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Chapter 19 Growth in the American West

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Title: Chapter 19 Growth in the American West


1
Chapter 19Growth in the American West
  • The American West
  • before and after the Civil War

2
Find the West CoastFind the Rocky
MountainsFind the Great Plains
3
The West Coast California, Oregon, and Washington
4
The Rocky Mountains Colorado, Montana, Arizona,
and Wyoming
5
The Great Plains
6
The Great Plains
  • The Great Plains is a large area in the middle of
    the United States.
  • It is between the Mississippi River and the Rocky
    Mountains.
  • It includes states such as Oklahoma, Kansas, and
    Nebraska.

7
  • It is flat and dry, but grassy, not a dessert.
  • There are no trees, so the wind is strong.
  • Winters are cold and summers are hot.
  • Water is scarce.
  • Dust storms, tornadoes, snowstorms, windstorms,
    and grass fires are common.

8
Memory check
  • Name three states on the West Coast.
  • Name three Rocky Mountain states.
  • Tell where the Great Plains are located.
  • Name three states in the Great Plains.
  • Describe the climate of the Great Plains.

9
The American West Before the Civil War
10
The Indians were the original inhabitants of the
West.
11
Next came the Spanish
12
Most of the West belonged to Spain.
13
  • The land was not good for farming, but it was
    good for raising cattle and horses. So, Spanish
    settlers raised cattle in the West. They were
    the first cowboys.

14
  • The West became part of Mexico when it got
    independence from Spain. But, eventually the
    U.S. took the West from Mexico.

15
  • Many of the cowboys were Hispanic or African
    American. They would raise the cattle and then
    herd them to a city to sell them.

16
They raised longhorn cattle, because they could
travel long distances and survive tough climates.
17
  • They often had to take their cattle from Texas to
    Abilene, Kansas to catch a train. The train
    would take the cattle to Northern cities such as
    Chicago.

18
The work was difficult, dangerous, and
lonely.They had to travel a long distance with
their cattle.
19
  • The Great Plains were called the Open Range
    because there were no fences and cattle could
    move freely.

20
  • Indians had always lived in the Great Plains, but
    the Plains were mostly empty. Plains Indians
    lived by hunting buffalo. They moved around
    following the buffalo herds.

21
Native Americans from the East were forced to
move to the West.
  • When the United States started expanding, the
    Indians east of the Mississippi were forced to
    move west of the Mississippi. They were promised
    the land west of the Mississippi. They lived in
    the Plains in places such as Oklahoma, and Kansas.

22
Memory Check
  • Who were the first people to live in the Great
    Plains?
  • Who were the second people to come?
  • What was the life of a cowboy like?
  • What promise did the U.S. government make to the
    Native Americans?

23
Before the Civil War, many people started moving
west of the Mississippi to start their own farms.
24
Life was difficult for the settlers.
  • They were isolated. They had no neighbors.
    There were no cities close by. And, the cities
    in the West had few stores to buy supplies from.

25
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26
  • Transportation was slow and difficult. There
    were no trains or decent roads. They had to walk
    or ride horses.

27
  • Farming was difficult. It was too dry and the
    thick grass made plowing difficult.
  • There were also many dangers. Bad weather could
    kill the settlers. It could destroy their crops
    and leave them without food. It could even
    destroy their homes and leave them to freeze.
    Also, Indians or bandits sometimes attacked
    settlers.

28
Memory Check
  • What problems did early settlers face as they
    settled on the Great Plains?

29
Around 1865, new technology was helping farmers
to be more successful in the Great Plains.
30
  • The new steel plows worked better than the iron
    plows. Steel was stronger than iron. Iron plows
    would break on the tough grass roots.

31
  • Windmills could pump water from deep underground.

32
  • Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper---a machine
    that could harvest large fields of wheat or corn.

33
  • Farmers in the Great Plains began to grow very
    large crops of wheat and corn. More people
    wanted to move west to start their own farms and
    be successful.

34
Memory Check
  • What made it possible for the settlers to succeed
    in the Great Plains?

35
While some settlers were starting farms in the
Great Plains, other settlers were moving to the
West in search of gold and silver.
36
The Gold Rush
  • 1849 was the year of the California Gold Rush.
    Many people moved to California to search for
    gold and become rich. They came from all over
    the world. Other gold and silver rushes followed
    in places like Nevada.

37
Mining Towns
  • Mining towns developed near the mines.
  • Miners lived in the towns. They had stores,
    hotels, saloons, and more.

38
Memory Check
  • What were the two main reasons why people moved
    to the West?

39
  • Settlers in the West created problems for the
    Indians. By 1850, the U.S. government was letting
    White settlers move into the Indian Territories
    and take their land. The White settlers and the
    Indians started fighting.

40
Memory Check
  • Why did Indians and settlers fight?

41
  • Congress wanted people to settle in the Great
    Plains, so they passed the Homestead Act of 1862.
    This law gave each settler 160 acres of free
    land if he could stay and farm it for five years.
    About two million people moved to the Great
    Plains to get their land.

42
  • In 1860, the United States started building the
    Transcontinental Railroad. The transcontinental
    railroad was a railroad that went all the way
    across the U.S.A. from East coast to West coast

43
Many people worked building the transcontinental
railroad.
  • The work was very dangerous. Workers had to dig
    tunnels, build bridges across fast rivers and
    deep canyons, and work in cold weather.

44
  • Many people died building the railroad. Most
    were immigrants from China, Ireland, and Europe.
    Some were African Americans.

45
The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in
1869.
  • Before the railroad, it took six months to cross
    America by covered wagon. After the railroad, it
    took only one week.

46
  • By 1870, the farmers in the Great Plains were
    fighting with the cowboys. The farmers didnt
    want the cowboys to herd their cattle over their
    land because it destroyed their crops. The
    farmers wanted to build fences, but the cowboys
    wanted to keep the open range.

47
In 1873, the invention of barbed wire changed the
Great Plains.
  • It was a cheap way to make fences that would keep
    cattle off of farms. People built barbed wire
    fences everywhere and the open range ended.

48
The Cattle Kingdom
  • Eventually the cowboys were replaced with large
    scale ranchers. These ranchers owned giant
    ranches and used the newly built railroads to
    take their cattle to the cities instead of paying
    cowboys to herd the cattle for them. These
    ranchers were so rich and powerful that they were
    called the cattle kingdom.

49
Memory Check
  • What brought more settlers to the West after the
    Civil War?
  • Where did the people who built the
    Transcontinental Railroad come from?
  • What invention finally ended the Open Range?

50
  • In 1868, the U.S. government had given the Sioux
    Indians a large amount of land in South Dakota.
    But, when gold was discovered there in 1874, the
    U.S. Army wanted to move the Sioux Indians out
    and take that land.
  • Indian leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse
    refused to move and decided to fight back.

51
The U.S. Army sent General Custer, a General
famous for fighting against the Indians.
52
  • In 1874, the Sioux defeated General Custer in the
    Battle of Little Bighorn. Custer and all of his
    soldiers were surrounded and killed.

53
  • More U.S. Army troops came and eventually Sitting
    Bull and Crazy Horse had to surrender. Crazy
    Horse was later killed while in jail.

54
Indians were forced to live on reservations.
  • The reservations were land for the Indians to
    stay on, but it was land the White people didnt
    want. They had no water. Farming, ranching, or
    hunting were nearly impossible. Many starved to
    death or froze. The U.S. government encouraged
    people to kill all the buffalo so the Indians
    would not have any food and would have to move to
    the reservations.

55
The Dawes Act
  • Some people felt sorry for the Native Americans.
    They wanted to help them, so they made a law
    called the Dawes Act. The purpose of the Dawes
    Act was to force Native Americans to become like
    Europeans. They were taught how to farm, wear
    European clothes, and speak English.

56
  • Indian children were taken away from their
    parents and put in special schools. They were
    taught English. They were taught that Indian
    culture was bad. The Dawes Act destroyed Indian
    culture.

57
The Ghost Dance Movement
  • In 1890, Sioux Indians at the Wounded Knee
    Reservation in South Dakota started doing Ghost
    Dances.
  • They believed that these dances would bring up
    ghosts to push back the White man.

58
Massacre at Wounded Knee
  • The U.S. Army wanted to stop the Ghost Dance.
  • They killed over 300 men, women, and children.
  • The Wounded Knee Massacre virtually ended the
    Indian resistance.

59
Memory Check
  • Why did Crazy Horse decide to fight the U.S.
    Army?
  • What happened at Little Bighorn?
  • What is a reservation?
  • How did the Dawes Act destroy Indian culture?
  • What is reservation land usually like?
  • What happened at Wounded Knee?

60
The Great Plains becomes Americas Breadbasket
  • By 1890, the Great Plains were producing large
    amounts of wheat and corn.
  • The land was divided into fenced-off farms.
  • The Indians had been moved onto the reservations
    or killed.
  • Railroads connected the American west to the rest
    of the country.
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