Westward Expansion (Mine) Flashcards
What is Manifest Destiny?
a belief that it was American’s God-given right to settle the rest of the continent.
What was the Homestead Act?
1862
Could claim 160 acres of land for free if they lived on it and farmed it for five years.
$1000 was needed to start farming
What was the Timber Culture Act?
1873
offered a further 160 acres of land if at least 40 acres were planted with trees within ten years.
What was the Desert Land Act?
1877
Offered the chance to purchase another 640 acres if they irrigated the land within two years.
What was the Mornill Act?
1862
established colleges to teach settlers how to farm the land.
How long did the Transcontinental railway take to build?
7 years
What was Oregon Territory?
Organised on the 14th August 1848
by Act of Congress out of US portion of the Oregon Country below 49th Parallel
What was the Mexican Cession?
Part of present day south-western US that was ceded to US by Mexico in 1848 under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
What was the Gadsden Purchase?
29,640 square mile region of modern day Arizona and New Mexico.
Purchased by US from Mexico in 1853
Allowed construction of the transcontinental railway link.
What was the Texas Annexation?
1845
addition of Texas by US as a 28th State.
What was the Louisiana Purchase?
1803
US acquisition of more than 828,000 square miles of territory from France for $15 million.
What was the Treaty of Paris?
signed on 3rd September 1783
ended American Revolutionary war between Britain and 13 colonies.
gave the US huge amounts of land.
What were the 13 Original colonies?
Made up North America
each separately chartered and governed.
United in the Continental Congress in 1774
broke away from Britain in 1776 after the Declaration of Independence.
Who was William Clark?
1770-1838
helped lead Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-06 to the Dakotas and through Native American lands
Claimed Pacific northwest for the US
Who was Meriweather Lewis?
1774-1809
lead Lewis and Clark expedition
collected scientific data and information about the Native Americans
What was the aim of the Lewis and Clark expedition?
to explore Louisiana Purchase, establish trade with, and sovereignty over the natives near the Missouri River, claim the Pacific Northwest and Oregon Country for US before Europeans.
How much land did Lewis and Clark map?
4000 miles
What was Cumberland Road?
funded by the government
Linked Potomatic and Ohio Rivers.
What was the Erie Canal?
Completed in 1825
From Albany to Buffalo
freight charges dropped from 19cents a tonne/mile to 2 cents.
What were companies given to help build railways?
given land grants with a 120m right of way and 12km squared of land either side of the track for every 1.5km of track laid.
What did state governments give to help build railways?
provided over $200 million and made land grants of 19 million hectares.
Name two American fur companies
Astors American Fur company
Rocky Mountain Fur Company
How did fur trappers help to open up the West?
trappers brought back exciting stories which enticed more people out.
Some trappers used their knowledge to act as guides for wagons.
What was the California Gold Rush?
1848-49
Gold was discovered.
Within a few moths of discovery, 100,000 people had moved to the region.
Other than California, where else was gold discovered?
Colorado in 1858-59
Black Hills of Dakota in 1870’s
Where was silver ore discovered?
Comstock Lode, Nevade in 1859
Where was copper discovered?
Arizona and Montana in the 1860’s
What were the benefits of the new mining industry?
Led to new settlements like Virginia City.
provided labour for corporate mining companies which could afford machinery.
What was John Deere’s steel plough?
1837
reduced labour needed in the tough terrain of the west.
What was the McCormick mechanical Reaper?
1831
allowed large areas of grain to be harvested quicker.
When were wind pumps, deep drilled wells and dry farming introduced?
1850’s
When was Joseph Giddens’ barbed wire made?
1874
When was electric fencing introduced?
1886
How did wheat production increase?
from 1.2 billion litres in 1865 to 7 billion by 1900, plus new wheat grains.
What knock-on effect did that have on population?
population grew from 1 million in Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota in 1860 to over 7million in 1900.
How many people were needed to make a state?
600,000
How many Texas Longhorn were there?
5 million (east)
How much were Texas Longhorn worth per head in the west?
$3 - $4 per head
How much were Texas Longhorn worth per head in the east?
$30 - $40 per head
What happened in 1866 in Kansas?
railway built at Abilene
liberalisation of quarantine laws
How was Kansas’ liberalisation laws changed in 1867?
law was re-imposed with entry narrowed to three months in the winter.
How did the amount of cattle transported change between 1867 and 1871 in Kansas?
1867 = 35,000 head
1871 = 700,000 head
How did Chicago benefit from the railway?
allowed 6-10 million head of cattle to be transported there
became a meat packing city
how many cowboys were there on the Plains?
40,000
When were refrigerator carriages introduced?
1875
What impact did the winter between 1885-87 have on the cattle?
severe winter
90% cattle died
collapsed open ranch system
Where did the number of sheep grow?
in the Rockies
How many sheep were in the west by 1900?
25 million
how did the travel time between New York and Chicago change?
1840 took two weeks
1860 took two days
What was the Cumberland Pike?
building began 1808
link the Atlantic to Ohio
made movement easier
extended to Illinois by 1830
when was the first commercial steamboat?
on Hudson River
1807
What was the advantages of steamboats?
reduced cost and time for moving goods
How did the number of boats change on the Mississippi change from 1817 to 1836?
1817 = 17 boats
1836 = 361 boats
How did the number of miles of canals change from 1816 to 1840?
1816 = 100 miles
1840 = over 3000 miles
What was the benefit of the Erie Canal?
reduced travel time form Buffalo to New York from twenty to eight days
What did the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road company do in 1830?
opened 13 mile stretch where wagons were pulled by horses
soon replaced by steam locomotives
By 1840 were there more miles of railway or canal?
railway
What did the government give to Butterfield Overland Mail Company?
1857
gave a contract for mail to be carried between St Louis and San Fransisco
How long did tit take the Pony Express to cross the Plains?
10 days
What was the consequence of the completion of the transcontinental telegraph line’s completion in 1861?
Made the Overland Mail Company and Pony Express obselete
What was the Pacific Railroad Act?
July 1862
chartered the Union Pacific Company to build west from Omaha, while the Central Pacific Company built East from Sacramento
When was the transcontinental railroad completed?
1869
How much railway was there by 1900 west of the Mississippi River?
139,000km
What was the main consequence of the railway being built?
led to the Buffalo herds being killed, which impacted Native American cultures.
What did companies do with their extra lands?
offered long term loans and temporary accommodation to settlers
When did the Mormon church begin?
1830
What did Joseph Smith claim in 1832?
he had a vision of an angel that told him to dig up gold plates from a hillside
What did Joseph Smith do with the gold plates?
translated them into the Book of Mormon
chose witnesses to give a testimony saying they had seen the plates
Why were Mormons unpopular in Kirtland?
Smith claimed to be a prophet and said his followers were chosen by God = angered locals
Mormons believed in hard work and were successful = jealousy
1837 economic crisis collapsed very bank, including Mormon ones. Locals lost their savings and blamed the Mormons
Why were the Mormons unpopular in Missouri?
were against slavery = Missouri is a slave state
people were against Indians = Mormon’s asked them for help
Why were the Mormons unpopular in Nauvoo?
Smith announced men can have more than one wife (polygamy) = it was a sin to Christians
What happened to Joseph Smith?
he was killed by a mob in prison, leading to Mormon houses being attacked in Nauvoo
What did Brigham Young decide after Smith’s death?
that the Mormons needed to move West
decided to travel to the Great Salt Lake Valley
How long was the journey to Salt Lake Valley?
2250 km with 16,000 mormons
Brigham Young’s plan:
February 1846
take Mormons out of Nauvoo
Brigham Young’s plan:
spring 1846
lead an advance party to build rest camps for others
Brigham Young’s plan:
summer 1846
build temporary settlement on Missouri River for Winter
Brigham Young’s plan:
autumn 1846
rest of Mormons joined, 700 died
Brigham Young’s plan:
spring 1847
lead a group to Great Salt Lake Valley and choose a place to settle
What were the four main push factors?
persecution
overcrowding
poverty
lack of opportunities
What were push factors from Southern States?
black Americans persecuted even after being free from the Civil War
crops failed and people were hungry
What were push factors from Eastern States?
shortages of farming land in heavily populated states
few jobs for veterans after the Civil War
What were push factors from Europe?
shortage of good farmland in Norway and Sweden
unemployment and poverty affected English, Irish, German, Russian and Scots
Jews and other religious groups wanted to escape persecution
What were the four main pull factors?
religious freedom
incentives
opportunity
letters home
What actions of the government acted as pull factors?
1862 Homestead Act
1873 Timber Culture Act
1877 Desert Land Act
What actions of railroad companies acted as pull factors?
transcontinental railroad being built
companies sold off extra land to settlers.
Why did letters home act as pull factors?
told exciting stories which encouraged more families to move out West
Impact on the USA:
Geographical
new territories/states
population grew from 38 million in 1869 to 92 million in 1899
Impact on the USA:
economic
new natural and mineral resources
transport and communications
technology in arable farming
only 40% of homesteaders “proved up” their claim
bankruptcy and drought led to 11,000 homesteads in Kansas being repossessed from 1889 to 1893
Impact on the USA:
social
escape overcrowding in the East
lawlessness and alcoholism
escape persecution
destroyed Native American life
Impact on the USA:
Political
not everyone agreed about the way it should expand
political parties used expansion to gain popularity
federal governments used expansion to manage and finance large projects
Impact on the USA:
Cultural
new discoveries with new regions being mapped
increased scientific and geographical understanding
large scale deforestation, mining in areas and destruction of Buffalo
destruction of Native American societies.
