Revisiting Manifest Destiny
- Major Stephen Long explored the Great Plains and called them the "Great American Desert."
- John O'Sullivan coined the phrase "Manifest Destiny": The spread of democratic and republican ideas.
- Initial western settlement: Oregon Fever, Oregon Trail, Wi
Hispanic Southwest
- First Europeans in the far west were Hispanics moving northward out of Mexico. Most populous settlements were along New Mexico's Rio Grande Valley.
- California: Thinly spread Spanish-speaking population living in old presido (garrison) towns and ranche
Anglos and Hispanics in the Southwest
- New Mexico: Santa Fe elite incorporated Anglo newcomers into Hispanic society after it became a state.
- California: Anglos quickly replaced almost all Hispanic families by the 1880s.
Anglo-Hispanic Conflict
- Anglos established ranch titles in New Mexico that threatened the communal land of the peasants. Men had to migrate to Colorado mines and sugar-beet fields to find work. Villages were left in the hands of women.
- 1889: Some Hispanics formed masked, nig
Mexican Migrants
- Economy in the Southwest picked up: Railroads, copper mines, cotton/vegetable agriculture, and orchards.
- 1850-1900: Hispanic population increased from 20,000 to 165,000. Given the lowest paying jobs and discriminated against by Anglos.
European Migrants
- Irish, Germans, and British immigrated to the West.
- 1/3 of CA's population was foreign born.
Asian Migration
- Mid-nineteenth century. Driven by poverty.
- Chinese: Australia, Hawaii, and Latin America.
- Indians: Figi and South Africa.
- Javanese: Dutch colonies in the Caribbean.
- Most Asian migrants became indentured servants, but that was illegal in the U.S.
Six Companies
- Powerful confederation of Chinese merchants in San Fransisco's Chinatown.
- Young men worked for them, hoping to earn enough money to go back home.
- Women that came were servants and prostitutes. Some were sold by their parents, while others were entic
Chinese Labor
- Men labored mainly in CA gold fields until the early 1860s, when Central Pacific hired them to build the Transcontinental Railroad.
- Worked in labor gangs led by "China bosses."
- 1869: RR completed. Chinese scattered. Some stayed in railroad construct
Anti-Chinese Agitation
- White workers in CA disliked and discriminated against Chinese workers.
- Late 1870s: Anti-Chinese frenzy climaxed in San Francisco. Mobs threatened to burn the docks of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company where Chinese immigrants debarked.
Dennis Kearney
- Irish teamster and fiercest agitator.
- Led the Workingmen's Party of California under the slogan "The Chinese must go!"
- 1879: Democrats and Republicans joined in and wrote a new state constitution with anti-Chinese provisions.
People of the Hispanic Southwest
- Elite Spanish landowners ruled. Under them were servants, artisans, vaqueros (cowboys), farmhands, and Mestizos (Catholic and faithful to Pueblo heritage).
- Many Pueblos still lived in the Rio Grande Valley, along with the Navajos (descendants of the A
Native Americans of the Great Plains
- 1834: Congress established the Great Plains as Indian Territory, but this didn't last long.
- Pawnees
- Comanches
- Sioux
- Arapahos
- Cheyenne
- Blackfeet
- Crows
- Nez Perc�
Pony Express
- A mail service that delivered mail and small packages across the Great Plains from Missouri to California.
- Men rode on horses. Dangerous job.
- Telegraphs and telegraph lines were one of the reasons that it eventually closed.
Joseph McCoy
- 1867: Built stockyards on the Kansas-Pacific RR to Abeline, Kansas. Encouraged Texas cattlemen to send herds to his stockyards.
- Wanted to ship the cattle from Abeline to the North and the East to sell them.
The Long Drive
- Trails: Goodnight-Loving, Western, Chisolm, and Sedalia.
- 1871-1873: Biggest cattle trailing years.
- Ranchers entrusted their herds to a trail boss who hired 10-14 cowboys, a cook and wagon, and a wrangler. Herd size varied from 500 to 10,000 (average
Sheep Ranching
- Just as important as cattle ranching.
- There were conflicts between cattlemen and sheep herders over grazing rights.
Transcontinental Railroad
- Before the Civil War, the South wanted the transcontinental RR to go through New Orleans, but the North wanted it to go through Chicago.
- After the South seceeded, it was decided the RR would connect Omaha, Nebraska, to Sacramento, California, because
Workers for the Transcontinental RR
- Used Irish immigrants (Paddies) and Chinese immigrants (Coolies) to lay the track.
- Over 20,000 men worked on the RR. Most averaged $2-$5 a week for 100 hours per week. Slept in RR cars and averaged one mile of track each day. Record was ten miles in o
Chinese Exclusion Act
- 1882 (after the Transcontinental RR was complete).
- Banned the immigration of Chinese laborers for the next 10 years.
- Merchants and American-born Chinese would go back to China and return with newborn sons called "paper sons," but immigration continu
How the RR Made Money
- Congress treated the RR companies well because it meant progress. Gave the companies land along where they laid track. Granted a total of 180 million acres.
- RR companies sold land to make money. Became rich through land, not tickets.
- RR could ship g
Railroad Towns
- Towns sprang up along the RR with railroad depots.
- Towns lived and died based on where the RR located. Some became ghost towns while others became boom towns. Ex. Chicago was a sleepy town until the RR came.
- Towns tried to entice the RR to locate th
Building the Railroad
- Took 400 tons of lumber and rail to lay each mile and 500 kegs of black powder daily.
- Union Pacific had to cross the Great Plains and contend with Indians. Had to cover 1,086 miles.
- Central Pacific had to cross the Rocky Mountains and deal with high
Buffalo Bill Cody
- Killed buffalo for the RR workers.
- Supposed to have killed over 4,000 buffalo.
A Chinaman's Chance
- Dynamite was often used to blast through mountains.
- 1,200 Coolies died in premature explosions.
Race to Finish the Railroad
- Newspapers made it into a race. The English were building the Suez Canal in Egypt at the same time.
- 1869: The Union Pacific and Central Pacific met at Promontory Point, Utah. Used a silver hammer and a golden spike to finish the track.
Jay Cooke
- Railroad financier.
- Worked on building a second transcontinental RR called the Northern Pacific. Started in Minnesota and would end in Portland, Oregon.
- Opened offices in Europe to persuade people to immigrate to the land his RR was "opening up" in
Jay Cooke Fails
- 1873: Cooke had put millions into the construction of the RR, but it still had a ways to go.
- Cooke shut down financing for the construction and the Panic of 1873 followed (banks loaned Cooke money, he couldn't sell land after he stopped building the R
Panic of 1873
- New York stock exchange was closed for 10 days.
- Credit dried up. People couldn't borrow money because no one would lend it.
- Factories closed.
- Most major railroads failed. The companies now had thousands of acres of land that no one would buy.
Blame for the Panic of 1837
- Public blamed President Grant and Congress.
- Real Cause: The railroads were borrowing so much money and only being payed in land from the government. When they couldn't sell the land, banks called in their loans, which the railroads couldn't pay off.
Reasons for the End of the Long Drive
- Diminished after 1881.
1.) Range land was fenced (1873: Joseph Glidden invented barbed wire).
2.) Railroads laid track in Texas.
3.) Kansas Quarantine Law kept cattle out of Kansas to protect people from Texas Fever.
4.) Blizzards in 1885, 1886, and 188
Dime Novels
- 1860: Publishing phenomenon appeared that would provide Americans a wealth of popular fiction at a fixed, inexpensive price.
- Offered nationalistic tales of encounters between Indians and backwoods settlers.
- 1890s: Bold color covers showing scenes of
Ned Buntline
- Dime novelist.
- Met William Cody, who had recently battled the Sioux and the Cherokee. Made him into a character named Buffalo Bill in his books.
- Cody used a play Buntline wrote about him as a guide for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, a show he led th
Homestead Act
- 1862
- 160 acres for $10.
- Had to be a citizen or have applied for citizenship and improve (farm) the land for 5 years.
- 10% of this land went to women because they were the heads of their households. The frontier broke down gender roles.
American Fever
- Started in 1860s, height was 1882.
- Europeans were drawn to cheap farm land and other opportunities in America.
- Lots of Swedes and Norwegians immigrated to the U.S.
Exodusters
- 1877: Federal troops left the South. Former slave Benjamin "Pap" Singleton encouraged blacks to form independent communities in the West.
- Those who followed Singleton were called Exodusters because they believed the West would provide them their promi
Kansas Migration
- 1879: A rumor spread that the federal government had set aside all of Kansas for former slaves.
- It was false, but 15,000 blacks moved to Kansas within the next year.
Common Natural Disasters on Great Plains
- Prairie fires
- Tornadoes
- Dust storms
New Innovations on Great Plains
- Steel plow invented by John Deere.
- Reaper invented by Cyrus McCormick.
- New strains of wheat from Russia.
Grange
- An organization that met in a one room schoolhouse to improve the education and social lives of farmers. Most were on the Great Plains.
- Held dances and picnics.
- Men exchanged farming methods.
Dry Farming Method
- Planting seeds deeper in the ground where there is more moisture.
- Bonanza Farms: Huge wheat farm on the Great Plains.
Chicago
- "Capital of the Great Plains.
Desert Land Act
- 1877
- Passed by Congress to encourage the settlement of the driest land out west. Homestead Act land was gone.
- 640 acres for $1.25 an acre.
- Had to irrigate the land within 3 years.
- Government wanted to populate the land to acquire more tax payers
First Negative Effect of the Railroad
- Opened offices in big cities that told people "rain follows the plow." Convinced people that if they plowed the land, it would rain more.
- Early 1870s: There was above average rainfall, so people believed it.
- It went back to dry the next year.
Second Negative Effect of the Railroad
- Charged farmers high rates to ship wheat (#1 crop raised on the Great Plains because it requires less water than corn).
- Cooperatives: Started by farmers, similar to unions. Farmers agreed to buy and sell corn in bulk, which drove up the price. Labor T
Granger Laws
- Called for by farmers to regulate the two big oppressors of farmers.
1.) Established maximum railroad rates.
2.) Regulated grain elevators.
Problems on the Great Plains
1.) 1880s: Called the dry years. Dakotas lost 50,000 people.
2.) Erosion Problems: Good soil blew away after it was plowed.
3.) Wheat Glut: A surplus of wheat because of farming on the Great Plains and in Russia.
Placer Mining
- Mining using simple equipment: picks, shovels, and pans.
Quartz Mining
- Mining that dug deep beneath the surface using black powder, nitroglycerine, or dynamite.
- Nitroglycerine was dangerous to manufacture and very unstable, so miners preferred black powder.
National Mining Act
- 1872
- All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the government are free and open to exploration and purchase by citizens of the U.S. and immigrants who have started the naturalization process.
- Government wanted to increase the population an
Sutter's Mill, CA
- 1848
- California Gold Rush in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
- Miners were called the '49ers.
Comstock Lode
- 1859
- Discovered by Henry Comstock in Six Mile Canyon, NV. Gave rise to the town of Virginia City, NV.
- One of the largest silver deposits ever found in the world. Sticky blue grey mud-silver ore.
- $400,000,000 taken from it in 30 years ($10.5 billio
Pike's Peak, CO
- 1859
- Colorado Gold Rush: Miners were called the '59ers and found more gold than in California.
- There wasn't gold within 50 miles of Pike's Peak, but people still said "Pike's Peak or Bust!
Black Hills, SD
- 1870s
- Last great discovery of frontier gold.
- Black Hills: Home of the Sioux hunting grounds, but by 1876, 10,000 settlers lived there. They had invaded the Sioux reservation.
Leadville, CO
- 1877
- Deep deposits of lead with silver inside.
- 1000 people were coming per week. They established 4 banks, 4 churches, 10 dry-goods stores, and 120 saloons.
- Town leaders boasted about driving out the Chinese by 1879.
Coeur D' Alene, Idaho
- 1878
- Gold
- 1892 Miners Uprising
Coeur D' Alene Strike
- 1892: Union workers in the Coeur D'Alene mining region go on strike. Mine owners responded by hiring nonunion workers and armed guards.
- Violence erupted between union workers protesting wage reductions and increased hours and company guards at a mine.
Events Following the Coeur D' Alene Strike
- 1893: Western Federation of Miners is formed.
- 1894: John Kneebone, a nonunion miner who testified against the union miners, was murdered.
- 1899: Union workers seized a railroad train and used dynamite to blow up one of the world's largest mining conc
Butte, Montana
- 1880s
- Initially gold was discovered, but it soon dried up.
- Copper was the mainstay. The open air method of extracting it caused a yellow smoke to engulf the city daily. By noon it was dark.
Alfred Nobel
- 1867: Received patents for dynamite and blasting caps.
- Found that kieselguhr, a chalky earth, absorbed a lot of the unstable nitroglycerine. The mixture was packed into cylinders called cartridges, which were much more stable. Required a shock rather
Negative Environmental Effects of Mining
- Sediment and tailings from mining were piled up, clogged rivers, and caused floods. Muddied up rivers.
- Deep pits left in the earth.
- Destroyed farmland and killed vegetation.
- Used dangerous chemicals like arsenic and mercury.
Negative Corporate Effects of Mining
- Forced independent miners to become wage workers.
- Lessened opportunities for Americans by hiring cheap foreign labor (Chinese).
- Corporations didn't worry about miner safety (no federal regulation).
- Fires, collapses, silicosis (breathing in silica
Common Characteristics of Great Plains and Indians
1.) Close relationship with nature.
2.) Lived in extended family networks.
3.) Tribe governed by tribal council.
4.) Men: Hunting, war, and trading. Women: Cooking, gathering, children, and preparing hides.
Culture of the Sioux
- Originally lived in Minnesota, but moved to the Great Plains when fish and game became scarce.
- Acquired horses, became nomadic, and hunted and followed the buffalo.
- Sun Dance: Celebrated fertility, age, the hunt, and combat. Followed by fasting.
Sioux Affected by Settlers
- Became increasingly reliant on on the kettles, blankets, knives, and guns the white men brought.
- Suffered from "white" diseases like smallpox, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera (killed more than 50% of all Comanches and Kiowas).
Dakota Sioux Uprising/Dakota Sioux War
- 1862: During Civil War.
- Dakota Sioux were forced from the Dakota territory to east Minnesota. U.S. government agree to pay annuities to all who moved to Minnesota to live on a reservation.
- Congress delayed payments to the Sioux, who began to starve.
Sand Creek Massacre/Chivington's Massacre
- 1864
- Tensions between the Arapaho and Cheyenne and the miners in Colorado increased. Bands of Native Americans had been executing scattered attacks on miners and settlers.
- Territorial Governor John Evans and U.S. Army Colonel John Chivington ordered
Lakota Sioux Uprising/Fetterman's Massacre
- 1866
- U.S. army sent patrols into northern Great Plains to prevent further Sioux uprisings. Nomadic Lakota Sioux feared the loss of their hunting grounds.
- Lakota's hunting grounds went from the Black Hills of South Dakota to the Big Horn Mountains of
Indian Peace Commission
- 1867: Formed by Congress. Proposed the creation of two large reservations on Great Plains:
1.) Sioux reservation in western South Dakota.
2.) Southern Plains Reservation in Oklahoma for Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Pawnee, and the eastern tribes (5 civilized tr
Bureau of Indian Affairs
- Ran the reservations.
- U.S. army dealt with any groups that didn't report to or remain on their reservation.
Fort Laramie Treaty
- 1868
- A conference was held at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, that resulted in a treaty with the Sioux.
- Brought peace between whites and the Sioux, who agree to settle within the Black Hills.
How did Congress cheat on their promises to Native Americans?
- Reduced the annual payments promised to the Native Americans.
- Reduced the size of the reservations.
- White negotiators would purposely leave out provisions that were agreed upon by both sides that were supposed to be in the treaty.
Northern Pacific Railroad Builds West
- Northern Pacific RR was building from Fargo, North Dakota, to Portland, Oregon (across North Dakota and Minnesota - part of a large Sioux reservation).
- Federal government allowed the RR to continue and sent army soldiers to protect the surveyors.
- Wi
Sioux Kicked Off of Their Reservation
- 1875: 2nd Sioux War began when the federal government allowed miners to go into the Black Hills in search of gold (Dakota territory, part of the Sioux reservation).
- Sioux decided to not honor their part of the agreement to live and hunt only on their
Battle of Little Bighorn/Custer's Last Stand
- 1876
- Gold was discovered in the Black Hills. White prospectors flooded onto Sioux land. The army forced the Sioux onto reservations make way for the miners.
- General George Armstrong Custer: Commander of the 7th Cavalry, which was marching across Gre
Nez Perce
- Nez Perce originally located in Idaho. Forced to a reservation in Eastern Oregon and then eventually moved back to an Idaho reservation 1/10 the size of their initial reservation.
- On their way to the new Idaho reservation, 20 warriors attacked a nearb
Chief Joseph
- 1877: Led his people on a 1,500 mile march to escape the confinement of the small reservation. Fought off the U.S. army that pursued them.
- After 4 months of hardship, the remnants of the tribe were cornered and forced to surrender near the Canadian bo
Buffalo Soldiers
- African American soldiers out west engaged in Native American wars. Around 2,000 total soldiers.
- Nicknamed by the Native Americans.
- 9th and 10th regiments.
A Century of Dishonor
- 1881: Written by Helen Hunt Jackson.
- Influential book that outlined the injustices carried out against Native Americans.
- Many called it the Native American equivalent of Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Humanitarian reformers called for the government to suppor
The Ghost Dance
- 1880s
- Many Indian tribes, desperate and plagued by poverty, hunger, and disease, sought a means of salvation to revitalize their traditional culture.
- The Ghost Dance religion emerged as a reaction to government authority and reservation life. Promis
Dawes Act
- 1887 (1870-1900 marked a departure from earlier policies that were dominated by removal, treaties, reservations, and war).
- Authorized the president to carve up tribal lands with each family head receiving an allotment of 160 acres and individuals rece
Citizenship Act
- 1924
- "All non-citizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the U.S.... are hereby declared to be citizens of the U.S."
- 1/3 of Indians were still not considered citizens before this act.
Last Native American Wars
- 1870s: Buffalo were rapidly disappearing. By 1889, very few remained. Killed by settlers crossing the Great Plains, professional buffalo hunters who wanted their hides, sharpshooters hired by the railroads, and hunters who killed them for sport.
- Many
Wounded Knee
- 1890
- Sioux were the first to bear the brunt of the Dawes Act. Federal government opened up their "surplus" land to white settlers, then a summer drought wiped out their crops.
- A holy man from the Paiute reservation in Nevada said he had gone to heav
Samuel Clemens
- A reporter who adopted the pen name Mark Twain.
- Captured the bonanza era of the forty-niners.
- Wrote down a tale that became known as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
Bret Harte
- Twain's fellow San Franciscan.
- Wrote short stories such as "The Luck of the Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat.
Helen Hunt Jackson
- 1884: Published Ramona, a story of a half-Indian girl, to advance the cause of Native Americans.
- Instead, many Californians returned to their Spanish beginnings in architecture and fiestas.
Commercializing California
- Californians commercialized their nice weather.
- 1876: Southern Pacific RR reached Los Angeles and began to advertise Southern California.
- 1885: Santa Fe RR arrived and a furious rate war broke out. Thousands of Midwesterners poured into California.
Californian Food
- 1910: California had basically abandoned wheat.
- Started growing peaches, pears, oranges, apples, and raisins. Carried out in small-scale units with heavy dependence on migrant labor.
- Several Large Companies: Sunkist Oranges, Sun Maid Raisins, and Bl
John Muir
- Young naturalist who demonstrated that Yosemite was the product of glacial action.
- 1890: His romantic, almost religious zeal created the national parks Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant.
- 1892: Launched a campaign to protect national forests by fo
Opponents of Environmentalism
- Los Angeles faced a water crisis and wanted to build a 238-mile aqueduct to the Owens River in southern Sierra. Residents didn't want to flood the beautiful Owens Valley.
- 1913: Muir failed failed to protect the Hetch Hetchy Valley, which was approved