Pacific Railroad Act Flashcards

1
Q

When was the Pacific railroad act?

A

1862

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2
Q

What was the Pacific railroad act and what was its aim?

A

provided the incentive for transcontinental railroad building

aimed at developing connections between the new land of the West and the northern industrial cities.

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3
Q

Why did the US government need railroads to connect to the east and west coast? (5)

A

-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

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4
Q

what were the two main problems against building a railroad to connect the eastern and western halves of the USA before 1862?

A

-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

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5
Q

Why was the government able to finally pass the pacific railroad act?

A

because the southern states lead the union in 1861, which handed the control of the federal government to the northern states

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6
Q

what was the route of the first transcontinental railroad and what would it link up with?

A

Omaha to Sacramento

from Omaha the First transcontinental railroad would link up with the existing eastern railroad network

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7
Q

the pacific railroad act split the job of building the first transcontinental railroad between …

A

the union pacific and the central pacific

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8
Q

where did the union pacific start and where did the central pacific start?

A

The union pacific started in Omaha and built its track westward.

The central pacific started in Sacramento and build eastwards

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9
Q

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?

A

-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

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10
Q

What did the Pacific railroad act also set up?

A

the first transcontinental electric telegraph: the route of this ran along the railroad tracks

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11
Q

Why did both of the companies nearly go bust?

A

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

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12
Q

By 1880, how many land had the railroad companies settle in the West?

A

200 million acres

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13
Q

How did railroads promote settlement?

A

-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

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14
Q

Give an example of a Bureau of Immigration agent and how many people they persuaded?

A

C.B.Schmidt

directly responsible for 60,000 Germans emigrating to Kansas

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15
Q

How was the Pacific railroad act more influential than the Homestead act in encouraging settlement ?

A

-they had more land to sell
-better marketing
-people wanted to settle near the railroad

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