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The New West

The New West. Indians and Miners and Cowboys and Farmers oh my!!!!. Westward Expansion—Exploitation Thesis.

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The New West

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  1. The New West Indians and Miners and Cowboys and Farmers oh my!!!!

  2. Westward Expansion—Exploitation Thesis • The march of manifest destiny was driven by a lust for land and a thirst for profit. A story of short-sighted greed and reckless exploitation causing the near extermination of the remaining Native Americans, scarring the land, and exterminating much of the nature they encountered.

  3. Exploiting Natural Resources • The clear cutting of the nation’s forests were a byproduct of the lumber industry, aggressive mining techniques, and construction of towns and railroads • Removal of the forests changed the nature of soil composition, water flow, and the habitats of native animals • Many Americans became uneasy and called for government intervention and conservation

  4. Westward Expansion—living the dream • A colorful drama of determined pioneers overcoming many different types of obstacles (climate, lawlessness, armed resistance, competition, etc. …) to secure their dreams of freedom and opportunity. • This shaped the character of the nation and demonstrated the reality of the self-made man myth. • The land of opportunity.

  5. Chasing the American Dream • Individuals coming to a West cleared of most human settlement to realize their dreams. • Mining, homesteading, ranching, bonanza farming, etc.

  6. The Bonanza West • Quest to “get rich quick” produces • uneven growth • boom-and-bust economic cycles • wasted resources • "instant cities" like San Francisco • Institutions based on bonanza mentality http://www.seaford.k12.de.us/es/tlee/APHistory/CH17.PPT

  7. Westward Expansion • Economic Expansion in West • 1. results from NA removal • 2. Homestead Act 1862 - 160 acres - white pop. incr. • 3. lumber and cattle industries • 4. gold and silver mining

  8. Land for the Taking:Federal Incentives • 1860-1900—Federal land grants • 48 million acres granted under Homestead Act • 100 million acres sold to private individuals, corporations • 128 million acres granted to railroad companies • Congress offers incentives to development • Timber Culture Act 1873 • Desert Land Act of 1877 • Timber and Stone Act of 1878 http://www.seaford.k12.de.us/es/tlee/APHistory/CH17.PPT

  9. Who was already West? • Native Americans • Mexican-Americans • Trappers • Miners • Mormons • pioneers

  10. Who Went West • Immigrants seeking farms • Chinese migrants to the mines and to the railroads • Black migrants, exodusters, cowboys, and cavalry members (Buffalo soldiers) • 25% of cowboys were black, by 1890 520,000 blacks lived in the west • 18 buffalo soldiers received the Medal of Honor

  11. Buffalo Soldiers • Congress created two Cavalry Regiments the 9th and 10th. • Nick named “Buffalo Soldiers” by Cheyenne and Comanche. • Given the worst assignments. • Fought against Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Billy the Kid and Pancho Villa. http://go.dbcc.edu/behavior_socsci/mckeowm/files/981A88CF40BB4997A22DB882CA1D1260.ppt

  12. Groups Who Moved West Miners Cowboys Railroad Workers Farmers http://www.wccs.k12.in.us/cchs/staff/tarmstrong_files/US%20History%20Powerpoints/Chapter%208%20Powerpoint.ppt

  13. Exodusters • African-Americans • Moved from post-Reconstruction South to Kansas • Several thousand settlers Benjamin “Pap” Singleton “EXODUSTERS”: 50,000+ former slaves who left the post-Reconstruction South looking for better life in Kansas http://salem.k12.va.us/staff/sataylor/Growth%20and%20Expansion/westward.ppt

  14. Miners

  15. The Mining West • Thousands of settlers rushed west to join the mining craze of the 1840s • Silver, iron, copper, lead, zinc, and tin were as important as gold • Real mining required a large labor force and expensive machinery • Most independent miners panning streams never made their fortunes

  16. http://history.oldcolo.com/history/research/mining_1.html#mining_1http://history.oldcolo.com/history/research/mining_1.html#mining_1

  17. Miners • Rich deposits of gold, silver, and copper in the West served Eastern needs • Placer mining: extract shallow ore deposits by hand • Quartz mining: dug deep beneath the surface http://www.washlee.arlington.k12.va.us/ourpages/users/csauter/AP%20US%20History%20Class%20Notes/westernfrontier.ppt

  18. Mining Regions of the West

  19. Mining Bonanza: Camp Life • Camps sprout with each first strike • Camps governed by simple democracy • Men outnumber women two-to-one • Most men, some women work claims • Most women earn wages as cooks, housekeepers, and seamstresses

  20. Law & Order • Crime a serious problem • Prospectors fought over claims; lots of thieves • Self-appointed law groups called vigilance committees • law officials scarce http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-oldwest/OldWestHanging-500.jpg http://www.washlee.arlington.k12.va.us/ourpages/users/csauter/AP%20US%20History%20Class%20Notes/westernfrontier.ppt

  21. Boomtown • Thriving town due to mining or railroad construction • Opera House • European fashions • First elevator [rising room] at hotel in Virginia City http://www.greatstreets.org/MainStreets/MainVirginiaCityHistory.html http://www.washlee.arlington.k12.va.us/ourpages/users/csauter/AP%20US%20History%20Class%20Notes/westernfrontier.ppt

  22. Mining Bonanza:Ethnic Hostility • 25-50% of camp citizens were foreign-born • French, Latin Americans, Chinese hated • 1850--California Foreign Miner's Tax drives foreigners out • 1882--federal Chinese Exclusion Act suspends Chinese immigration for 10 years http://www.seaford.k12.de.us/es/tlee/APHistory/CH17.PPT

  23. Mining Bonanza: Effects of the Mining Boom • Contributes millions to economy • Helps finance Civil War, industrialization • Relative value of silver and gold change • Early statehood for Nevada, Idaho, Montana • Invaded Indian reservations • Scarred, polluted environment • Ghost towns http://www.seaford.k12.de.us/es/tlee/APHistory/CH17.PPT

  24. Comstock Lode • 1859 • Henry Comstock • Six-Mile Canyon, Nevada • Nearly pure silver • Virginia City became a boom town almost overnight http://www.washlee.arlington.k12.va.us/ourpages/users/csauter/AP%20US%20History%20Class%20Notes/westernfrontier.ppt

  25. Pike's Peak Gold rush in 1859 in Colorado, launched city of Denver Beginning in the first few days of 1859, discoveries of placer gold deposits in the mountains showed some of the promise that the Rockies held. By mid-May, deposits of lode gold were found. The cries of humbug were shortly silenced, and by 1860 more discoveries in the mountains began to create a mining-driven economy that would last for several generations http://www.answers.com/topic/pikes-peak-gold-rush When John H. Gregory found rich gold veins near present-day Central City in 1859, an estimated 100,000 persons set out for the gold region, though only half of them reached the mountains. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-53289745.html http://www.kancoll.org/khq/1973/73_1_gower.htm

  26. The Leadville Silver Rush • Thousands were drawn to the area by the discovery of silver in the mid 1870's. As a result of this explosive growth, the city of Leadville was incorporated in January 1878. At an elevation of 10,200 feet, it is the highest incorporated city in the country. By the end of 1879 the population in Leadville reached 18,000. By 1893 the estimated population reached 60,000. This was the period when great fortunes were made and lost throughout the district. • By 1881 there were 14 smelters and reduction plants operating in the Leadville district. Silver production reached a peak of over $11,000,000 in 1880, leveled out at about $10,000,000 for a number of years and then began to decline. http://www.narrowgauge.org/images/tkcok/m00371.jpg

  27. The Black Hills • George Armstrong Custer (left center in light clothing) leads a military expedition into the Black Hills of Dakota Territory in 1874. Custer's incursion violated the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and laid the groundwork for war between the Lakota and the United States when he announced that gold had been discovered in this most sacred of the Lakota's lands. http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/six/

  28. "All you'll find in those hills is your tomb-stone". • Tombstone, Arizona • prospector Ed Schieffelin found silver claims remembered what he was told when he went prospecting in Apache country • 40 million dollars in silver (value of 1.7 billion dollars today) was the result from those and others mines in the area between 1880-1886. http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/az/tombstone.html

  29. Tombstone The OK Corral http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/az/tombstone.html http://www.doctor-roy.com/Photos/okcorral.jpg

  30. Shootout at the OK Corral • After the Cowboys had threatened to kill Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, and Doc if they didn't get out of Tombstone, the whole town watched to see the outcome. They knew that the Earps and Doc would not run. On October 26, 1881, Virgil received word that the Cowboys were gathering at the O.K. Corral, and that they were armed, which was against city law. Doc met the Earps on Fourth Street on their way to the O.K. Corral and demanded that he be allowed to join them in their little walk. Five men, potential killers, lay in wait. When Wyatt Earp and Billy Clanton opened the battle, Doc shot Billy in the chest, then cut Tom McLaury down with a double charge of buckshot. The life was blasted from McLaury before he struck the ground. Although, Wyatt allowed Ike Clanton to run from the fight scene, Holliday was not so generous. He threw two shots at Ike as he fled, missing him narrowly. A bullet from Frank McLaury cut into Doc's pistol holster and burned a painful crease across his hip. Doc's return shot smashed into McLaury's brain. • Less than thirty seconds after the opening shot, three men lay dead and three were wounded. Doc had shot each of the dead cowboys at least once. Virgil had been shot in the leg and Morgan through both shoulders. Only Wyatt Earp has survived the fight untouched.

  31. Frisco, Utah one of the ghost towns • By 1885 over $60,000,000 in zinc, copper, lead, silver, and gold had been hauled away from Frisco by mule train and the Utah Southern Railroad.  • After the collapse of the mine, it began to produce again within a year, but never on the scale of its fabulous past.  • By the turn of the century only fourteen businesses were still alive in Frisco and its population had decline to 500.  By 1912, only twelve businesses existed in the dwindling town of 150.  By the 1920s, Frisco was a ghost town. http://www.legendsofamerica.com/UT-Frisco.html

  32. Ghost Town • After mining veins exhausted • Mines closed • People left searching for new opportunities • Town deserted • Cycle of boom & bust repeated in many towns http://www.washlee.arlington.k12.va.us/ourpages/users/csauter/AP%20US%20History%20Class%20Notes/westernfrontier.ppt

  33. http://history.oldcolo.com/history/research/mining_1.html#mining_1http://history.oldcolo.com/history/research/mining_1.html#mining_1

  34. Railroads

  35. Pacific Railroad Act 1862: • Government gave land to the Union and Central Pacific Railroads to build a transcontinental railroad. • Travel by train was expensive. • Travelers could go coast to coast in ten days or less. http://go.dbcc.edu/behavior_socsci/mckeowm/files/981A88CF40BB4997A22DB882CA1D1260.ppt

  36. Transcontinental Railroad http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog16/feature/index_text.html http://www.ambrosevideo.com/resources/docs/173.JPG

  37. Aid to Railroad Growth legislation encouraged railroad growth by giving railroads one square mile for every mile of track laid. In this 1893 map of an Arkansas county, the dark squares indicate the land given to the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railway Co. for extending its tracks into new areas. In return for the land, the US government received free passage on the railroads for Federal employees, which was useful in moving troops, etc. http://www.mnstate.edu/shoptaug/Industrial%20Power%20and%20Its%20Impact%20on%

  38. Railroads Promote Lands Having received millions of acres of land for their track-laying, the railroads offered land for sale. Pamphlets describing lands and their potential for agriculture were prepared (in dozens of languages) and distributed in the US and Europe. Some rail companies (like the Northern Pacific RR) created “model farms” to show how well the potential farmer could do. http://www.mnstate.edu/shoptaug/Industrial%20Power%20and%20Its%20Impact%20on%

  39. The Building of the Railroads • Built in 1860s • Two companies • Central Pacific Railroad Company • Union Pacific Railroad Company • Met and joined railroad in Promontory, Utah • Date of completion 10 May 1869 • By 1893 there were 6 major railroad companies in the west http://www.worldofteaching.com/powerpoints/history/The%20Railroads.ppt

  40. What immigrant group helped to build the Transcontinental Railroad? ANSWER! Chinese http://salem.k12.va.us/staff/sataylor/Growth%20and%20Expansion/westward.ppt

  41. Why did America need Railroads? • Communication from East to West was not very good • Travelling time from East to West took 6 months + • It would help fulfil ‘Manifest Destiny’ • The U.S. needed to keep up with other countries • Trade links with China and Japan • Help to bring law and order to the West http://www.worldofteaching.com/powerpoints/history/The%20Railroads.ppt

  42. Effect of the Railroads: Quick and easy travel to the West • Previous methods • Wagon Train • Foot • By boat • Pony Express • The railroad turned a 6 month journey into a maximum of 8 days http://www.worldofteaching.com/powerpoints/history/The%20Railroads.ppt

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