows

Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny was the 19th century American belief that the United States was destined to expand across the continent.

The concept of Manifest Destiny, coined by a newspaper editor, justified American expansion across the continent.

Manifest Destiny was a phrase that meant that expansion across the American continent, specifically by the white race, was both obvious and inevitable.

Expanding Frontiers

In April 1889, the US government gave away almost 2 million acres of land it had purchased from evicted Creek and Seminole Indians.

Over 50,000 men, women and children participated in the rush.

The land was free but they would have to homestead it to keep it. Settle on the land for a number of years before they owned it

The success of this rush lead the government to open more land in the west to the eager settlers, and after 1900 thousands descended on what had formerly been Indian land.

Westward expansion had begun in earnest.

Farmers, Ranchers and Miners Go West!

As the Midwestern land filled up settlers looked to the Great Plains.

The transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 and the railroad companies encouraged farmers to buy some of their land holdings.

American Indians were pushed off their lands as settlers moved west.

Homestead Act 1862

Homestead Act of 1862 awarded 160 acres of public land free to any settler who would farm the land for at least 5 years.

Passed by Republican Congress and signed by Pres. Lincoln. It was repealed in 1976.

Person who was head of a family or 21 years old and citizen of the US or had petitioned to become a citizen Could claim 160 acres of public land And would receive patent (title, deed) if the claimant lived on the

land 6mo/yr for 5 years and improved the land. Homesteader could buy the land at $1.25 per acre

Majority of homesteaders in latter 1800s came from rural Midwest. 2ndwave dominated by immigrants from Sweden, Norway, Germany, Denmark and Ireland.

Through the 1880s 2 out of 3 of the Homesteaders would fail.

Cattle Frontier

Eastern side of the Great Plains had enough rainfall to grow grain crops.

Settlers used the dryer western lands of the Plains for cattle grazing.

Cattle were fattened on the range, driven to market, sold to packers and sent east to feed beef hungry city dwellers.

Profits from cattle ranching could be enormous.

The cattle “kingdom” flourished for twenty years after the Civil War until a drought and an oversupply of cattle in the late 1880s forced beef prices down.

Minerals and Forests

West of the Great Plains people sought their fortune from the vast mineral and forest resources of the far west.

Gold and silver found here provided much of the money for the industrializing country.

Most gold was mined by large companies. They were in pursuit of gold, silver, lead, copper, tin, and zinc.

They built railroads, brought in heavy machinery and employed armies of miners.

Mining in the West-later 1880s Mineral deposits (mining ) was important to the

growth of the U.S. Sparked westward movement of population Led to creation of new states Gold and silver added to nation’s money supply Provided capital for industrial growth Metals for industry (esp. copper)

Important mining regions California (Dec 1848) the “49ers” Colorado, Idaho, Montana Nevada Comstock Lode

(1/2 U. S. silver)

West Coast

Gold in California proved to be less valuable than the ground itself.

Farmland turned out to be California’s greatest asset.

By 1862 California produced a surplus of some crops.

Enterprising settlers turned California into a “gold mine” for farming.

Building the Railroad In the early 1860s the federal government proposed a

railroad that would cross the United States. It began with the Pacific Railroad Act in 1862.

Union Pacific railroad would lay track westward from near Omaha, Nebraska

Central Pacific Railroad would lay track eastward from Sacramento, Ca.

They were to meet in Utah. It became a race between the two companies. May 10, 1869 they met at Promontory , Utah. A gold spike was driven to connect the two rails. A telegraph was sent to inform the nation, “It is done!” By the end of the 1800s four more transcontinental rail

lines crossed the U.S. Passengers and freight began to cross the nation

Why take on building the railroad?

In addition to government loans, the railroad companies received large land grants, 20 sq. miles for every 1 mile of track laid.

Railroad barons made fortunes selling this land to settlers.

Money was also to be had as Americans took to the rails.

The railroad transformed the nation from a country of individual localities to a united nation.

Railroads Face Problems

They needed armies of laborers. Rail lines had to cross mountain ranges,

empty plains, and raging rivers. Crews suffered many injuries and deaths. Finding enough workers was a challenge. Railroads

began to not only hire Chinese immigrants but actually import them from China. These immigrants were willing to work in terrible conditions

for less pay than others in order to get to the U.S. Also showing a heavy presence among rail road workers

were Irish American immigrants desperate for jobs. There were conflicts with farmers, ranchers and Indians. In spite of the problems, the railroads continued.

Opportunities and Opportunists

Growth of the railroad changed Americans’ concepts of time and space as well as industry and business.

Iron, coal, steel, lumber and glass industries grew rapidly as they tried to keep pace with the railroads’ demand for materials and parts.

Rapid spread of rail lines also fostered the growth of towns, helped establish new markets and offered rich opportunities for both visionaries and profiteers.

With railroads selling off the land subsidies provided by government to settlers, it caused people to settle fairly close to railroad lines.

New Towns and Markets

Railroads promoted trade and interdependence among the towns and cities that it connected.

Individual towns began to specialize in particular products.

These cities prospered by selling mass quantities of their products to the entire country.

New towns and communities also grew up along the railroad lines.

Effects of Railroads

Lowered the cost of moving farm and factory goods Farm goods to city factory goods to farms

More people moved to the plains The value of land near the RR went up New towns were created along the RR National markets were created RR operated year round. Roads and canal froze over. RR pressured Congress to create standard time zones. Pine forests were depleted. Wood was needed for crossties and

bridges/trestles RR disrupted the migration of bison herds RR encouraged the slaughter of bison

Food, sport, nuisance RR were controlled by powerful businessmen who could influence other

industries by the rates they charged The locomotive became an “icon” of American western expansion.

Credit Mobilier 1864

One of the most infamous schemes of corruption connected with the railroads.

Stockholders in the Union Pacific Railroad formed a construction company called Credit Mobilier that enabled them to skim off railroad money for themselves.

They gave the company a contract to lay track at two to three times the actual cost and kept the profits.

To prevent government meddling, they donated shares of stock to about 20 representatives in Congress.

After a New York reporter uncovered the scam, a congressional investigation was launched.

It found that the officers of the Union Pacific had pocketed up to $23 million in stocks, bonds and cash.

Even though this occurred before Grant’s administration it tarnished his and the Republican Party’s reputation because it was exposed then.

Grangers vs. Railroad Farmers, called grangers, were anger with

the railroads for many reasons, and the Mobilier scandal just made the angrier.

Reasons they were so upset: Misuse of government land grants, which the

railroads sold to other business rather than settlers as the government had intended.

The railroad entered into formal agreements to fix prices and keep farmers in their debt.

They charged different customers different rates, often demanding more for short hauls, for which there was no alternative carrier.

Granger Laws In response to the abuses by the railroad the

Granges turned to political action. They sponsored state and local political

candidates, elected legislators and pressed for laws to protect their interests.

The Granger Laws were a series of laws passed in several Midwestern states of the United States, namely Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, in the late 1860s and early 1870s.

The main goal of the Grange was to regulate rising fare prices of railroad and grain elevator companies after the American Civil War.

Supreme Court and Granger Laws

The laws, which upset major railroad companies, were a topic of much debate at the time and ended up leading to several important court cases, such as Munn v. Illinois .

The Munn case allowed states to regulate certain businesses within their borders, including railroads, and is commonly regarded as a milestone in the growth of federal government regulation.

Interstate Commerce Act

The victory for the Grangers’ was short lived. In 1886, the Supreme Court ruled that a state could not set rates

on interstate commerce-(railroad traffic that either came from or was going to another state.)

In response to public outrage, the court passed the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. Declared that rates that railroads charged must be “reasonable and

just”; it forbade pooling, rebates, and higher rates for short rather than long hauls.

Railroads had to publish rates, give advance notice of all rate changes, and make annual financial reports to the federal government.

Set up the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to enforce this. While the law didn’t do much to rein in the railroads, it established

the precedent that the federal government might control large-scale private enterprise if the public good seemed to require it.

People of the Plains

This region was home to many different Native American nations.

Some were farmers and some were nomadic, following the buffalo.

When the railroad came west and brought settlers with it, the way of life of the American Plains Indian was threatened.

The railroads played a major role in the extermination of the bison.

Hunted for food, sport, hides, and bones to make fertilizer. By 1886 only a few hundred were left, deep in Canada.

Plains Wars

To protect their lands and to stop the waste of the bison, Plains people had to fight. First fighting in Colorado lasted 3 years. In the end the government slaughtered

men, women and children as they tried to surrender. The Sioux had been given reservation land but when gold was discovered there

they were forced from the land. When gold was again discovered in this area it was on Sioux and Cheyenne lands.

Tired of being forced off land promised to them by the government they fought. Ended in the “Battle of Little Bighorn” where George Custer and his men were killed. Victory for the Indians was brief however as they ended up surrendering for the final

time in 1881. Final clash between Native Americans and soldiers was at “Wounded Knee” in

S. Dakota in 1890. More that 190 unarmed Native Americans were killed. With this the Plains wars

came to an end. The Indian cause was doomed with the loss of the bison. It was their

source for food, clothing, fuel and shelter. Without them, resistance became impossible.

Westward Expansion: Impact on American Indians 1860s – 1900s Reasons for Conflict!!!

Euro-Americans Want land for farming,

ranching and mining Believe that

uncultivated (un-farmed) land and land with no permanent homes is wasted

Often believe that non-white people and non-Christians are inferior

Native Americans Want land for

hunting and gathering

Only some cultures farmed, and only some built permanent homes

Are non-white and non-Christian

Assimilation: Kill the Indian, Save the Man

Assimilation is the process of one group of people being “absorbed” into another’s culture.

Goal of assimilation policy: for all Native Americans to live and behave like white Americans

Tools to achieve assimilation: Boarding schools for Native American

children Killing bison (their main source of food) Missionaries to introduce Christianity and

convert the Indians

Dawes Act (1887)

Goal of the Dawes Act: to get Native Americans to live like white Americans Reservations were broken up into

“allotments” that were given out to individual families. Families were supposed to farm and build homes on

their allotment to support themselves Land that wasn’t given to a family was sold by the US

government to white farmers It failed:

Some of the land was unsuitable for farming & ranching

Some refused to adopt a different way of life Some sold their land to white settlers, but others

upset that their land was given away.

The Wild West is Over

Farms had spread across the land. Railroads crisscrossed what had been open territory. Cattle grazed where the buffalo had roamed. In 1890 the Census Bureau reported that settlement

had been so rapid “that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line.”

Power and prestige shifted from rural areas to cities. Industry won the admiration of the nation and urban

America was regarded as the backbone of the nation but unsophisticated and backward.

People turned their attention to the cities and the “Captains of Industry”.