The making of America: impact of the railroads on the plains.

Question 1

what were the categories for the impact of the railroads?

Answer 1

urbanisation, native americans, environmental, migration.

Question 2

urbanisation: after it was built the plains emerged with towns but what were these important for?

Answer 2

cattle trade.

Question 3

urbanisation: what were the towns on the plains like?

Answer 3

at first unruly. lots of drinking, gambling and violence.

Question 4

urbanisation: what did the railway companies do with the land they gained from the railway and what places were more heavily built up, what were they treated as?

Answer 4

sold land cheaply- if individuals wanted to build farms.
salt lake city, San Francisco.
important stops.

Question 5

native americans: where was the railroad built across and what were the affects on the land?

Answer 5

plains.
divided indigenous land and disrupted buffalo.

Question 6

native americans: who came, what did they do and what was a tribe that was impacted?

Answer 6

americans with completely different cultural ideas came. dominated and exploited plains. lakota sioux.

Question 7

environmental: how did the railway damage the environment?

Answer 7

building tracks- cut down things for example government encouraged people to kill buffalo, near extinction, to encourage indigenous peoples to move out of the area.

Question 8

environmental: what was the issues with people building on previously empty land?

Answer 8

killed buffalo and any natural growth there.

Question 9

migration: how many migrants from what areas were employed to work on the railroads?

Answer 9

12,000.
china and ireland.

Question 10

migration: how many days a week did the migrants have to work regardless of the conditions?

Answer 10

6 days a week.

Question 11

migration: where did they live and what were the issues with them?

Answer 11

temporary accommodation such as tents and towns.
poor sanitation, lots of disease. killed lots of people through accident and illness.