Do you know what ASSIMILATION means?
 What would you do if the government forced
you to move from your home? You had 1 day to
pack and head to a place you have never seen.
When you get there you have no resources to
continue your lifestyle.(no shopping malls,
grocery stores, cell phone service, internet,
etc.) How would you react?
Would you Assimilate into American culture, like
the government wants you to? Would you
secretly plot leave your new home or try to
make it on your own? Would you band together
and fight the US army officials in charge of
watching you?
• This Day in History
Tuesday
August 11, 2015
The Gilded Age: 1870-1900
■After the Civil War, the U.S. entered
an era known as the Gilded Age when
America experienced rapid changes
Overview of the West
■After the Civil War, the area west of
the Mississippi River was settled:
–Miners, ranchers, farmers
flooded into the “frontier” looking
for economic opportunities
–Transcontinental railroads
connected the country
–Plains Indians were forced to
assimilate & move to reservations
■By 1890, the frontier was closed
The Mining Bonanza
■Mining was the 1st magnet to
attract settlers to the West:
–Before the Civil War, miners
discovered gold in California,
Colorado, & Nevada
–After the Civil War, miners
resumed their migration into the
West to find more gold & silver
John Mackay became the richest man in
the world & earned $25 a minute from
his “Big Bonanza” in Sierra Mountains
Silver miners in Leadville, CO
$306 million
in gold
Mining
towns were
& in
silver
was
formed
the West;
discovered
the
Needed
gov’t, at law
Comstock Lode
enforcement,
& businesses
Mining
Regions
of the
West
Corporations had the
expensive machinery
(“hydraulic mining
techniques”) to
extract most of the
gold in the West
■ Chinese &
Latin American
immigrants came
to find gold
■ Nativism led
Congress to
pass the Chinese
Exclusion Act in
1882 which
ended Chinese
immigration
Ranchers & The Cattle Boom
■After the Civil War, the demand for
beef skyrocketed
■To meet this demand, ranchers
drove Texas longhorns across the
open “range” to railroad towns:
–Cattle bought in Texas for $4
could be sold for $40 in Kansas
–Cattle drives created new towns
Ranchers
By Ranchers
1867, ranchers
used the
started
using Boom
trains to ship
& The
Cattle
“open
cattle
range”
to meatpacking
to graze
cities like Chicago
longhorns during the
3 month “long drive”
Ranchers & The Cattle Boom
■By the 1880s, cattle ranching was
difficult because:
–The “open range” was closed as
farmers used new barbed wire
fencing to close off their farms
–Overgrazing & drought left little
grasslands for grazing cattle
–Competition from sheep herding
Homesteads & Farmers
■The U.S. gov’t offered incentives
for farmers to settle the West:
–Homestead Act (1862) gave
160 acres to citizens who
pledged to “improve the land”
for at least 5 years
–Other gov’t acts helped develop
western lands by planting trees
& building irrigation systems
By 1900, 600,000 Americans
claimed homesteads
Homesteads & Farmers
■ Life in the Plains was difficult:
–There were few trees so
homesteaders built sod houses
–60% of homesteaders failed
■ But many homesteaders adapted:
–Used dry farming techniques
–Planted tough varieties of wheat
–Used harvesting machinery
By 1890, the U.S. became
a major crop exporter
Exodusters
■Exodusters
were black
farmers who
moved West
to escape
crop liens &
Jim Crow laws
in the South
Exodusters
Homestead Sales, 1870-1940
In 1890, the western frontier “closed”:
There were no more unorganized
territories in the West
Rails Across the Continent
■In 1862, Congress authorized the
first transcontinental railroad:
–Union Pacific worked westward
from Nebraska (Irish laborers)
–Central Pacific worked eastward
from CA (Chinese immigrants)
–On May 10, 1869 the 2 tracks
met at Promontory Point in Utah
Irish workers made up a large percentage
of laborers on the eastern section
Chinese workers made up a
large percentage of laborers
on the western leg
The 1st transcontinental railroad connected the
west coast to eastern cities in 1869
The national gov’t gave out $65 million &
millions
of acres
to railroad
companies
to
Federal
Land
Grants
to Railroads
by 1871
connect the East & West coasts with railroads
The Transcontinental Railroad
Railroad Construction, 1830-1920
Plains
In 1865, 2/3The
of all
IndiansIndians
Their culture
lived on the Great Plains
was dependent
upon the buffalo
& the horse
The Importance of the Buffalo in Indian Culture
America’s Indian Policy
■America’s Indian policy changed:
–In the 1830s, Indians were
moved across the Mississippi
River into “one big reservation”
–In the 1850s, (due to Manifest
Destiny), Indians were moved
into concentrated reservations
–In the 1860s, reservations were
violated by farmers & miners
InIndian
1876, Americans
flooded
into
Wars
Sioux territory in South Dakota
when gold was discovered
The Sioux, led by Sitting Bull, retaliated by
ambushing Colonel Custer & all 197 soldiers
in the Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn
Assimilation and the Dawes Act:
■A plan which would force Native
Americans to give up their beliefs
and way of life and become a part
of white culture
■In 1887, Congress passed the
Dawes Act aiming to
“Americanize” the Native
Americans (160 acres to
INDIVIDUAL heads of household)
Wars
WhenIndians
the U.S. army
tried to stop
The Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 was
Sioux
“ghost
dances,”
200
men,
women,
the last Indian war in American history
& children were slaughtered during the
Battle of Wounded Knee
The End of Tribal Life
■The final blow to Indian culture
came with annihilation of buffalo:
–Began with the construction of
the transcontinental RR in 1860s
–From
1872 to
1874,
3 million
buffalo
were killed each year
Lands
by Native
Americans
(1894)
TheLost
Cession
of Indian
Territory
Conclusions
■By 1890, the frontier was closed:
–Miners, ranchers, & farmers
flooded West at the expense of
Indians
–But, Westerners began to grow
frustrated due to their
dependency on Eastern
railroads, banks, & politicians
Closure Activity
■What was the American “West”
in 1750? 1800? 1850? 1900?
■Now that the United States has
acquired & occupied all lands
between the Atlantic & Pacific,
what’s next?