KT2 Flashcards
Why did the government encourage the growth of the railroads?
-Enable troops to be moved around to control uprisings of the Indigenous Americans.
-Railroads would allow all Americans to be in touch with each other, creating national unity.
-Help to fulfil white American’s goal of Manifest Destiny by making it easier to migrate and secure more areas of the country.
-Let federal law officers reach new settlement that were experiencing lawlessness.
-Promote settlement of the West.
-Transport goods to ports in Oregon and California, which were well-positioned for trade with the Far East of Asia.
-Living on the Plains became less isolated as the nearest town could be reached more quickly.
What was the Pacific Railroad Act of 1862?
-A transcontinental railroad was wanted because the east coast states had been crisscrossed by railroads, and everyone wanted a better nationwide alternative.
-The distances and costs were so big that no one company could afford it, and the US government therefore had to offer enormous sums of money to encourage company involvement.
-Southern states had blocked proposal of the route of the first transcontinental railroad, from Omaha to Sacramento, because it benefitted more the northern states, however when the southern states temporarily left the Union in 1861, the legislation could now be passed.
What occurred as a result of the Act?
-It granted the enormous job of building the first transcontinental railroad to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific companies.
-Both companies were lent $16,000 for every mile laid, and $48,000 for each mile in the mountains, in total 16 million dollars.
-They also received 45 millions of acres of land to sell to future companies.
-The two companies’ tracks met at Promontory Summit, Utah, in 1969, marking the first Transcontinental Railroad.
Significance of the spread of the railroad network?
-Easier for federal law enforcement to communicate and travel to deal with lawlessness.
-Encouraged ranching, as cows could be taken to “cow towns” and sold to eastern cities.
-Disrupted the Great Plains and interfered with buffalo migration and so IPOP life.
-Settlers had increased access to goods and technology from eastern factories to make Plains life easier.
-Towns set up at rail stations, settlements more quickly, making Plains life much less lonely as the neighbouring town quickly would be occupied.
-1969 1st TCR connected East and West by train.
-More immigrants now settled in the west because they were encouraged to travel to Western USA to buy land.
-Government agreed treaties with IPOP along the route of the 1st TCR to move them away to new reservations.
-Railroad companies used effective marketing methods to sell plots of land they had been given by the government. They sent agents to Europe to encourage them to emigrate west in search for a better way of life and make Western migration appear attractive.
-By 1880, they had sold over 200 million acres of western land and many towns had grown around the stations and railheads.
Aims of the Homestead Act?
-Encouragement West settlement for individual family farmers.
-More families to work land and turn it into good farmland.
So:
-Provided land cheaply at $10
-Allowed most American/would-be American citizens to file a claim for 160 acres of land
-Required homesteaders to prove they had lived on the land for five years and improved it, to keep it permanently, known as “proving up”, and then pay a further $30 to own the property completely.
-Government worried that rich landowners would use this legislation to buy lots of cheap land, so homesteaders could not file for multiple claims.
-Head of the family/single person over the age of 21 was a valid homesteader applicant. Immigrants, women and former enslaved people were included, however the law did not include the IPOP or the soldiers who had fought on the side of the Confederacy in the Civil War.
Successes of the Homestead Act.
- Over 6 million acres of land had been homesteaded by 1876.
-80 million acres by the end of the Act in the 1930s.
-Promise of free land an important pull factor for US immigration.
-Act was significant in encouraging white Plains settlement. E.g. many migrated to Nebraska as homesteaders, making it a state, and 50% of settled land there was made up by homesteaders.
-Act gave unemployed and homeless soldiers from the Civil War an opportunity, especially as they could deduct their army time from the five years for “proving up”.
-Act did encourage increase of small family farms. 1865, Civil War ended and slavery abolished. Use of large plantations decreased with small family farms becoming more important nationwide.
Limitations of the Homestead Act.
-High dropout in homesteading : 60% of claims were never proved up due to the problem of farming on the Plains.
-160 acres was big enough on the East, however in the Plains, it was harder to grow crops, and many found that the size of a homestead was not enough to support their families.
-Government gave 300 million acres to railroad companies who had sold it to settlers, this was more significant in terms of Western settlement.
-Despite government’s aims, rich landowners found a variety of ways ton buy cheap land under the Homestead Act. E.g. they claimed extra plots using the names of their employees, or claimed plots of abandoned homesteads.
What was the problem for Homesteaders for a lack of timber?
-Not many trees on the Plains
-Nothing to build houses with
-Nothing to make fences to contain cattle and protect crops from animals
-Nothing to use for cooking and heating.
How was the problem of a lack of timber sold?
-People began to build sod houses; made from the Earth.
-1874, barbed wire, developed by Joseph Glidden, was mass produced, cheap and easy to erect.
-Women collected dried buffalo and cattle dung, used for fuel.
-Timber Culture Act of 1873 gave homesteaders another 160 acres if they planted 40 extra trees.
Problem of a lack of water?
Low rainfall and a lack of rivers and lakes.
Solution to the problem of a lack of water?
-Drills developed to find underground water, then wind pumps built to bring it to the surface.
-Additional water sources often found when new land was planted.
Problem of the hard, arid ground?
-Crops could not grow
-Ploughs often broke going through the deep-rooted grass
-Low rainfall prevented the growth of crops like maize and wheat, which farmers were used to in the East.
Solution to the problem of hard, arid ground?
-Mass-produced and stronger machinery from eastern factories helped cultivate the land more easily.
-New techniques like dry farming, which conserved rainwater, was used.
-Invention of the “sodbuster” plough in 1868 broke through tangled roots easily.
-Migrants from Russia used Turkey Red Wheat, needing less water than other varieties, which thrived on the Plains.
Problem of natural disasters?
-Included prairie fires and pests destroying crops.
-Pests, like grasshoppers, could destroy the crop for a whole season.
-Fire spread quickly and could burn everything.
Solution to the problem of natural disasters?
No solution to this problem, homesteaders were bankrupted because of this.
The size of land holdings?
160 acres of land could not support the average family.
Solution to the size of land holdings?
-Timber Culture Act of 1873 grants farmers a further 160 million acres if they plant 40 million acres of trees on their land.
-Desert Land Act of 1877 lets settlers buy 640 acres of desert land for a very cheap price.
Problem of disease and lack of medical care?
-Often, people were ill
-Sod houses were hard to keep clean and had no sanitation.
Solution to the problem of disease and lack of medical care?
Women cared for the sick. using their own remedies. As communities grew, doctors also arrived.
Problem of the lack of education?
Most homesteads were too far away from schools.
Solution to the problem of education.
Women taught the young. As communities developed, single female teachers arrived and schools developed.
Problem of isolation?
Life was lonely and tough on the Plains.
Solutions to the problem of isolation?
-Railroads improved travel and brought much-needed supplies to the homesteaders and relieved isolation lots.
-Communities worked together to build schools and churches.
-Female homesteaders formed valuable social networks.
Discuss the American Civil War
-Took place between 1861 and 1865, had big impact on West settlement.
-Before civil war, states could not agree on how to instil western migration:
-Southern states wanted plantations, enormous farms, worked by enslaved African Americans.
-Northern states had banned slavery and wanted thousands of small, family-owned farms in the west.
-Both sides wanted a TCR.
-When the southern states seceded from (left( the USA and formed a new, unauthorised republic called the Confederate States of America, this started the civil war.
-The Union, the northern states, were now free to vote on how they wanted western migration to be without the opinion of the southern states and the risk of them voting against their policies.
-The Union victory in the civil war in 1865 confirmed the future of western migration once and for all.
Why was lawlessness increasing?
-In the Civil War, after the Confederacy had been defeated, young southern men resented the US government and its laws.
-The Civil war had devastated the southern economy, leaving many unemployed.
-Railroad towns gained a reputation for gambling, heavy drinking and prostitution.
-Many men had been traumatised by the Civil War and struggled to fit back into society, leading many to migrate to the West, and some to be involved in crime.
-Towns connected to the new railroads grew too quickly for law enforcement to maintain control. Although the federal government increased the number of sheriffs, in a local community as well as the number of marshals, the officers were unable to buck the trend of an increase in population, leading to an increase in criminal behaviour. These towns became known as “Hell on Wheels”.
-Trains replaced stagecoaches as the mode of transport of valuables, making them a target for train robbers.
-Trains made migration easier, so settlements grew even larger.
-Cowboys drove cattle to “cow tons” where they would load the cattle on a train, with the cowboys then using their wages for drinking and dancing, which then often led to fighting.
How was lawlessness tackled?
-Rapid growth in populations of towns and settlements struggled to cope with lawlessness.
-Combination of overcrowding, poverty and opportunities for crime, alongside a limited number and funding of law enforcement, crime and violence therefore occurred.
-Some territories, like California, were enormous regions, and thousands away from federal government in Washington (who supervised law and order in areas that were not states).
-Although the federal government tried to help restore law and order, towns largely had to look after themselves:
-Cow towns often passed laws banning the se of firearms.
-Sheriffs and marshals were employed to enforce laws by force of personality (often by fists.)
-Gangs of outlaws were sometimes too powerful to control and intimidated whole communities into supporting them.
-Pinkertons was a private detective agency. Banks, railroads and stagecoach companies employed workers of the company to track down robbers and thieves, as well as provide them with general advice and protection.
What was the hierarchy of law enforcers at the time?
-US marshal- appointed by the president to be responsible of a state or territory that did not have their own law enforcement authorities (places that were not a state). Were poorly paid, many were corrupt, and were too few of them to be able to effectively police crime in an area as large as California.
-Deputy marshals- States and territories were too large for one marshal, so deputies were appointed, They were assigned to specific towns and counties.
-Town marshals- appointed by townspeople on a yearly basis. Job was to deal with local outbreaks of lawlessness like saloon brawls or drunken shootings. Could appoint deputies if necessary. Fewer in number than sheriffs but virtually did the same work.
-Sheriffs- appointed in the counties for a period of office for two years. Could, as well as town marshals, force locals to form a posse to chase down criminals alongside appointing deputies if necessary.
Federal control of law and order, extra points?
-To keep peace, appointed a governor, three judges or court cases.
-Encouraged west migration, because once a county had 50,000 people, they then could elect a sheriff for local law enforcement.
-When a territory reached a population of 60,000, it was a state, and would now have its own legal system.
Limited success in tackling lawlessness, extra points?
-Could be days until news of trouble reached US marshal, and then would take days to create a response.
-Federal government encouraged growth of railroads and electric telegraphs, which helped improve communication of federal law officers.
-Sheriffs had mainly been chosen for their ability to keep the peace. They had no legal training, and often their decisions were not very fair, leading to resentment.
-Settlers often disliked the federal government and dissociated themselves from their laws.
What occurred in 1855 for the cattle industry?
-A quarantine law was passed to block Texan cattle from entering Missouri from 1855 and Kansas from 1859.
-Farmers here had cows with no immunity from the “Texas fever”, and so blocked the long drives to Sedalia and St Louis. The cattle had to therefore be kept outside of these quarantine zones.
What occurred in 1861-5 for the cattle industry?
Texans fight for Confederacy, leaving cattle herds running wild, at the number of 5 million cows by 1865.
What occurred in 1861-5 also for the cattle industry?
-Beef was in high demand in the northern towns and cities.
-Drives to Sedalia were blocked because of the quarantine laws.
-Texan cattlemen were desperate to discover a way to get their cattle north and east to profit greatly.
-The long drives from Texas to the east was a thing from the 1830s, the big development was the westward railroad.
What occurred in 1867 for the cattle industry?
Railroad reaches Abilene, Kansas. Joseph McCoy sets up the first cow town, with 35,000 cows driven there.
What occurred in 1870s for the cattle industry?
Investors injected thousands into the cattle industry worldwide, marking the rise of the cattle barons.
