Westward Expansion (1865-90)

Question 1

3

Detail population growth in the West

Answer 1

• 1860 - 800,000
• 1890 - 6.2m
• Yet in this time, NA population halved

Question 2

3

Describe Manifest Destiny

Answer 2

• Belief that American had God given right to expand its dominion across North American continent
• Linked to beliefs in democracy, capitalism and Christianity
• Would inform assimiliation into ordered American culture (Americanisation)

Question 3

6

Describe the Gold Rush

Answer 3

• To keep annual growth rate at 3.8% natural resources had to be exploited
• Rumours of there being gold in the Black hills of Dakota had begun in the mid 1870s
• Small deposits found in 1874; larger deposits found in deadwood in 1875
• Thousands moved there
• Land held by NAs under Treaty of Laramie 1868
• Govt made no intervention

Question 4

1

Describe the terms of the Homestead Act 1862

Answer 4

Govt would release 160 acres of land to individual for free, as long as they farmed on the land for at least 5 years

Question 5

4

Describe the effects of the Homestead Act 1862

Answer 5

• Encouraged Western Expansion
• By 1865, 20k homesteaders had settled out on the plains
• At expense of NAs
• Led to Bonzana farms - by 1880, 3000 of these farms had more than 1000 acres

Question 6

1

Describe the Timber and Culture Act 1873

Answer 6

extended the land by 160 acres on Homestead Act as long as 40 acres of it were trees

Question 7

6

Describe the Dawes Act 1887

Answer 7

• Congress passed Act ending the reservation system
• Authorising the federal confiscation and redistribution of land
• Aimed to destroy tribal governing councils
• Assimilate NAs into mainstream US society by replacing their communal tradition with an individualistic culture
• Climax of integrationist policy
• Reformers hailed it as it would end tribal relationship

Question 8

2

Describe the terms of the Dawes Act

Answer 8

• 160 acres to each head of family
• Only NAs who accepted individual plots would become US citizens after 25yrs

Question 9

3

Describe the problems of the Dawes Act

Answer 9

• Act assumed NAs could become farmers, which was against their way of life
• Coincided with agricultural depression (+drought in 1887)
• Most NAs had little understanding of what act entailed

Question 10

4

Describe the effects of the Dawes Act

Answer 10

• In 1887, NAs held some 138m acres - would be 48m in 1934
• Led to huge surplus of land, commercially sold to white people
• Within a very short time, most had sold or lost their land to the whites and fallen into poverty
• Living standards of the NAs would deteriorate rapidly

Question 11

2

Describe the change to the Dawes Act

Answer 11

• 1891 amendment to the Act ended policy of awarding 160 acres to the heads of families
• Instead each NA individual would be awarded 80 acres each, regardless of status

Question 12

5

Describe how railroads contributed to Western Expansion

Answer 12

• Union Pacific, first transcontinental railway, completed in 1869
• Dangerous routes could now be avoided
• Railroad track grew from 35k miles in 1865 to 200k in 1893
• Vanderbilt and m&a/monopolisation of industry spurred railroad boom
• Enabled greater mobility for Eastern speculators

Question 13

3

Describe Ghost Towns

Answer 13

• Mining towns experienced sudden economic booms
• Quickly deserted by prospectors once mineral riches had been found elsewhere
• e.g. Virginia City in Nevada

Question 14

3

List developments in farming 1865-90

Answer 14

• Farming
• Cattle-ranching
• Cowboys

Question 15

5

Describe cattle-ranching

Answer 15

• Invention of barbed wire in 1873 helped control land
• Disputes between groups over unscientific assertions that sheep-dung poisoned water
• Meatpacking business grew with Armour and Company in 1867, with a large facility in Nebraska
• Force, fraud and perjury to maintian land rights
• Severe winter of 1885-87 (+ drought in 1887) saw up to 90% of Western cattle die

meatpacking - slaughter and processing of animals for sale

Question 16

3

Describe cowboy demography

Answer 16

• Up to 40k cowboys
• 1/3 were AA, NA, Mexican or Asian
• Many were ex-confederates

Question 17

5

Describe cowboys

Answer 17

• 18hr work days
• Cow Towns
• Little care given to land rights - at expense of NAs
• Code of Honour mentality prevalent
• Laws upheld by single Sheriff and federal laws rarely upheld

Question 18

4

Describe Cow Towns

Answer 18

• e.g. Deadwood Dakota
• Provide services for the cowboys going on ‘The Long Drive’ to take cattle east
• Sporadic violence
• Would quickly diminish (a la Ghost Towns)

Question 19

4

Describe farming inventions (1865-90)

Answer 19

• Invention of barbed wire in 1873
• By 1890, took just 15hrs to create 15 bushels of wheat compared to 35hrs in 1860
• Bonzana farms
• development of new machinery, like reapers and binders

Question 20

4

Describe other farming factors

Answer 20

• More living on farms
• Cotton sold for half price in 1890 compared to 1860
• ‘agribusinesses’ grew
• Reliant on banks and local merchants - worsened by Panic of 1873

Question 21

2

Detail the growth of bushel exports

Answer 21

• 1867 - 6m bushels exported
• 1890 - 102m bushel exported

Question 22

Detail the increase in people living on farms

Answer 22

1865 - 10m
1890 - 25m

Question 23

3

Describe the 1870s glut

Answer 23

• Mass overproduction of wheat
• Corn prices fell from 76c a bushel in 1867 to 31c a bushel in 1873
• Farmers on credit went bankrupt

Question 24

1

Describe the impact of the Sioux Wars 1866-68

Answer 24

Sioux tribes gain territory through Treaty of Fort Laramie, broken within years by gold prospectors

Question 25

# 5 Describe settlement's impact on NA lives

Answer 25

* Homestead Act intruded on lives * Not consulted on transcontinental railroads * Federal territories * Bonzana Farms * Black Hills of Dakotas (1874-)

Question 26

# 2 Describe federal territories

Answer 26

* Once pop reached 60k, the territories could become states and elect state assemblies and right to make own laws * Settlement encouraged

Question 27

# 2 Describe the Battle of Little Bighorn 1876

Answer 27

* Sitting Bull and Lakota tribe defeated General Custer * As a result, bison killed en masse and Americanisation ensued

Question 28

# 5 Describe Americanisation of NAs

Answer 28

* Influenced by Manifest Destiny * Dawes Act 1887 * NAs would learn farming, english and Christianity * Congress set up 148 boarding and 225 day schools for 20k NA children * By 1899, $2.5m being spent annually on this

Question 29

# 3 Describe the Ghost Dance movement

Answer 29

* Spiritual Ghost Dance and teachings of anti-American Wovoka * Triggered a wave of resistance to the encroachment of White settlers * Teachings intended to restore NA way of life

Question 30

# 4 Describe the background to the Wounded Knee Massacre 1890

Answer 30

* Sitting Bull had embraced Ghost Dance movement and facilitated its spread through the Sioux tribe * 1890, police officers who feared Sitting Bull would flee the reservation shot him * Spiritual figurehead had been shot * Swathes of Lakota Sioux fled reservation

Question 31

# 5 Describe the events of the Wounded Knee Massacre 1890

Answer 31

* 2 weeks after Sitting Bull's murder * US army surrounded an encampment of Sioux Indians near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota * While attempting to disarm the Sioux, a shot was fired and the soldiers began to open fire * US Army indiscriminately massacred Sioux * 200 sioux died, 31 soldiers died

Question 32

# 2 Describe the impact of the Wounded Knee Massacre 1890

Answer 32

* Battle was accident, born out of mutual distrust * US now firmly controlled NAs through brutal and unjust enforcement of law and order

Question 33

# 7 Describe the great Sioux War 1876

Answer 33

* Discovery of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota * At first, gov tried to keep prospectors out but it proved impossible * Next, gov offered Native Americans $6 million for the land * NA refused so gov decided they were being unreasonable and demanded all NA return to their reservations by 31st January 1876 * Some never received the threat, some chose to ignore * Gov decided to use the US Army to wipe out all NA from the Blackhills * Battle of Little Bighorn

Question 34

# 4 List the causes of Westward Expansion

Answer 34

* Railroads * Economic - natural resources/gold rush * Changing demography in farming (Homsteaders, Bonzana, population growth) * Manifest Destiny

Question 35

# 3 List the effects of Westward Expansion

Answer 35

* Economic (railroads, raw materials, robber barons) * Settlement/immigration * Destruction of NA livelihoods

Question 36

# 5 Describe reasons for agricultural hardship from 1865-90

Answer 36

* purchase of land and mechanisation - incurred debts due to borrowing for purchase of land and mechanisation * dependence on unreliable overseas markets * smaller farmers struggled to compete with big ‘agribusinesses’ * some in South to dependent on cotton, which precpitated poverty after 1870s glut * Immediate post-CW decline - bushel of wheat fell from $1.45 (1866) to $0.76 (1869) - reduced ability to repay loans