Chapter 2 - New and Old Frontiers: The West, Midwest, South, and Cities (1870-1900) Flashcards
Define Manifest Destiny.
The belief that God had ordained that Americans settle the entire North American Continent.
What issue put a brake on early westward expansion?
Slavery. Congress was hesitant to admit new states in order to avoid inflaming the debate over slavery. Likewise, people didn’t know what the status would be in the new territories.
What was the biggest threat early Western Settlers faced?
Lawless pro and anti-slavery men
Where did the first transcontinental railroad link?
Promontory Point, Utah.
What four different settler cultures occurred in the Western Frontier?
1) Midwest
2) California, Nevada, and South Dakota
3) Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado
4) Railroads
What states were a part of the Midwest Settler Culture?
1) Iowa
2) Kansas,
3) Nebraska
4) Western Minnesota
Describe the Midwest Settler Culture.
1) Farmers of Corn and Wheat
2) Whole Families Moved
3) 300 Acre Family Farms Were the Norm
Describe the Settler Culture in California, Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota?
1) Rough Mining Communities
2) Mostly Asian Immigrants Working Dangerous Mining Jobs
When did the Gold Rush in California Begin?
1849
What mining state profited off of copper and not gold?
Montana.
Describe the Settler Culture in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Colorado.
1) Cowboys who drove longhorn cattle to railways so they could be sold.
2) Ended By 1880 Due to the Rise of Barbed Wire
How much land was given to railroad companies by the federal government?
200 Million Acres Free of Charge
How much land did the Homestead Act give to private individuals?
274 Million Acres.
What was the majority of the land used for?
Creating Frontier Towns By Selling the Land to Investors and Settlers.
Describe the population that moved Westward?
1) Males
2) Not Poor But Mostly Likely Middle Class
3) Immigrants Who Took The Worst Jobs
4) Exodusters - Black Tennant Farmers Who Were Later Cut Off By The Southern States
What race made up about 20% of cowboys?
African-Americans
What was the predomination view Americans had of Indians in the colonial period til 1770?
That Indians were savages who did not possess the same rights that whites possessed.
What policy did the United States adopt towards Native Americans in the Colonial Period?
Eviction and Annihilation
What movement caused Americans to reassess their policy towards the Native Americans?
The Enlightenment and its focus on natural rights.
What Indian strategy did the United States switch to in the mid-1700s?
Uneasy Coexistence which involved negotiating with them and signing treaties.
What President changed the Indian Policy of the United States in 1830?
Andrew Jackson.
What was the policy the United States had towards Indians in the 1830s?
Removal of Native Americans on to reservations.
Where were Native Americans removed to?
The Land West of the Mississippi Which is What Some Called the Great American Desert
What did Native Americans on Reservations rely on?
Hunting Buffalo.
How many settlers did Native Americans on reservations kill?
Less than 400.
How did settlers treat the native Americans?
The settlers took land from the Native Americans and killed them.
Approximately how many settlers moved into Native American Territory in 1850 Alone?
150,000.
What new Native American policy took root in the 1840’s?
Concentration of Native Americans on a smaller and smaller plane of land.
What did the Dawes Act do?
Provided the male head of an Indian household with a specific plot of land provided he agreed to farm and improve it.
What happened to the land given to Native Americans in the Dawes Act?
It ended up being sold to land speculators and diminished further the size of the reservations. From 130 million to 44 million acres.
How did Settlers attempt to confine the Indians?
By killing thousands of buffalo and trying to assimilate the Native Americans into Anglo-Saxon culture through schools such as the Carlisle Indian School.
What did the forced cultural change spark from Native Americans?
A series of battles fought between U.S. soldiers and Native Americans.
What major battle was a part of this Cowboy and Indian War?
Little Bighorn
What battle ended the war between Native Americans and the United States Military?
The Battle of Wounded Knee.
Describe the Economic Prosperity of the Midwest.
Flourishing Economically Between 1870 and 1910.
What states were part of the wheat belt?
- Ohio
- Indiana
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Missouri
- Kansas
- Nebraska
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
What states were part of the dairy belt?
- Michigan
- Wisconsin
- Minnesota
List the factors that made Midwest Agribusiness profitable.
1) An efficient transportation network that created a truly national market (Railroads)
2) Mechanized Farm Equipment
3) Winter Logging To Keep Up Profits
What city saw the majority of the Midwestern market?
Chicago
What important thing did Chicago invent?
A national meat market through refrigerated railroad cars.
What town became the center of meatpacking in the United States?
Chicago.
What was the nation’s second largest city in 1900 and what was its population?
Chicago with 1.7 million residents.
Who was one of the energetic advocates of the New South movement?
Henry Grady.
In what areas did the New South movement see success?
1) Textiles - Output increased and overtook New England for Textile Production
2) Tabacco - The Duke Family Owned 90% of the Nation’s Cigarette Production
3) Steel - Birmingham, Alabama became second only to Pittsburg in steel production.
4) Lumber
5) Oil - When oil was discovered in Texas in the early 1900s it overtook both PA and OH
6) Coal Mining - Mostly in Eastern Kentucky
7) White Collar Jobs - In cities such as Nashville, Atlanta, Richmond, Durham, and Chapel Hill.
How effective was the New South movement?
It had a limited effect as most southerners retained the agricultural system and illiteracy became more common.
What two crops dominated the Southern Economy in the Antebellum Era?
Cotton and Louisiana Sugar Cane.
How efficient was the sharecropping system that developed after the civil war?
Very inefficient. It only produced 75% of the cotton it did in 1860.
Who controlled political power in the “New South”?
A group of wealthy planter elites that did before 1850.
What did people favorable to the planter elites call the planters?
Redeemers
What did critics of the planter elites call the planters?
Bourbons
What laws did Southern States pass out of fear of African American influence?
Jim Crow Laws.
What did Jim Crow laws do?
1) Mandate Segregation.
2) Impose a Cumulative Poll Tax
3) Imposed a Literacy Requirement to Vote
4) Disenfranchised Those Who Committed any Crime
What Supreme Court Case upheld Jim Crow laws?
Plessy v. Ferguson
What form of violence was unique in the Post-War South?
Lynchings.
Name the two prominent post-civil war African American leaders?
- W.E.B. DuBois
- Booker T. Washington
How did Booker T. Washington believe African Americans should respond to Jim Crow laws?
- Ignore political concerns and power
- Make Blacks Economically powerful to gain respect and later political rights
How did W.E.B. DuBois believe African Americans should respond to Jim Crow laws?
- Focus on gaining political power first
- After gaining political power then black could gain economic power.
Did DuBois or Booker’s belief win out?
DuBois.
When did the largest influx of immigrants into the United States occur?
1890-1915
Where did the vast majority of New Immigrants Come From?
- Russia
- Italy
- Poland
- Greece
- Austria Hungary
- Germany
What religions were most New Immigrants?
- Roman Catholic
- Jewish
How did New Immigrants live once in the United States?
Usually in Urban areas with other people of a similar ethnic background.
Approximately how many immigrants entered the United States from 1900-1910?
Almost Nine Million.
Approximately how much of the population in major cities were direct immigrants?
40%.
What jobs did Immigrants take and what effect did that have?
Immigrants took the lowest paying jobs and pushed wages downward due to the sheer volume of immigrants.
Why did native Anglo-Saxons dislike the Immigrants?
1) Religious Affiliation to the Pope
2) Immigrant Opposition to Prohibition
3) Thought Immigrants were Uneducated
4) Thought Immigrants Were Anarchists or Communists.
How did Anglo-Saxons attempt to deal with Immigrants?
Through Americanizing them in the public school system.
In what years did America’s urban population expand?
1870-1915.
By 1915, how much of the population lived in cities?
Approximately half.
What were three factors that led to urbanization?
1) Immigration.
2) A lack of land for farmers to give sons
3) Southern Blacks Moving Northward (Though Not a Lot Did)
How were urban cities government?
By the Urban political machine.
Describe how the political machine operated?
- Party Bosses exercised nearly dictatorial powers
- Political officials were loyal to the party boss and did what he said.
- Local businesses got the government to do things through campaign donations
- Campaign donations were distributed to help voters in that city.
What activities arose out of new urbanizations?
Public sports and amusements such as the circus, baseball, or college football.
What two things made skyscrapers possible?
1) Metal Beams for Thinner Walls.
2) Elisha Otis’s Safety Hoist
What building is considered to be the first skyscraper?
The Chicago Home Insurance Building.
What were two major problems that faced large cities?
1) Sewage Disposal
2) Water Supply
What inventions made urban living possible?
1) Professional Fire Companies
2) Sunday school For Poor Immigrant Children
3) City Park as an Oasis
4) Street Cars and Trolleys
5) Bridges
6) Elevated Trains and Subways
7) Public Libraries
8) Public Baths
How did Chicago deal with its waste problem?
1) An Underground Tunnel to the Lake to Get Fresh Water
2) A canal to reroute the flow of the Chicago River
