Settling the American West
History M25 –
Krister Swanson – Moorpark College
Gold Fever & Mining
- Booms
for 40 years after CA gold rush
- Mining
Comstock Lode requires lots of capital (speculation & investment
scams) & new technology
- Mines
draw wide variety of people - fair amount of ethnic tension
- Mining
town development & culture widely varied
Territorial Government
- States
like CA & NV rushed to statehood - others remain territories under
inadequate government
- Territorial
governors & judges lacked funding to remain fair minded, often
connected to special interests
Land Fever
- Homestead
Act of 1862 spurs settlement (160 acres in 5 yrs)
- At
whim of elements, constant labor & search for fuel & water
- Droughts
push farmers back & forth
- RRs
provide connection
- Speculation
drove prices up
Ranchers and Cowboys
- Open
range broken up by barbed wire
- Cowboy
& miner become wage laborers
- Tenants,
Sharecroppers, and Migrants provide labor on land they wonÕt own
- Commercial
Farming booms, new machinery & large markets (new cities) drive growth
of agribusiness
- Increased
dependence on foreign markets
A Clash of Cultures
- Much
diversity in West (Indians, Blacks, Chinese, Hispanics, Mormons, etc.)
- Indian/Settler
Wars: army comes in to protect settlers, gold fever makes problem worse
& atrocities fuel conflict
- Little
Bighorn, Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph all part of this legacy
- RRs
rid plains of buffalo
- Dawes
Act attempted to Americanize Indians, make them homesteaders
- Indian
Land Allotment
- Reservation
life especially difficult for nomadic tribes
- Final
resistance: Geronimo & Sioux Ghost Dance (1890: Wounded Knee)
- The
Mythical West