The Big Question:

How did settlement

of the West affect

the people living

there and stimulate

the US economy?

Chapter 16: Conquering a Continent, 1854-1890

1. The Republican Vision

A. The New Union and the World

B. Integrating the National Economy

2. Incorporating the West

A. Mining Empires

B. Cattlemen on the Plains

C. Homesteaders

D. The First National Park

3. A Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed

A. The Civil War and Indians on the Plains

B. Grant’s Peace Policy

C. The End of Armed Resistance

D. Strategies of Survival

E. Western Myths and Realities

Chapter 16: Conquering a Continent, 1854-1890

• Republicans used governmental power to reshape and integrate the

West and spread American influence abroad (thesis: not lassiez-faire)

• Treaty of Kanagawa forcefully opened Japan for US fueling and trade

• Seward purchased Alaska in 1867 and urged Hawaiian annexation

Part 1: The Republican Vision

1A: The New Union and the World

• Federal govt. provided loans, land and subsidies to build railroads

tying the nation together, including the transcontinental railroad

• Protective tariffs paid off Civil War debt and shielded US industries

• Supreme Court used 14th amendment to protect business not blacks

• Gold standard controversially limited US money supply and inflation

Part 1: The Republican Vision

1B: Integrating the National Economy

• Homestead Act (1862) gave 160 acres of free land to settlers

• Morrill Act helped fund the creation of land-grant colleges in West

• Rushes created boom/ghost towns by drawing thousands of miners

across the West creating an uneven settlement pattern

• Mining caused environmental damage and enriched corporations

Part 2: Incorporating the West

2A: Mining Empires

• Removal of bison opened Plains to ranching and undermined Indians

• Long Drive of cattle from TX to MO by cowboys lasted 20 years

(1865-1886) until drought, settlers, barbed wire and RRs ended it

Part 2: Incorporating the West

2B: Cattlemen on the Plains

• Cheap/free land, above average rainfall, heavy advertising lured

settlers, speculators, Scandinavians, black Exodusters, Union vets

• Frontier life provided greater equality and voting for some women

• Drought, small farm sizes and commercial farming “busted” hundreds

of thousands and led to environmental damage and the Dust Bowl

Part 2: Incorporating the West

2C: Homesteaders

• Protection of Yosemite and Yellowstone created first ever national

parks encouraging environmental protection and tourism

• Creation of national park lands ignored that the West was not empty

Part 2: Incorporating the West

2D: The First National Park

• Indian anger at corruption and land theft led to the reservation wars

• Sand Creek Massacre and violent Indian reprisals led to a stalemate

P. 3: Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed

3A: The Civil War and Indians on the Plains

• Reformers promoted

assimilation through

schooling and

Christianity while

rejecting both anti-Indian

policies and ignoring

Indian culture

• Supreme Court rulings

and the Dawes Severalty

Act stripped Indians of

citizenship, previous

treaty rights and over 2/3

of their tribal lands

P. 3: Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed

3B: Grant’s Peace Policy

• At Battle of Little Bighorn (Custer’s last

stand) the Sioux wiped out US troops in

the last Indian military victory on the Plains

• After defeating the Nez Perce and Apache,

the Indian wars ended

P. 3: Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed

3C: The End of Armed Resistance

• Many Indians adopted some white culture to survive (blending)

• Wounded Knee Massacre resulted from fears over the Ghost Dance

movement and killed almost 300 Sioux in1891

P. 3: Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed

3D: Strategies of Survival

• Buffalo Bill, contemporaries and later Hollywood created the myth-

ology of the West: savage Indians, wild cowboys, dueling sheriffs

• The 1890 Census Bureau declaration of the closing of the frontier

and Turner’s 1893 frontier thesis that democracy was born from the

frontier helped cement the legend of the west in American psyche

P. 3: Harvest of Blood: Native Peoples Dispossessed

3E: Western Myths and Realties