Western Frontier Changes and A New Industrial Age

Chapters 13, 14 & 15

“The buffalo was like a moving department store”

What did the Native Americans use it for?

• Food

• Clothing

• Shelter

• Tools

• It was a religious symbol

“Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone”.

• “Americanize” the Native Americans (broke up reservation system) Split their reservations and distributed land to individual Natives.

• In the end, however, whites had taken 2/3 of the land.

It failed.

Dawes Act 1887

• Gold / silver (mining)

• Farming

• Cattle

Why did white settlers come west?

What is a cowboy?

Audie Murphy

Joh

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Eastw

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The real cowboys…

• The American cowboy borrowed almost everything from the vaquero in Mexico.

• They made their living off of the longhorn from southern Spain.

The railroads made the cattle industry

boom by delivering beef to the east.

Joseph McCoy began driving cattle up to

the railroads in Abilene, KS from Texas in 1866-67.

Why did the Open Range end in 1887?

• Overgrazing• Bad weather (1883-1887)• Barbed wire (Glidden) turned the Open Range

into fenced-in ranches.

Farming and the Populist Movement

Homestead Act

160 acres

600,000 families

Exodusters

• Given land grants – Transcontinental

railroad

• Great deal on land

Railroads

Struggles on the frontier

LonelinessWeatherIndiansLack of treesEconomic problems (bad crops, railroad prices, etc)

How did farmers adapt & survive?

• Sod houses• Self-sufficiency• New farming tools

(plow, reaper, barbed wire, steel windmill, etc)

• Education (Morrill Act)• Organized into the

Populist Party

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8L0pwute42M

Populism• Gave farmers a voice and addressed economic

problems like…– Falling prices– Running out of good land– Inability to make loan payments– Getting ripped off by the railroads – wanted federal

government to control rates

The Populist Party“Peoples’ Party”

• Formed in 1892 as a national party• It was important for all of these dispersed

people to come together and be heard.• Successfully fought for reforms to help

farmers• This party laid the foundation for the

modern-day Democratic Party

Silver vs. Gold• Southern Democrats

& Populists wanted silver to help cause inflation – more $ and higher prices for crops

• These are mainly farmers and laborers

• Northern Republicans wanted gold backed dollars – less $, lower prices and loans get paid back in stable money

• These are mainly bankers and businessmen

The Wizard of Oz L. Frank Baum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg93I5ydyNo

Who / what in the story represents….

The “everyday man”?

Dorothy

The farmer?

The Scarecrow

The factory worker?

The Tin Man

The typical politician?

The Wizard of Oz

Washington, D.C.?

Oz

The destructive forces of nature (droughts, etc)?

The Wicked Witch of the West

The Gold Standard?

The Yellow Brick Road

Election of 1896

Key issue: gold v. silver

• W. McKinley (R) supported gold• W. J. Bryan (D) & (P) supported silver

and gold (bimetallism)• McKinley won the election and Populism was

defeated. It wouldn’t return but it left it’s mark… It gave the little man a voice and paved the way for the reform movement of the 20th century.

Industry Expands – Why?

• Natural Resources– Oil

• Kerosene• Gasoline

– Coal & Iron• Bessemer Process – steel from iron

• New Inventions– Thomas Edison– Alexander Graham Bell

Industry Expands (cont.)

• Railroads – 1869 complete first transcontinental railroad– POSITIVE IMPACT

• Easier to travel• Helped industry grow• Trade among cities increases• Communities grow

– NEGATIVE IMPACT• Attracts corruption• Hold farmers hostage

Big Business and Labor

• George Pullman

– Palace cars– Pullman town

Big Business and Labor

• Andrew Carnegie – Steel Industry– Vertical integration– Horizontal integration– Social Darwinism

• John D. Rockefeller – Standard Oil Trust– Controlled 90% of oil industry– Robber baron– Monopoly– Trust

Labor Unions Born

• American Federation of Labor– Samuel Gompers– Use strikes to negotiate

• Haymarket Affair – Police response increases violence in this demonstration after a bomb explodes

• Homestead, PA – steel workers vs. Pinkerton detectives

• Pullman Company – federal troops break strike because U.S. mail isn’t able to be delivered.

Immigration

• PUSH– Escape religious

persecution– Jobs scarce in

homeland– Escape political unrest

• PULL– Seek to improve

economic situation– Greater freedom

• European immigrants – East Coast/Ellis Island

• Asian immigrants– West Coast/Angel

Island• Chinese Exclusion Act

– banned entry• Gentlemen’s

Agreement – Japan agrees to limit immigrants to the U.S.

• Effects of Immigration

– Melting pot – different cultures & races blending

– Nativism – preference for native-born Americans

Urban Challenges

• Who moves to the cities?– Immigrants looking for work– Farm workers replaced by machines

• Negative effects– Shortage of housing– Transportation problems– Drinking water– Sanitation– Crime and fire

• Problem Solvers– Social Gospel movement– Settlement houses