APUSH Talking Points
The Settlement of the West

 

 

AP Focus: This is the land west of the Mississippi river, it contains remarkable geographic extremes: majestic mountains, roaring rivers, searing deserts and dense forests. The great epics of civil war and reconstruction were remote events hardly touching the lives of the Indians, Mexicans, Asians, trappers, miners and Mormons scattered through the plain and mountains. Here the march of settlement and exploitation continued propelled by a lust for land and a passion for profit. The settlement or exploitation consisted of pioneers in search for gold in places like California and settlers overcoming all obstacles to secure their vision of freedom and opportunity amid the regions awesome vastness. 

 

WESTERN SETTLEMENT BY THE NUMBERS

1% of the population lived west of the Mississippi in 1850, by 1900 nearly 30% of the population lived there

It took 263 years to settle the first 400 million acres; 30 years to settle the second 400 million acres

 

MOVEMENT WEST: Phase I (1800- 1860) Migration and settlement

American free holders settling the plains = the image of the Wild Wild West.

 

PULL FACTORS- Economic opportunities

1817-1900 3x as much land west of the Mississippi is being cultivated

 

1870-1890 3 million people make the trek west, including 2.2 million immigrants

 

Once again, Americans have become rugged individuals because of our experience settling the west. Remember this is our Manifest Destiny !!!

 

 

What do you see in this Progress Paradox?
 

 

MOVEMENT WEST:  Phase II (1890) Consolidation

The role of the federal government in homesteading; the  consolidation in mining and the  creation of bonanza farms

 

Farmers on the Frontier 
Homestead Act (1862) brought settlers to west from East and Europe (basically free land of 160-acre sections); Tough life for settlers on woodless plains (sod houses)  By 1900 b/t 400,000 –600,000 families…By 1880 44% of settlers in Nebraska and 70% on Minnesota and Wisconsin were immigrants

 

http://www.tubechop.com/watch/1838474

 

 

 

Additional Images of Homesteading and the Great American West and Homesteader Diary

 

 

Railroads established towns, sold land after huge land grants (170 million acres ) from the government, worth ½ billion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

America - The Story of Us - The West 

 

Troy 1863 Transcontinental Railroad Visionary, RPI graduate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oklahoma Land Rush
September 16, 1893

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although Oklahoma was originally part of Indian territory, in the late 1800’s the government opened some of the land to non-Indian settlers. This photograph shows an actual “run.” This land rush led to dispossession of Native Americans and the increase of white land claims. In less than 24 hours 2 million acres settled

 

 

 

http://www.miningswindles.com/html/comstock_lode.html

 

 

 WESTERN SETTLEMENT - RESOURCE EXPLOITATION

+	Use to your greatest possible advantage
-	Use selfishly and unethically

What is being Exploited?  Gold, silver and copper!!!  Mining in the West
Between 1860 and 1890, $2 billion in gold and silver mined in the west

Western lands and open range proved ideal for cattle ranching :

 

1.  Railroads opened up Eastern markets for beef
2. Texas longhorns brought in herds of 3000 cattle from Texas to railhead towns such as Abilene and Dodge City

Open ranged ended in 1880s 

1. Harsh winters of 1885 and 1886 wiped out herds – Natural Disasters

2. Barbed wire (invented by Joseph Glidden) allowed farmers to fence range land to keep cattle from grazing

Closing of the Frontier?

1872 Federal Government set aside land to create Yellowstone National Park

1890 census declared that the frontier was closed.

Frederick Jackson Turner's thesis ("The Frontier in American History") stated Frontier was critical development of American democracy ….Self-reliance and independent nature of American culture were fostered by the frontier