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Building the Transatlantic Railroad: Challenges and Opportunities

Learn about the Homestead Act, settlement on the Plains, and the impact of the Transcontinental Railroad on the USA's development in the 1860s. Explore reasons for the railroad's construction, economic benefits, and challenges faced by homesteaders.

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Building the Transatlantic Railroad: Challenges and Opportunities

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  1. Homestead Act and Pacific Railroad Act.L/O: To evaluate the reasons for the construction of a Transatlantic railroad. Key topic 4- settlement and conflict on the Plains 1861-77 Starter: I think a railroad might help a community develop because... Key words to include: Economy, trade, travel.

  2. Homestead Act: In 1862 the US government introduced a Homestead Act. The aim of this was to encourage people to move west. They were offered 160 acres of land for free, as long as they lived on it and farmed it for five years. However, life on the Plains was tough, and the Homesteaders faced many challenges. Task: Explain what challenges they would have faced from the pictures below?

  3. Settling the Plains • In 1862, while the Civil War was being fought in the East, the United States Congress passed the Homestead Act. • This law opened the Great Plains to settlers giving 160 acres of land to any person who would live there for 5 years.

  4. Settling the Plains • Between 1862 and 1900, about 80 million acres of public land on the Great Plains was settled. • The people who settled these lands became known as the “homesteaders.”

  5. The house pictured above is made out of lumps or sods of earth. The family who proudly posed for this photograph built this home themselves with hardly any building materials. These people were known as the homesteaders and their homes called sod houses.

  6. Homesteaders • Many more people went west after the Civil War ended in 1865. Thousands of freed black slaves became homesteaders.

  7. Why did they go to the Plains? • Land in the far west - California and Oregon - was too expensive by 1860 for most settlers. Farming on the Great Plains was the only option. • The government encouraged the settling of the Plains.

  8. Railroads and Homesteads ? ? • Railroad owners wanted people to settle these lands because they knew that more settlers would mean more business. • Settlers would use the railroads for travel, and farmers would use the railroads to transport their crops to market. • The railroad advertised land sales in newspapers all over the United States and in other countries.

  9. You will need to answer the following questions whilst/after watching the video clips: • In what ways did transcontinental railroads transform (change) America? • In what ways did the railroads help the American economy to grow? • Why did the Government give ‘land grants’ to railways? • What groups of people made up the workforce that built the railroads? • Extension: How did the railroads help the industrial revolution spread from the East of America to the West? • http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad# • http://www.history.com/topics/homestead-act/videos/american-railroad?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false

  10. Map showing the starting points for the building of the Transatlantic Railroad:

  11. Very good five part documentary- showing the development of the Transcontinental railway- Takes 50 minutes to show. Make notes as you watch. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3OM_UnnCNM&list=PLTDhARL1VkN5bOel3y3N-VgYnawNmkARP • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOn0RFFOr1s&index=2&list=PLTDhARL1VkN5bOel3y3N-VgYnawNmkARP • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5WxDvs3cB8&index=2&list=PLTDhARL1VkN5bOel3y3N-VgYnawNmkARP#t=235.1718194 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RK2Zxpm8Dk4&index=2&list=PLTDhARL1VkN5bOel3y3N-VgYnawNmkARP#t=4.8224357 • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzbCkMjdZKE&index=2&list=PLTDhARL1VkN5bOel3y3N-VgYnawNmkARP#t=4.4135007

  12. The Transcontinental Railroad.L/O: To evaluate why railroads were built across the Great Plains to the West Key topic 4- settlement and conflict on the Plains 1861-77 Starter: how did the railroad develop the USA in the 1860s? Key words to include: Economy, trade, travel.

  13. Read through the sheet with the title ‘Why were railways constructed across the Great Plains to the West?’ • Task: Using the above sheet AND the notes you have previously made from the videos, fill in the following table: • What were the main reasons why the Railroad was built? • Transport Extension: Explain which was the greatest reason why the railroad was built. The greatest reason for the railroad being built was… This is because…

  14. Plenary: What was the greatest impact of the Transcontinental railway? • Task: Prioritise the following information, putting the greatest impact of the transcontinental railway at the top. • It took six years to build. • It was the world’s first transcontinental railroad. • 2000 men were killed during the process of building it. • It was the first single line of track that stretched across America from the Atlantic to the Pacific. • 2000 miles of wilderness could now be used for settlement. • The journey used to take 6 months to travel by wagon train, killing 10,000 immigrants due to the journey being so dangerous. • The same journey could now be completed in 7 days by railroad and was a lot safer. • The transcontinental railroad meant that it now could truly be called the United States of America.

  15. 9 mark question • Create a clear and organised summary of the reasons for building of the railroads across the Great Plains in the 1860s? • Point 1- Political support • Point 2- Unite the country • Point 3- Trade • THEN PEER ASSESS

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