Miss SpringbornPages 4-6 in the Notes Packet

Westward Expansion

What is going on??The U.S. government wanted to satisfy

their idea of MANIFEST DESTINY or that they had the God-given right to expand. However, many Americans were afraid to go out west. They were afraid of the NATIVE AMERICANS out west and the horrifying tales they had heard about them.

Remember the ideas of the early 1800’s…the belief that the United States would expand from Ocean to Ocean

This Belief will cause the United Stated government to create a radical new policy to try and get people to travel Westward…

Manifest Destiny…

The Homestead ActTherefore the U.S. government had to

find a way to lure people out west. Congress passed the HOMESTEAD ACT, which gave 160 acres of land to any citizen that agreed to farm the land for 5 years. This made a lot of people really want to go west, but they were still afraid. The government decided to take some measures to make it safer for people to travel out west.

What a deal!!!For around $10 filing fee, pioneers could

get 160 acres of landThis will attract many Civil War Veterans,

former slaves, and immigrants to head west

This is an opportunity that would never have been available for most immigrants from Europe or Asia

This allowed people the opportunity to make in on their own for many the first time ever. No landlords to pay money to…just their own hard work

Posters…

How will the government make it safe?They decided to move the Native American

Indians onto RESERVATIONS. On these, the Indians were forced to cut their hair, give up their NOMADIC lifestyle and live in houses, convert to CHRISTIANITY, learn English, go to white man’s schools, and learn to farm.

And the railroads come through…President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway

Act which paid two railroad companies to build the TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD. The companies were the Central Pacific which began in Sacramento, CA and the Union Pacific which began in Omaha, NE. They were each given $48,000 and 6,400 acres of land per mile of track built.

Railroad facts…This Railroad will be complete by 1869. A

large number of Chinese immigrants will work on the railroad.

It will take almost 21 million hammer swings to complete the railroad

It was extremely dangerous, especially blasting through the mountains.

Going West…The people that went out west were called

PIONEERS or settlers or homesteaders. Many of them settled the area of the U.S. known as the GREAT PLAINS. This area lies between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Here, there were few trees. People were forced to make their homes out of SOD or a grass/mud mixture. These people were called SODBUSTERS

Technology on Great Plains…Some of the technologies used on the

Great Plains were: barbed wire, wind mills, and grain elevators. Why were these needed on the Great Plains?

KEEP OUT WILD ANIMALS AND COWBOYS, PRODUCE ELECTRICITY, AND SHIP GRAIN BACK EAST