Westward Expansion. After the Civil War, railroad building exploded in the US. In 1869, the first railroad spanning the US was completed: the Transcontinental.

Westward Expansion

After the Civil War, railroad building exploded in the US. In 1869, the first railroad spanning the US was completed: the Transcontinental Railroad

As the railroads moved farther West, they brought settlers with them.

In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act to encourage people to move west. This act gave 160 acres of free western land to the head of any household. By 1900, 600,000 people had taken advantage of the government's offer.

Suddenly, these white settlers found themselves moving onto Native American land. Needless to say, the Native Americans were not happy about that.

As more and more white settlers moved west, fighting broke out among the western tribes like the Sioux, Cheyenne, and Apache, and the white settlers.

Sitting Bull

Geronimo

Crazy Horse

Chief Joseph

Most tribes were rounded up and sent to large tracts of land called reservations, which were set aside for the Indians. Some decided to fight.

One of the saddest events happened in 1864 when 150 peaceful Cheyenne were slaughtered by the Army in the Sand Creek Massacre in Colorado. Those killed were mostly women and children.

In June, 1876, US General George Custer led the 7th Cavalry against the Sioux and Cheyenne near the Little Bighorn River in Montana.

He thought there were only a couple of hundred warriors camped on the plains. There were actually as many as 8,000. When Custer attacked, the warriors surrounded him and his men, killing every one of them. This is called Custer's Last Stand.

In December, 1890, the Army took 350 Sioux to a camp at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. During a weapons search, a shot was fired, and the army opened up with a cannon. Within minutes, nearly 300 Indians were dead, and their corpses were left to freeze on the ground. The Battle of Wounded Knee brought the Indian Wars to a close.

In an effort to restore peace, Congress passed the Dawes Act in 1887. This act tried to "Americanize" the Indians by breaking up the reservations and giving 160 acres to the head of each Native American household. All the land left was then sold to white settlers. By 1932, 2/3 of all reservation land belonged to whites.

The people who came west found the land on the Great Plains unsuitable for large-scale farming. So they started using the plains to graze thousands of beef cattle on the open range.

There were no fences out there at first. Cattle just wandered around in herds, identified by brands, and managed by cowboys.

Remember, the populations of eastern cities was skyrocketing because of industrialization and immigration. The people in the cities needed food, so agents came to the west, bought cattle from ranchers, loaded them on trains, brought them to the eastern cities, and sold them to slaughterhouses.

The cities where cows were driven by cowboys to be loaded on trains suddenly went from being sleepy little tiny villages to wide-open boom towns with exploding populations.

Cities like Abilene, Kansas, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Denver, Colorado came to be called Cowtowns after their main money source.

The open range ended as quickly as it began, due to overgrazing and extended bad weather. But the thing most responsible for ending the open ranging of cattle was barbed wire.

Invented by Joseph Glidden, barbed wire was cheap and easy to put up. It allowed ranchers to change to raising small herds of high quality cattle.

The federal government supported famers and ranchers by financing agricultural education. The Morrill Act gave federal land to the states to build agricultural colleges.

Agricultural researchers developed grains for dry soils and techniques for dry farming. One of the most important inventions for taming the west was the steel windmill.

In regions with little rainfall, the steel windmill could bring water from deep underground for use in the household and for irrigation.

In the late 1800s, farmers were experiencing unpredictable times. Crop prices rapidly rose and fell, and many farmers who had borrowed money to buy land couldn't make their payments. They lived under the constant threat of foreclosure.

Furthermore, railroads and banks had taken ownership of 1,000s of acres of good western farmland, and railroads were charging very high prices for crop shipping and storage. Why could they do this? There was no COMPETITION!

In response to this situation, Oliver Hudson Kelley started an organization of farmers called the Grange. The Grange taught farmers how to organize and how to sponsor laws to regulate railroads.

In 1892, farmers took a step beyond just organization: they formed their own political party, the Populist Party.

The Populist Party sought to lift the burden of debt from farmers and other workers, and to give the people a greater voice in their government.

What did the Populists want?-An increase in the money

supply (which would then cause a rise in prices for goods)

-A federal loan program for farmers

-Single terms for Pres. And vice-Pres.

-A secret ballot in all elections-A required 8-hour work day-Restrictions on immigration

The Populist Party was successful in America until the election of 1896. The Populists and Democrats both nominated William Jennings Bryan. The Republicans nominated William McKinley.

BryanMcKinley

McKinley won, and the Populist Party rolled into the Democratic Party. The movement left the US with the message that people could organize for political power. Many of their reforms were later adopted as law.

Summary: more than anything else, the settlement of the west was brought on by railroads. The RRs did great things for the country, but carried with them tough times for Native Americans and farmers. Just like most things, good and bad could both be found in the effects of the railroads on the Wild West.