Western Expansion (1 Jan 1860 Jahr – 1 Jan 1890 Jahr)
Beschreibung:
- The west coast was already settled, but not the rest of the West, because of the Great Basin (all desert land)
- Now the Great Basin and the rest of the West starts being settled
ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
- Est. in 1849 to handle domestic matters, including exploration of the Western wilderness, regulation of territorial govts., oversight of Native Americans, management of public parks
- It's responsibilities sometimes conflicted (ex. protecting Native American rights vs. selling federal lands)
FACTORS THAT MADE SETTLEMENT POSSIBLE
- Military defeat of Plains Indians (Sand Creek Massacre)
- Building of the railroads (transcontinental railroad finished 1969)
- New agricultural technology: dry farming, deep plowing, steel plow, wind mill, barbed wire
- Legislation assisting in western settlement
THE THREE FRONTIERS
MINING
- Started with CA Gold Rush (1848)
- Mining towns become ghost towns in just a few years
- Shift from individual mining to mining companies (deep shaft mining)
- Companies import labor from Latin America, China, Europe --> massive wave of xenophobia (ex. Chinese Exclusion Act)
CATTLE
- RRs open national market for beef
- Long drive dies quickly due to barbed wire and overgrazing
FARMING
- Supported by the Homestead Act
- Hundreds of thousands migrate to try western farming
- 2/3 of farms fail by 1900
LOSS OF MEXICAN & NATIVE LAND
- After the Mexican-American War, Mexican and Native Americans began losing their lands as Anglo Americans moved in and made fraudulent claims over landownership
- Both groups resisted the taking of their lands by Anglo Americans and held raids to intimidate new immigrants
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