Transcript
Undeveloped region at the edge of a settled area
What is a frontier?
Open for development Can provide adventure &
discovery Can be conquered
Manifest Destiny
1840s ~ Expansion Fever
Belief that it was the American destiny to expand to the Pacific & develop it for future generations
“Great American Desert”Pre-1860, most did not
want to risk moving WestGreat Plains were arid
(dry) and without forests
Difficult to set up farms
Millions of people settled in the Great Plains and beyond
after 1860.
WHY???
Granted land to RRsGov. Promoted
Settlement Transcontinental RRs
completed
RRs sold land to settlers
Homestead Act (1862)Gov. Promoted
Settlement Offered 160
acres of FREE land to anyone who would live on it and cultivate it for 5 years
Free land and RRs were BOTH needed to attract settlers!
Settlers needed a reliable way to trade with the
East.
Who went West?People of all ethnicities,
but most were wealthy, white, native-born farming families
3/4 of migrants were men
Much of the land was only suitable for ranching, not farming
Settlers Faced Hardships
Natural disastersSettlers Faced
Hardships
Droughts
Blizzards
Raids by outlaws or IndiansSettlers Faced
Hardships
Very few treesSettlers Faced
Hardships Had to live in sod
houses
Difficult to farm the land, and new farming inventions could be expensive
Settlers Faced Hardships
2/3 of settlers stayed, but many
were angry by 1890 because they were not very successful
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