Pacific Railroad Act Flashcards
When was the Pacific railroad act?
1862
What was the Pacific railroad act and what was its aim?
provided the incentive for transcontinental railroad building
aimed at developing connections between the new land of the West and the northern industrial cities.
Why did the US government need railroads to connect to the east and west coast? (5)
-made the migration to the west much cheaper, easier and quicker and secured more areas of the country which would help fulfil white Americans’ manifest destiny
-promoted the development of towns
-boosted the sale of land to settlers
-enabled the industrial centres of the north to connect to the developing agricultural areas of the West
-railroads would enable troops to be moved around to control Indian uprisings
what were the two main problems against building a railroad to connect the eastern and western halves of the USA before 1862?
-the enormous difficulty and cost of building a 2,000 km railroad, especially through the mountains of the west, meant that no private company would risk it
-disagreement between north and southern states: North wanted to connect California with its big industrial cities like Chicago, but the southern states recognised that this would disadvantage them and wanted a southern route
Why was the government able to finally pass the pacific railroad act?
because the southern states lead the union in 1861, which handed the control of the federal government to the northern states
what was the route of the first transcontinental railroad and what would it link up with?
Omaha to Sacramento
from Omaha the First transcontinental railroad would link up with the existing eastern railroad network
the pacific railroad act split the job of building the first transcontinental railroad between …
the union pacific and the central pacific
where did the union pacific start and where did the central pacific start?
The union pacific started in Omaha and built its track westward.
The central pacific started in Sacramento and build eastwards
What did the pacific railroad act commit the US government to do, in order to make the job possible and profitable for the two companies?
-extinguished any rights Plains Indians might have to land along the route
-loaning the two companies $61 million ( $16,000 for every track laid; $48, 000 per mile in the mountains)
-granting the companies 45 million acres of free land for the railroad companies to sell to settlers
What did the Pacific railroad act also set up?
the first transcontinental electric telegraph: the route of this ran along the railroad tracks
Why did both of the companies nearly go bust?
because of the challenges of this enormous engineering feat
-the Union Pacific company was caught charging the government more than it spent in order to make more money for its investors
By 1880, how many land had the railroad companies settle in the West?
200 million acres
How did railroads promote settlement?
-used effective marketing to sell the idea of settling in the west (e.g. sent successful settlers on tours to recruit new customers)
-organise loans to help people buy the land
-each railroad company had a Bureau of Immigration to persuade people from foreign countries to settle on the Plains
-sold plots of land along their routes and set up towns at railheads
Give an example of a Bureau of Immigration agent and how many people they persuaded?
C.B.Schmidt
directly responsible for 60,000 Germans emigrating to Kansas
How was the Pacific railroad act more influential than the Homestead act in encouraging settlement ?
-they had more land to sell
-better marketing
-people wanted to settle near the railroad
