Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
Central Pacific Railroad near
Salt Lake, late 1860s,
photographed by Alfred Hart
(1816–1908)
Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West



The Societies of the Far West
Many “Wests”: Highly varied
topography - flat plains, high mountains,
deserts, lush forests, etc.
Many Peoples: English-speaking
migrants to the West did not find empty
and uninhabited lands, but one with
many peoples:
 American Indians
 Mexicans
 Asians
 French
 British Canadians
 Metís people (mixed race)
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“Mount Rainier” (1898) by
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)
Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– The Western Tribes: Some resettled from the East,
but most were indigenous to the region.
 West Coast: Chinook, Chumash, Serrano, etc. Generally not
nomadic; relied on fishing, hunting, and even whaling. Many lived in
wooden longhouses.
 Southwest: Apache, Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, and Zuni. Not nomadic;
farmers who relied on elaborate irrigation systems in this arid region.
 Resettled to “Indian Territory” (Oklahoma) from East of the
Mississippi: Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole, and Cherokee.
Many had been farmers and even had plantations before removal.
 Northern Plains Indians: Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne in the
Northern Plains. Many were horsemen who relied on the hunting of
buffalo.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
“Buffalo Hunt, Chase” (1844) by George Catlin (1796-1872)
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– Indian Disadvantages
 Disease: Indian populations were highly vulnerable to infectious
diseases that Euro-Americans brought West, like a smallpox.
 Environmental Vulnerability: Euro-American incursions on tribal
lands interfered with traditional ways of life by fencing off areas for
farms and ranches.
 Plains Indians and Buffalo Eradication: Federal authorities did not
sponsor mass buffalo killings, but failed to stop them, knowing their
destruction undermined the Indian way of life. In 1850 there were 13
million wild buffalo on the Great Plains; by 1880, there were only a
few hundred.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– Hispanic New Mexico
 Spanish and Mexican Rule: The Far West had been a part of
the Spanish Empire for centuries, and then became a part of the
Mexican Republic when it achieved independence in 1821.
 Economic Activity: Spanish settlers mainly practice cattle and
sheep ranching.
 Mexican-American War (1846-1848): U.S. gains present-day
states of California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of
Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,
and Wyoming (Texas had joined right before the war,
triggering it).
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– Hispanic New Mexico
 Taos Indian Rebellion: In early 1847, Mexicans and Pueblos
rebelled against the still forming U.S. military government, killing
the governor. The revolt was savagely suppressed by U.S. forces,
starting a slow process of pacifying the area’s tribes: Pueblo,
Navajo, Apache, etc.
 Anglo-Americans: When railroads
are built through the region in the
1880s and 1890s, Anglo-Americans
begin to move in in greater numbers
to start mining and ranching.
Taos Pueblo, built ca. 1000-1400 A.D.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– Hispanic California
 Spanish Settlement: Began with a string of Franciscan missions along the
Pacific coast in the late 1700s, including San Diego (1769), San Gabriel
(1771), San Francisco (1776), Santa Barbara (1786); there were 21 built
between 1769 and 1823.
 Mexican Independence: Weakens mission system by 1830s as republican
Mexico reduces the power of the Church.
 Californios: A class of elite Mexican landholders emerges after the missions,
gathering up giant estates west of the Sierra mountains.
 Anglo-American Onslaught: The discovery of gold and the acquisition of
California by the U.S. in 1848 meant disaster for the Hispanic landholders;
many were violently driven from their lands by white prospectors or through
fraudulent land deals.
 Dispossessed Hispanics: Mexicans and Mexican-Americans increasingly
were pushed to the lower end of the the state’s working class, living in
clusters called barrios in places like Los Angeles.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded 1776
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– Hispanic Texas
 Texas Independence: White American cotton planters began to move
into East Texas in substantial numbers in the 1820s, and outnumber
the Mexicans by the 1830s; the Anglos fight a successful war of
independence in 1835-36, and Texas becomes the “Lone Star
Republic” until joining the Union in 1845.
 Mexican Landholders Dispossessed: As in California, Mexican
landholders were dispossessed through disadvantageous business
deals or outright force. Mexicans increasingly were forced into being
landless unskilled laborers in agricultural or industrial work.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– The Chinese Migration
 Global Migration: Chinese were not only coming to U.S., but also to
Hawaii, Australia, South Africa, and the Caribbean, often as
indentured servants (derogatorily called “coolies”); almost all coming
to the U.S. came by paying their own way and were not “coolies.”
 Gold Rush: Chinese immigration to California takes off in 1848;
25,000 came by 1851, while by 1880, there more than 200,000 in the
U.S. Chinese gold prospectors faced discrimination, including many
California state laws in the 1850s and also violence at the hands of
competing whites..
 Transcontinental Railroad: Starting in 1865, 12,000 Chinese found
work building the Central Pacific railroad, but experienced horrible
working conditions. When the railroad was completed in 1869, many
lost their jobs and flocked to cities.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– The Chinese Migration
Chinese railroad
laborers on the
Central Pacific
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– The Chinese Migration
 “Chinatowns”: In many western cities, Chinese areas emerged, with
the largest growing in San Francisco.
• Benevolent Associations: Known as the “Six Companies” in San Francisco,
these acted as employment brokers, unions, dispute arbitrators, and social
science providers.
• “Tongs”: These secret societies sometimes acted as crime organizations,
dealing in prostitution and opium.
• Work: Chinese mainly worked as laborers, servants, and factory workers, but
also opened small businesses, especially laundries and restaurants.
 Sex Ratio: In 1860, the ratio of Chinese men to women was 19-to-1;
by 1890 it was still high: 27-to-1. Many Chinese women were
imported as prostitutes, so an 1875 Federal law forbid the practice,
but was used against nearly all female migrants.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– Anti-Chinese Sentiments
 State Laws: Legislation persecuting the Chinese in California began
to be passed in the 1850s.
 White Labor Movement: Working-class whites complained about
Chinese willingness to work for lower wages, leading to Denis
Kearney’s Workingmen’s Party of California in 1878, lobbying for a
halt to Chinese immigration. About one-third of white settlers came
from the South, and brought their racial attitudes with them.
 Chinese Exclusion Act: Responding to West Coast pressure,
Congress passed a law in 1882 denying further migration and
naturalization for Chinese already in the country. The law was in
effect for ten years, was renewed in 1892, and made permanent in
1902 (it was finally appealed in 1943, during WWII).
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
Lithograph of an
anti-immigrant
political cartoon
published in San
Francisco in the
1860s.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– Migration from the East
 Before the War: Between 1840 and 1860, 300,000 people
traveled to the Far West via the overland trails, with two-thirds
going to California, and the rest going to Oregon and Utah.
 Homestead Act of 1862: Allowed settlers to buy a 160-acre
unit of federal land for a small fee if the buyer occupied it for
five years and “improved” it. While 160 acres worked for a
farm in the East, it was too small for grain farming in the Plains
or ranching in the Far West, so subsequent legislation allowed
buyers to obtain bigger holdings.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Societies of the Far West
– Migration from the East
 Transcontinental Railroad: When completed in 1869, it greatly
accelerated the populating of the Far West.
 Foreigners Settlers: Between 1870 and 1900, over two million foreignborn settlers from Europe came to the Far West. Foreigners could take
advantage of Homestead Act if they declared their intention to become
citizens.
 New Western States: Many territorial governments were organized in the
1860s; once the population reached 60,000, a territory could apply for
statehood. New states included: Nevada (1864), Nebraska (1867), Colorado
(1876), North and South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), and Washington
(1889). Utah was denied until 1896 due to the issue of Mormon polygamy.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Changing Western Economy
– Labor in the West
 High Wages: A shortage of labor lead to high wages, but
working conditions were often very rough, and unstable: when
the harvest was done or railroad line built, workers were let go.
 Multiracial Working Class: English-speaking whites mostly
occupied management and skilled labor positions, but unskilled
laborers were multi-racial: European immigrants, Mexicans,
African Americans, Chinese, Filipinos, and Indians. The labor
pool was more multi-racial than back in the West.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
 The
Changing Western Economy
– Three Dominant Industries in the Late 19thCentury West
 Mining
 Ranching
 Commercial Farming
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Changing Western Economy
– The Arrival of the Miners
 Mining Booms: The 1849 Gold Rush was the first of many
booms; cycles of “placer” mining, followed by deeper
corporate mining, and finally abandonment or limited mining.
 Gold: Discovered around Pike’s Peak in what is now Colorado in 1858,
creating the city of Denver, while in 1859, gold was also discovered in
what is now Nevada; later in 1874, gold was found in the Black Hills of
the Dakotas.
 Silver: The Comstock Lode near Virginia City in what is now Nevada in
1858 proved even more valuable than the gold.
 Copper: The Anaconda copper mine opened in 1881 proved a much
more stable source of income.
 Gender Disparity: Mining camps were overwhelmingly populated by
men; few women came, prostitution was common.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Changing Western Economy
– The Cattle Kingdom
 Mexican Roots: Techniques and equipment like branding, round-ups,
roping, saddles, and spurs had all been developed by Mexican ranchers
before Anglos came.
 Open Range: The public domain grasslands of the Great Plains gave
owners vast space within which to graze their cattle, roughly 5 million
heads of cattle roamed the area by 1865. “Long Drives” became shorter
by the 1870s due to agriculture and closer railroads.
 “Range Wars”: Fights broke out between cattlemen, sheep breeders
from California and Oregon, and farmers from the East.
 Decline of the Open-Range Industry: As the industry became larger,
there was not enough grass to feed the massive herds. Two bad winters
and a hot summers in the late 1880s largely destroyed this model, which
was replaced by a system of enclosed ranches.
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Chapter Sixteen:
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Far West
The Cattle Kingdom, ca.
1866-1887
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
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The Romance of the West
– The Western Landscape and the Cowboy
 “Rocky Mountain School”: Painters like Albert Bierstadt
(1830-1902) and Thomas Moran (1837-1928) produce
dramatic canvases that capture the extreme landscape.
 Cowboys Mythologized: Nineteenth-century dime novels and
later works such as The Virginian (1902) by Owen Wister
(1860-1938) idealized the figure of the cowboy.
 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show: This touring spectacle led by
the real-life frontiersman and Indian fighter, Buffalo Bill Cody
(1846-1917) mixed real Western history with mythology, often
having real participants enact their parts; Cody played Custer in
a reenactment of Custer’s Last Stand.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
Green River Cliffs, Wyoming (1881) by Thomas Moran
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Romance of the West
– The Idea of the Frontier
 Romantic Vision of the Frontier:
Writers like Mark Twain (1835-1910)
and the painter and sculptor Frederic
Remington (1861-1909) promoted an
idealized vision of the West.
 Frederick Jackson Turner (18611932): Historian who delivered an
address entitled “The Significance of
the Frontier in American History” at the
1893 meeting of the American
Historical Association in Chicago.
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The Broncho Buster by
Frederic Remington (1909)
Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
“The existence of an area of free
land, its continuous recession
and the advance of settlement
westward, explain American
Development.”
Frederick Jackson
Turner
Yet the land was not exactly “free”…
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Dispersal of the Tribes
– White Tribal Policies
 Traditional Policy: Tribes were separate nations with
whom treaties could be negotiated, but also as dependent
wards of the president (“domestic dependent nations”).
 “Concentration” Policy: An 1851 policy assigned all
tribes to a reservation administered by the Bureau of
Indian Affairs; an 1867 Indian Peace Commission
recommended moving all to Oklahoma and the Dakotas.
 Buffalo Herds Decimated: Amateur and professional
hunters target these herds; 15 million in 1865 drop to
under a thousand by 1875.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Dispersal of the Tribes
– The Indian Wars (1850s through 1880s)
 Growing Indian Resistance: As white incursions increased, Indians
stepped up attacks on U.S. Army soldiers, stage coach lines, and
settlements
 Sand Creek Massacre (1864): Friendly Cheyenne and Arapaho were
attacked unexpectedly by a Colorado territorial militia, killing as
many as 160 men, women, and children.
 “Indian Hunting”: White vigilantes attack Indians sometimes in
retaliation, but also just to exterminate: civilians killed roughly 5,000
Indians in California between 1850 and 1880.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Dispersal of the Tribes
– The Indian Wars (1850s through 1880s)
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 Sioux Rebel: In 1875, the Sioux rebelled and left their Dakota territory
reservation under Crazy Horse (c.1840-1877) and Sitting Bull (c.18311890).
 Custer Defeated: In June 1876, 2,500 tribal warriors defeated a force of
700 men of the Seventh Cavalry led by Gen. George Armstrong Custer
(1839-1876), slaughtering nearly all of them.
 Chief Joseph (1840-1904): This leader of the Nez Percé marched 550 of
his people 1,321 miles in 1877 toward the Canadian border before being
captured for killing four white settlers in Idaho.
 “Ghost Dance”: A religious revival among the Sioux in 1890 is
interpreted as a prelude to hostilities by U.S. forces.
 Wounded Knee Massacre: On Dec. 29, 1890, the Seventh Calvary tries
to round-up 350 starving and freezing Sioux in South Dakota, and
shooting accidentally starts; 200 Indians and 40 white soldiers are killed.
Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Dispersal of the Tribes
– The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887
 Gradual elimination of tribal land ownership planned
 Provides 160 acres for each head of family, but must
occupy the tract for 25 years to take full ownership.
 Bureau of Indian Affairs takes Indian children away to
special schools to promote assimilation and Christianity.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer
 From Boom to Bust: Only a trickle of farmers came before
the war, but it became a deluge after it.
– Farming on the Plains
 Cheap Rail Rates: To encourage settlement, fares west
were very affordable.
 Scarce Water: A series of dry seasons after 1887 made
some arable land into “semidesert,” forcing some to
abandon their farms.
 Reverse Migration: Some settlers returned back east to
escape a cycle of indebtedness.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West
Map of the Northern Pacific Railroad
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(Royalty-Free / CORBIS)
Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer
– Commercial Agriculture
 Overproduction: Between 1865 and 1900, farm output
increased prices dramatically, lowering prices for
agricultural goods.
– The Farmers’ Grievances
 Grievances against Railroads: High freight rates
 Belief in Conspiracy: Instead of overproduction, farmers
blamed woes on the railroads, bankers charging high
interest on loans, and inadequate currency in circulation.
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Chapter Sixteen:
The Conquest of the Far West

The Rise and Decline of the Western Farmer
– The Agrarian Malaise
 Isolation: The isolation and boredom of farm life
(especially in the winter) creates a sense of alienation;
children leave for the city.
 Obsolescence: Farmers often felt left behind by the new
urban culture developing the cities.
 New Political Movements: This malaise among farmers in
the 1890s led to a new engagement in politics by rural
farmers.
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