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L1- Settling the West (1865-1890) - Coggle Diagram
L1- Settling the West (1865-1890)
Miners and Ranchers
The Growth of the Mining Industry
Boomtowns
1859, Henry Comstock in Six-Mile Canyon
Failed in finding gold
Comstock Lode's discoveries
Brought amany eager prospectors to Virginia City
Generates more than 230 million
Helped the Union finance the Civil war
Tiny frontier towns transformed into small cities
Because the groth of population
Those quickly growing towns were called "Boomtowns"
Vigilance Committees
Enforced the "law and order" of Boomtowns streets
Track and punish the wrongdoers
Let most people repected the law and treat fairly and firmly for accused people
Life in the Boomtowns
Men usually first arrive at ining site
Women followed work in laundires or as cooks
Other than that they work in at "hurdy gurdy" houses
Some women also became soem property owners and community leaders
How boomtowns could end/end
The mining resource for economy would run out
When mines closed, only a few of the boomtowns were able to keep going
By the late 1870s, the economy collapsed, most residents moved on.
By 1930s, the whole Virginia city only left with 500 residents, other towns abandoned becoming "ghost towns"
Mining & Statehood
What do Mining takes? / affect developments
Support many mining towns
Many farmers and ranchers starting to settled the area
Later on in 1889 three new states created, North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota
Siliver was found, attracted another huge wave of prospectors to the town of Tomstone in 1877
The territories grows in economic and mining techniques
New Mining Technology
In late 1800s, mining companies develop new miniing technology- the hydraulic mining
This process affects the enviroment and causes damages, no longer in use
Hydraulic mining
Only use when deposits near the surface ran out
began in California
Negatively effect local enviroment
Early prospectors extracted shallow deposits- placer mining, uses simple tools
Other prospectors used sluice mining, which use to serach river beds more quickly
Ranching and Cattle Drives
Began herding cattle on the Hreat Plains.
Cattles live in the harsh enviroment
Open Range
Opens grassland of the Great Plains and provided land which ranchers can
Cattle Driving begins
Beef is in low prices, so they can't move cattle to eastern markets
During Civil war, the eastern cattle were slaughtered to feed armies of Union and Confederacy
After war, beef price increase suddently, and then ranchers looked for a way and sell them to eastern businesses
Move the cattles as far as the rail road, so the long horns can be sold for huge profit (1860s)
First long drive
In 1866 ranchers start to drove 260.000 of the longhorns to Sedalia, Missouri, most of the cattle didn't survive, but those survived sold for 10 times of the price they brought in Texas
Result
The cowboys get profit, and they make more money from this
So in this huge profit, other trails opend, the route to Abilene Kansas became the major route north
1867-1871, cowboys drove around 1.5 million head of cattle up the Chisholm Trail from Texas ti ither places.
Ranching=Big Business
“range wars' started which farmers and the ranchers competing for more lands
ranchers start using barbed wire to protect their land
After the winter fo 1886-1887, the open farm ended cause large amount of cattle died, new European breeds replaced the longhorns after
So coyboy became a ranch hand
Settling the Hispanic Southwest
United states defeated Mexico in 1848
Spanish mission system had collapsed in the early 1800s
Haciendas, which is land owners who owns big area of land
California's population grew from 14000 to 1000000 in two years cause the California gold rush.
Spanish speakers population live in the mexico region after it is defeated, so there would be the exchaneg of culture in language
Spanish speakers and English speakers would get chance to learn each other's language
Most of the Hispanics in the Southwest worked as vaqueros, which they develop more tools and techniques for manageing cattle. (1870-1880)
In 1889 there happen to be a group of Hispanic new Mexicans which their are English speakers in this group
Within more railroads built in 1880s-1890s, the population of Southwest countinued to increase. This region attracts immigrants from not just Americans and European, but also Mexico.
Barrios- Hispanics settled in neighborhoods.
Farming the Plains
The Beginnnings of Settlement
Homestead Act encouraged settles to move to great Plains
They discovered that wheeat could be grown in the region using new technologies
By 1890s there was no longer a true frontier in the United States because the more of discoveries
Population of Great Plains start to increase steadily inin the decades after civil war
late 1800s, the railroad companies sold land along the rail lines at a low price and provided credit to prospective settlers
Grewat Plains region extends westward to the Rocky Mountains from aroung a line running north and south
Stephen Long, explored the region with an army in 1819, and concluded " almost wholly unfit for cultivation"
Buffalo at the edge of the open country prairie grasses, so Nomadic Native American groups had to hunt them for food, and use them for clothing and shelter
Homestead Act
around 1862 government encouraged settlement on the Great Plains by passing the Homestead Act.
Homestead- a action of tract of public land available for settlement, which a home steader could claim up to 160 acres of land, at the same time can receive title to that land after live there over 5 years
Settlers need to face summer temperatures, and Prairie fires with frequent danger
Difficult life in the Plains
Enviroments getting destroyed, for example grass hoppers eating crops
The Wheat Belt
Dry farming- plant seeds deep in the ground which there woudl be enough moisture for them to grow.
1860s farmers in the Plains were using plowws, seed frills, reapers, and threshing machiens to grow crops, which makes dry farming possible
But unfortunately, those prairie soil can be blown away during dry season.
Sodbusters- which is the name of who plowed the Plains
Most of them lost their homesteads through the combined effects of droght, wind erosion and the overuse of the land
For large landholders t hen can invest in mechanical reapers and steam tractors that made it easier to harvest on crop
In 1880s many of the farmers from the Midwest moved to the great Plains to take advantage out of the cheap land and also farming technology
Wheat belt began at the eastern edge of the Great Plains
New machines is allowed in every singel family to bring in a substantial harvest result on a wheat farm covering several hundred acres.
Some big farms that is covered up to 50,000 acres, those would be called bonanza farms because theu mostly yielded big profits
Hard time for farmers
Drought happened in 1880s struck the Plains
Destroy crops, turning soil to dust
Competition between farmers starts to increase
1890s the glut of wheat cause the price to decrease
Closing the Frontier
on April 22, 1889, government opened one of the last large territories for settlement
More than 10,000 people raced to stake claims in an event known as the Oklahoma Land Rush
Most settlers start to make a fresh start
Native Americans
Many nomades who roamed vast distances, following their main source of food, which is the buffalo
The Dakota Sioux Uprising
First major clash began in 1862, when the Dakota people launched a major uprising in Minnesota
Sioux had agreed to live on a researvation in exchange for annuities or annual payments from the government
By 1862 many lived in desperate poverty and faced possible starvation
little Crow reluctantly agreed to leaf this uprising, he wanted to wage war against soldiers but not civilians
Red Cloud's war
The Dakota Territory was home to another Sioux tribe- the Lakota.
This is a nomadix tribe who fought hard to keep control of hunting hrounds
Chief for the Lakota were Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and sitting Bull, which they leads them
Sand Crreek
In the 1860s, thensions began to rise between the miners comming into Colorado in search of siliver and gold and the Cheyenne and Arapaho, who already lived there
As the number of settlers increased, bands of Native Americans began raiding wagon trains and stealing cattle and horses from ranches
By the summer of 1864, trade had come to a standstill, which at this time dozens of homes had been burned, estimated 200 settlers had been killed
Sand Creek massacre happened
A Doomed Plan for Peace
In 1867 Congress formed an Indian Peace Commission, which proposed creating two large reservations on the Plains
This plan doomed to failure, pressuring Native American leaders into sighing treaties
The Last Native American Wars
Battle of the Little Bighorn
In 1876 prospectors overran the Lakota Sioux reservation in the Dakota Territory to mind gold in the Black Hills, the Lakota saw no reason they should abide by a treaty that American settlers were violating
George A.Custer and the Seventh Cavalry were with the expedition
Eating buffalows
Settlers killed off thousands of the animal for eating, by 1889, there were very few of the animals remained
Flight of the Nez Perce
Farther west, the Nez Pewrce people, led by Chief Joseph, refused to be moved to a smaller reservation in Idaho in 1877
When army came to relocate them, they fled their homes and embarked on a journey of more than 1,300 miles
Finally in October 1877, Chief Joseph surrendered and he and his followers were exiled to Oklahoma
Tragedy at Wounded Knee
Native maerican resistance ame to a final and tragic end on the Lakota Sioux reservation in 1890
The Dawes Act
Daws Act allotted to each head of household 160 acres of reservation land for farming
This plan failed to achieve it's goal