Chapter 16 The Conquest of the Far West - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Chapter 16

The Conquest of the Far WestSlide2

The American Myth

What is it?

What is the Myth of the West?

Is the myth the landscape or the people?

England=knights

Japan=Samurai

France=Musketeer

Spain=ConquistadorSlide3

America=Slide4

West=area west of the Mississippi River

Vast variety of climates, environments, and peoples.

“The West” wasn’t just one thing.

The societies of the Far westSlide5

Lived in the Southwest

Were stationary, agricultural, corn growers

Built cities of adobe houses

Built complex irrigation systems to water their crops

Allied themselves with the Spanish/Mexicans

Caste System

Spanish/Mexicans—held estates and controlled trade

Pueblos—mostly free, middle class

Apache/Navajos Slaves—lower servant class (

Genizaros=Indians without a tribe

The Western Tribes

Pueblo Indians

Pueblo Adobe CitySlide6

Diverse groups of tribes and languages

Some were stationary farmers, other tribes were nomadic

Society based on close and extended family and networks with other tribes

Strong relationship with nature

Tribes divided into “bands” of 500 Indians, each band with its own governing council

Most tribes survived on Buffalo

Skilled and proud warriors

Males were warrior class

These were the most formidable foes whites encountered.

Plains Indians

The most populous Indians in the West

The Nomadic Plains Indians Buffalo HuntersSlide7

Plains Indians

The Weaknesses of the Plains Indians

Inability to unite against White aggression and expansion

Inter-tribal conflicts distracted them from the real threat

Vulnerable to white/Eastern diseases

Economically and technologically weaker than WhitesSlide8

Hispanic new Mexico

Many Spanish/Mexicans stayed in territories that became the United States as territories gained statehood

Anglo-American encroachment meant opportunity for wealth for some but the end of communal societies and their system of economics for most

When the United States took territorial control of New Mexico, they ignored the Mexican Ruling Class and created a government comprised almost exclusively of Anglo-Americans (Whites)Slide9

Hispanic California and Texas

Most of California and Texas were settled by Spanish/Mexicans or Indians

Missionaries and soldiers were the first White people to settle Spanish California

Missionaries tried to convert Indians and Mexicans to protestant

christianity

Soldiers gathered Indians into communities

AS Whites moved in, the social structure of the region changed

Many Hispanics become part of the impoverished working class

Hispanics lost land

Most powerful Hispanics watched as their power dwindledWhite ranchers took lands and political power away from Hispanic landowners and farmersSlide10

The Chinese Migration

Chinese were traveling to the United States to find prosperity

After 1849 Gold Rush, Chinese migration to California increased dramatically

By 1880 200,000 Chinese and settled in California

1/10 of California’s total population

1850’s Chinese were welcome as the “Most worthy classes of newly adopted citizens”

As Chinese became successful Racism began to growSlide11

Miners of gold—”foreign Miners tax”

Owners of small business

Agricultural Workers

Railroad employees—a variety of jobs

By 1865

12,000 Chinese workers worked on the Transcontinental Railroad

Chinese made up 90% of Central Pacific workforce

The Chinese Laborer

Most Chinese Immigrants worked as Semi-Skilled Laborers like:

Chinese Railroad WorkersSlide12

The Chinese Migration

By 1900 half of the Chinese Population in the US lived in cities

Chinatowns

As the Chinese became a larger part of American culture racism against them also grew

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act

Banned Chinese immigration into the US for 10—no Chinese let into the country

Banned citizen ship for those already here

Grew from fears that Chinese would cause a labor shortage

Act passed again in 1892, then again in 1902 when it was made permanentSlide13

Migration from the east

Settlers came West in the millions after the Civil War instead of by the thousands before the war

Transcontinental Railroad started brining people west in 1869

They came for a variety of reasons—like what?

The government helped

Homestead Act of 1862

160 acres for almost nothing if the owner occupied it for 5 years and made improvement to the land

Legislators didn’t realize the rising cost of farming

160 acres was too small for grazing animals (cattle, sheep)

400,000 used the Homestead act to move WestSlide14

Settlers came West for

Gold and Silver

Pasture lands to raise cattle and sheep

Cheap farmland and high demand for industrial and agricultural crops

But there were problems with the West

Water sources were scarce

People were not well supplied

Indians threatened their safety

Migration from the eastSlide15

Government Assistance to “Civilizing” the West

Timber Culture Act –1873

160 more acres if people planted 40 acres of trees

Why would the government want settlers to plant trees?

Desert Land Act—1877

640 more acres as long as the farmers irrigated their land within 3yrs

Why would the government want an irrigated West?

Timber and Stone Act—1878

Sold 1,280 acres for $2.50 an acre for mining and lumber use

Fraud ran rampant

The Federal Government funded local governments with no local tax baseSlide16

The Changing Western Economy

Expansion West was tied to the growing industrial economy of the East

Mining, timber, ranching, farming

The West replaces the South as the prime supplier of raw materials to fuel the Northeast’s Industrial economy

Growth of corporations

Labor market in the West was volatile as need for labor rapidly changed

Mines being emptied of minerals

Farms harvesting their crops

The West had the highest level of single adults in the country

Women find work as household labor (laundry/cooking) or as saloon girls and prostitutesSlide17

The Changing Western economy

There was very limited social and economic mobility in the West.

Did this live up to the myth and dream of the West?

Distribution of wealth in the West was the same as in the East

Racially Stratified Working Class

Western working class was very multiracial

White workers occupied upper tier jobs (managers, supervisors, skilled labor)

Non-whites (blacks, Chinese, Mexican/Spanish, Indian) occupied lower tier jobs

A person’s race told employers white type of job they were best suited forSlide18

Arrival of the miners

1860-1890=mining boom in the West

Started with hand or pan mining

Shallow deposits of gold and silver

Corporations

Had the capitol to invest in deeper mining

Usually for quartz and lode (both used for jewelry, industrial abrasives, and cement)

Cities like Denver become large industrial mining towns

Comstock Lode (1859)

Nevada MineProduced no supplies of its own, got everything from trains bringing goods from CaliforniaTypical of industrial mining townsOver a ten year period until 1880, the Comstock mine produced $306 million dollars in minerals Slide19

In today’s dollars that would be over

$

6,950,000,000.00Slide20

Mining Life

Mining towns boomed then declined after deposits were mined out

Many mining towns were abandoned after mines closed

These became what are known as Ghost Towns (Barstow California)

Culture in Mining towns was rough

Lawlessness ruled

Almost all the citizens were men

Prospectors came first

Most mining towns mined

Gold, silver, copper, or quartzSlide21

Gender Imbalance

Men outnumbered woman in mining towns 60 to 1

Most woman who did live in these towns came with their husbands and engaged in “normal” woman’s work around the home or in some cases outside the home as cooks and laundresses.

Some young, single woman worked as tavern keepers, waitresses, dancing girls, and even prostitutes. Slide22

The Cattle Kingdom

Open Range

Open grasslands owned by no one that cattle owners used to transport cattle to market (usually St. Louis) and for free grazing (feeding) of their cattle along the way

Was eaten away at by fencing, and farmers

Texas had largest cattle herd—5 million head of cattle

Cattle Industry Needed

Railroads

Cattle trails

Open range

Hard labor—cowboys Summer and Winters of 1885-1887 killed grasslands and decimated the herds with starvation, fever and illnessExpansion of Cattle industry happened too fastSlide23

Women in the west

1850—250,000 woman owned land in the west

Woman gained political power in the West first

Woman won the right to vote in the West firstSlide24

Dispersal of the Tribes

White tribal policies

Federal Government viewed tribes simultaneously as independent nations and as wards of the state

History of the U.S./Indian relationship is one of “endless broken promises”

Concentration Policy

New reservation policy brought on by white demand for land

1850

Each tribe given its own reservation instead of one big one

Divided the tribes further

Scatters Indians to undesirable locationsSlide25

Indian Peace commission

1867

Composed of soldiers and civilians

Plan moved all Plaines Indians into 2 large Reservations

Indian Territory (Oklahoma)

Dakotas

Commission tricked and bribes tribal leaders to agree

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Poorly managed, poorly trained, much corruptionGovernment did not respect Indian life style

Agents of the Bureau focus on white needsSlide26

Decimation of the Buffalo

Starting in the 1850’s whites begin killing buffalo at a rapid rate to feed westward expansion

After the civil war Buffalo hides became a fashion statement and phenomenon

Professional hunters killed for hides and for railroads to clear them out of their way

By 1875 the Southern Herd of eliminated

1865—15 million buffalo in the US

1875—fewer than 1,000 buffalo in the United StatesSlide27

The Indian Wars

1850’s-1880’s constant fighting between whites and Indians

US Army and Cavalry became involved in protecting the White people of the West

Conflict between US forces and the Indians

insued

Indian Hunting

White

vigilanties

start hunting Indians for sport

Bounty hunters kill notorious IndiansCalifornia Indian population before the Civil War: 150,000—after: 30,000Slide28

Dawes Severalty Act

1887

Congress abolished the practice where tribes owned their reservations communally

Split the tribal lands into private ownership within the tribe

160 acres to each head of the household

80 acres to a single adult

40 acres to each dependent child

Act pushed assimilation

Christianity forced into reservationsSlide29

The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmers

Farmers moved into Plaines region challenging Dominance of Ranchers

Conflict ensued

1870 farmers

1870’s-80’s farmers flourished

Farmers started producing too much food, prices fell and the market declined

The Surge

Railroads opened supply chains to farmers, opened markets, and speed, made new areas accessible

Railroad companies became important landowners in the West

Subsidiary lines spread through the West opening expansion and creating many cities and townsSlide30

Problems of Farming in the West

Fencing

Farmers begin fencing off the west to control free grazing and identify their property

Very expensive

Creates barbed wire

Irrigation

Water sources other than rainfall

Very expensive

Falling Crop PricesCredit was easy to obtain but bad crops could leave farmers deeply

endebtedSlide31

Commercial Agriculture

Late 1880’s independent farmers replaced by commercial farming

Industrial agricultural owned by corporations

Cash crops

Sold one crop just money

Farms were not self-sufficient

Made farmers dependent on Bankers, railroads, and markets

World Wide over production created a long period of economic decline for agriculture in the 1870’s-1880’s

By 1900 most farmers were business men who sold their product on the world market which were highly unstable.