Westward Expansion (1865-90) Flashcards
3
Detail population growth in the West
- 1860 - 800,000
- 1890 - 6.2m
- Yet in this time, NA population halved
3
Describe Manifest Destiny
- 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)
6
Describe the Gold Rush
- 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
1
Describe the terms of the Homestead Act 1862
Govt would release 160 acres of land to individual for free, as long as they farmed on the land for at least 5 years
4
Describe the effects of the Homestead Act 1862
- 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
1
Describe the Timber and Culture Act 1873
extended the land by 160 acres on Homestead Act as long as 40 acres of it were trees
6
Describe the Dawes Act 1887
- 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
2
Describe the terms of the Dawes Act
- 160 acres to each head of family
- Only NAs who accepted individual plots would become US citizens after 25yrs
3
Describe the problems of the Dawes Act
- 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
4
Describe the effects of the Dawes Act
- 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
2
Describe the change to the Dawes Act
- 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
5
Describe how railroads contributed to Western Expansion
- 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
3
Describe Ghost Towns
- Mining towns experienced sudden economic booms
- Quickly deserted by prospectors once mineral riches had been found elsewhere
- e.g. Virginia City in Nevada
3
List developments in farming 1865-90
- Farming
- Cattle-ranching
- Cowboys
5
Describe cattle-ranching
- 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
3
Describe cowboy demography
- Up to 40k cowboys
- 1/3 were AA, NA, Mexican or Asian
- Many were ex-confederates
5
Describe cowboys
- 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
4
Describe Cow Towns
- 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)
4
Describe farming inventions (1865-90)
- 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
4
Describe other farming factors
- 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
2
Detail the growth of bushel exports
- 1867 - 6m bushels exported
- 1890 - 102m bushel exported
Detail the increase in people living on farms
1865 - 10m
1890 - 25m
3
Describe the 1870s glut
- Mass overproduction of wheat
- Corn prices fell from 76c a bushel in 1867 to 31c a bushel in 1873
- Farmers on credit went bankrupt
1
Describe the impact of the Sioux Wars 1866-68
Sioux tribes gain territory through Treaty of Fort Laramie, broken within years by gold prospectors
5
Describe settlement’s impact on NA lives
- Homestead Act intruded on lives
- Not consulted on transcontinental railroads
- Federal territories
- Bonzana Farms
- Black Hills of Dakotas (1874-)
2
Describe federal territories
- Once pop reached 60k, the territories could become states and elect state assemblies and right to make own laws
- Settlement encouraged
2
Describe the Battle of Little Bighorn 1876
- Sitting Bull and Lakota tribe defeated General Custer
- As a result, bison killed en masse and Americanisation ensued
5
Describe Americanisation of NAs
- 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
3
Describe the Ghost Dance movement
- 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
4
Describe the background to the Wounded Knee Massacre 1890
- 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
5
Describe the events of the Wounded Knee Massacre 1890
- 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
2
Describe the impact of the Wounded Knee Massacre 1890
- Battle was accident, born out of mutual distrust
- US now firmly controlled NAs through brutal and unjust enforcement of law and order
7
Describe the great Sioux War 1876
- 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
4
List the causes of Westward Expansion
- Railroads
- Economic - natural resources/gold rush
- Changing demography in farming (Homsteaders, Bonzana, population growth)
- Manifest Destiny
3
List the effects of Westward Expansion
- Economic (railroads, raw materials, robber barons)
- Settlement/immigration
- Destruction of NA livelihoods
5
Describe reasons for agricultural hardship from 1865-90
- 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
