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Resources, Products, Markets Part 1 Building the Transcontinental Railroad

Resources, Products, Markets Part 1 Building the Transcontinental Railroad. Ranking the Railroad— Think, Pair, Share. Transportation of Resources—Vocabulary. A _________ is something used for a particular purpose. A _________ is something made by man or machine.

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Resources, Products, Markets Part 1 Building the Transcontinental Railroad

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  1. Resources, Products, MarketsPart 1Building the Transcontinental Railroad

  2. Ranking the Railroad—Think, Pair, Share

  3. Transportation of Resources—Vocabulary • A _________ is something used for a particular purpose. • A _________ is something made by man or machine. • A _________ is a place where goods are sold.

  4. Transportation of Resources—Vocabulary • A _________ is something used for a particular purpose. • A _________ is something made by man or machine. • A _________ is a place where goods are sold. resource

  5. Transportation of Resources—Vocabulary • A _________ is something used for a particular purpose. • A _________ is something made by man or machine. • A _________ is a place where goods are sold. resource product

  6. Transportation of Resources—Vocabulary • A _________ is something used for a particular purpose. • A _________ is something made by man or machine. • A _________ is a place where goods are sold. resource product market

  7. Paragraph 1 The first Transcontinental Railroad has been called the engineering marvel of the 19th century and a flat-out swindle; it opened new economies in the American West but used up large quantities of its natural resources; it began one way of life on the Great Plains, and destroyed another. The Transcontinental Railroad was the technology that allowed the white man to achieve his Manifest Destiny. It was how we were going to make this all one country.

  8. Paragraph 1 Big Idea The Transcontinental Railroad was the advance in technology that allowed the white man to complete his manifest destiny.

  9. Paragraph 2 The rush to the gold fields in the West influenced the entire nation. After the gold rush, some people returned to the East while others stayed and made the West their home. There were a lot of people traveling back and forth between the coasts.

  10. Paragraph 3 Because of this in 1862, Congress decided to build a transcontinental railroad. This railroad would stretch across the country and connect the East with the West, a huge task that needed a big workforce. The Union Pacific Railroad hired many immigrants from Ireland and other European countries to help it build tracks westward from Omaha, Nebraska. The Irish were gradually replaced as the transcontinental railroad went West where Asian American labor was cheaper.

  11. Paragraph 4 The Central Pacific railroad hired many Chinese immigrants to help it build tracks eastward from Sacramento, California. This group of workers faced big obstacles when they reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Dynamite had to be used to blast tunnels through the solid rock. The tracks were often laid on steep, rocky banks, and the workers had to build bridges for the trains to cross.

  12. Paragraph 5 In spite of the dangers they faced, the Central Pacific's Chinese immigrant workers received just $26-$35 a month for a 12-hour day, 6-day work week and had to provide their own food and tents. White workers received about $35 a month and were furnished with food and shelter. Incredibly, the Chinese immigrant workers saved as much as $20 a month which many eventually used to buy land.

  13. Paragraphs 6 and 7 Despite their labors, both the Chinese and Irish immigrants working for the railroads became the objects of discrimination and violence. The two tracks finally came together in Promontory, Utah, on May 10, 1869. To mark the event, the last spike driven into the railroad tracks was made of gold.

  14. Paragraphs 3-7 Big Ideas The two railroad companies mainly hired immigrants from China and Ireland to help build the tracks. Both groups often faced discrimination and violence at the hands of the white workers.

  15. Paragraph 8 Once the transcontinental railroad was finished, people and goods could cross the country in just over a week. Before the railroad it could take months. Now you could get on a train in Chicago and travel to San Francisco much cheaper and much safer than the wagon train. The American population of the West exploded. Once settlers the Homestead Act showed settlers there was useful land to farm and ranch on the Great Plains, American Indians were forced to move again. The land would be fenced and plowed, the buffalo nearly wiped out, and the Native Indian population moved out of sight on land no one else wanted.

  16. Paragraph 8 Big Idea •  The Homestead Act gave settlers 160 acres of free land on the Great Plains. • The reduction of the buffalo population led to a lifestyle change for many Plains Indians—from hunters to farmers. • American Indians were forced to relocate from their homelands to lands set aside by the government called reservations.

  17. Paragraph 9 Sometime between the coming of the railroad and 1900, the frontier disappeared without notice and ceased to exist. For the American nation, drawn irresistibly toward its manifest destiny, had gone west.

  18. Homework Complete page 6, #1-#5. Quiz on RPM Big Ideas on Thursday.

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