123B: Settlement in the West

Question 1

What were the four transcontinental railroads built by the 1890s?

Answer 1

The Northern Pacific, The Southern Pacific, The Atchison, The Great Northern

Question 2

What did the railroads do to the West?

Answer 2

They revolutionised the West, ensuring a flood of people and goods moved in and an abundance or raw materials moved out

Question 3

What did railroads stimulate the growth of?

Answer 3

Iron, Steel, Lumber and other capital goods industries

Question 4

What other new group emerged as a result of the railroads?

Answer 4

Cowboys and cattlemen

Question 5

What was an issue with life on the Plains?

Answer 5

The nearest neighbours were often miles away

Question 6

What were some problems with farming, despite the soil being rich?

Answer 6

Farmers were constantly fighting the elements, tornados, droughts, hailstorms, prairie fires, blizzards and pests (locusts)

Question 7

Although land was relatively cheap what was not?

Answer 7

Horses, livestock, wagons, wells, fencing and seed-sand fertilisers

Question 8

What new method of farming allowed farmers to continue farming despite limited rainfall?

Answer 8

Dry farming methods

Question 9

What new machinery was brought about for farming which made wheat and maize farming possible on a larger scale?

Answer 9

Reapers, thrusting machines, binders, combine harvesters

Question 10

What did Joseph Glidden invent in 1873?

Answer 10

Barbed Wire

Question 11

What provided water for farms?

Answer 11

Deep-drilled wells and steel windmills

Question 12

By how much did the production of wheat increase from 1867 to 1890?

Answer 12

From 211 million bushels to 599 million bushels in 1890

Question 13

What did agriculture soon become?

Answer 13

Boom and bust agriculture

Question 14

What was boom and bust agriculture?

Answer 14

Very heavily dependant on exports and the fluctuating price of wheat

Question 15

What did this boom and bust agriculture mean for Western farmers?

Answer 15

They found it very hard to determine the price of things they bought and sold

Question 16

Although the situation of farmers improved in the 1870s what still continued over the next two decades on the plains?

Answer 16

Boom and bust agriculture

Question 17

What were many farmers in revolt against?

Answer 17

Bug businesses and starte and federal governments

Question 18

Which party did many farmers support?

Answer 18

The Populist party

Question 19

Where was the ranching frontier based after the Civil War?

Answer 19

Texas

Question 20

In 1867, what did Joseph McCoy devise?

Answer 20

A route whereby cattle could be driven North from Southern Texas, known as the Long Drive

Question 21

How were the cattle transported North when the cattle arrived in Kansas?

Answer 21

The Pacific Railroad

Question 22

Where were the cattle transported to be slaughtered?

Answer 22

Chicago, home to meatpacking businesses

Question 23

Who would herd the cattle along the Long Drive?

Answer 23

The Cowboys

Question 24

In the twenty years after the Civil War how many cowboys roamed the Great Plains?

Answer 24

40,000

Question 25

What were the backgrounds of the cowboys?

Answer 25

They were all from very diverse backgrounds, some were ex-confederate soldiers, others included Mexicans, African Americans, Asians and Native Americans

Question 26

Was cowboy life glamorous?

Answer 26

No, they had a wage of only $25-30 and the average cowboy worked an 18 hour day

Question 27

What dangers did cowboys face?

Answer 27

Floods, poisonous snakes, scorpions, blizzards, stampedes, rustlers and occasionally hostile Native Americans

Question 28

As railroads spread West what did many cattlemen set up on the Plains?

Answer 28

Cattle ranches

Question 29

What were cattle ranches?

Answer 29

Huge tracts of grazing land

Question 30

What were many disputes over with cattle ranches?

Answer 30

Water and land rights

Question 31

What often happened on cattle ranches?

Answer 31

Cattle rustling

Question 32

What sprung up as a result to the many disputes over cattle ranches?

Answer 32

Vigilante systems

Question 33

What was the greatest boom in the open range cattle trade?

Answer 33

The Beef Bonanza in the early 1880s

Question 34

Why did millions of cattle die?

Answer 34

Two sever winters in 1885 and 1887, straddling a summer drought

Question 35

What was the result of these cattle deaths?

Answer 35

Cattlemen were ruined and had to result to retreating to smaller better equipped shelters to ensure their remaining cattle were not too exposed to the elements

Question 36

By when was the open range and time of the cowboys over?

Answer 36

1890

Question 37

When was the refrigerator carriage introduced?

Answer 37

1875

Question 38

What happened in 1890?

Answer 38

The end of the frontier, there was no longer any large tract of unsettled land

Question 39

The Turner Essay highlighted the importance of what?

Answer 39

The frontier

Question 40

What did Turner claim?

Answer 40

The deepest root of America’s past was he existence of free land and this land acted as a safety net against violence. The harshness of the frontier created self-reliant individuals. The USA had a unique democracy and it was the abundance of nature and resources in the West that made America free