Western Expansion Flashcards
Dime Novels
Books that exaggerated the tails of the wild west, filled with adventure, hardship, and daring rescues. Larger than life
Wild Bill Hickok
Legend began in Springfield, he killed someone over a gambling dispute. Stories about him were very exaggerated, joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, he was killed over a game of poker
Manifest Destiny
Americans were meant to settle all land between the Atlantic and Pacific
Homestead Act of 1862
Offered plots of land in the region, 160 acres as long as they lived and cultivated it for 5 years but it was not enough to make a profit
Exodusters
African Americans who made their exit from the South after Reconstruction failed to end racial issues
John Deere
produced a plow tough enough to break through the dense soil in the prairies
Mexican Varqueros
OG cowboys, American cowboys ripped off their image from them. They wore wide brimmed hats, thin leather jackets. leather pants with buttons down the sides, Botas (leg wraps), and colorful woven blankets (serapes)
After the California gold rush of 1849
Gold and silver was found in Colorado, Montana, and Dakotas, some copper was found in NM and AZ
Lots of wealth in an area meant
The creation of a boomtown
Reservoirs
Contained bodies of water that can be tapped
Ogallala Aquifer
Past 15,000 years, water has been slowly collecting in spaces between the underground sand and gravel grains. Now it helps two wheat, corn, and beef in U.S.
When was the Famers Alliance created
1870s in Texas because of they struggled with falling prices and an abundance of agricultural products, peoples lives were destroyed by bugs, those who survived wanted to bring a dew industry to the region, thus creating the F.A.
Subtreasury System
Idea to resolve overproduction, government had storage silos and famers would store crops, in exchange government gets small percentage of profits
Colored Farmers National Alliance
Created after A.A. were banned from joining white farmers alliances, created in 1886
People’s Party/Populist Party
1892, Farmers alliance leaders formed a new party
Populism
Ordinary people should control the government
Sand Creek Massacre
Gov of CO asked to meet with the Cheyenne, volunteer militia killed unarmed innocent people
The Little Bighorn
Custer attacked the Lakota after Custer video the treaty (government wanted the Lakota out of the land), Lakota won, but the government pushed them onto a reservation
Dawes Severalty Act
Divided reservations into land sections of 160 acres, those who received it were expected to establish farms, if they could farm then they could be U.S. citizens, allowed public to purchases any unassigned land
Ghost Dance Movement
A vision that a rescuer would appear and destroy the white men and lead the tribes to victory
Wounded Knee
US Army confronted Lakota Ghost dancers at Wounded Knee Creek after the death of Sitting Bull, wanted them to give up their weapons, went down hill from there
Chief Joseph
Fought for his people, retreated to Canada, surrendered at Bear Paw, was sent to settle in Oklahoma
Geronimo
Fought for his people, resisted forced government confinement, was sent to Florida as an exile
