Westward expansion Flashcards
Americanisation
Achieved by teaching English Christianity and the american values to Native american children, they did this by enrolling them in boarding schools away from their parents.
Dawes Act
Broke up reservations into small units, a family could have 160 acres of land and a single man could have 80. native Americans who accepted this got 25 years of citizenship. it was praised as it would end tribal land but it was also criticised as native Americans had little knowledge of what it claimed.
battle of the wounded knee
1890 US Troops shot Against Ghost Dancers. Members of the 7th Cavalry firing the opening shots at Wounded Knee, where 300 Sioux died, many of them women and children. As the Ghost Dance movement spread it frightened white settlers. however it was also an accident as neither knew to shoot or not.
Agriculture of the settlers
dry farming enabled farmers to grow crops with little rainfall, binder and combine harvesters were also becoming more popular. the wheat production doubled. however wheat prices were fluctuating so many farmers had to get loans to pay for the machinery and storage, yet due to the poor banking system in the US many farmers became bankrupt
cowboys and cattle
Cattle farming and cowboys got less and less popular due to the rise in railways as the trains could transport the cattle much easier and quicker than cow boys could, in 1865-1885 5.7 million cattle did the cattle route, now the trains do it. this however meant there were lots of cowboys now unemployed.
turner essay
his points made many debate
- the west acted as a safety valve against social discord and violence
- deepest route of Americas past had been the existence of fee land
- the US had a unique form of democracy
He said that the US needed frontiers and now the frontier in the US had ended they needed new ones, outside the US.
Monroe doctrine
Warned European powers not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere and the US will not interfere with them
isolationism
the US was very busy with other things during 1860-1890 such as the civil war, reconstruction, industrial growth and westward expansion. it is also between two great oceans so the US was not looking or needing to expand else where.
