Modernizing America

From the Wild West to the Big City1860 – 1920

The American West

The Second Industrial Revolution

Life at the Turn of the Century

Go West!

Why?

Sioux

Cheyenne

Nez Perce

Apache

Whites

U.S. Policy

• From forced removal (Jackson 1830)

• To forced relocation to reservations

• and then…

Conflict

• Culture– Nomad lifestyle of Plains Indians– Land should not be owned

• Buffalo– Center of Indians life

• Use everything for life– Whites herd them and kill for hides and sport

War

• Sandy Creek Massacre– 150 women and children

• Battle of Little Big Horn– Sitting Bull defeats Custer

• Wounded Knee

Sitting Bull and George Custer

Native American Warriors

Wounded Knee• Custer’s old cavalry slaughters Sioux tribe

while doing Ghost Dance. Marched them freezing to camp. Shot fired; 300 dead.

• END of Indian wars.

U.S. Policy

• From forced removal (Jackson 1830)

• To forced relocation to reservations

• and then…assimilation

Laws

• Dawes Act– End Reservation system– Make Indians land owners– 160 acres to head of family– 80 to single over 18

Mining and Ranching

Wild Wild West

Cowboys

• Herded Texas longhorns up to Great Plains. Loaded on a train to be shipped to Chicago.

WHY?

• Growing demand for beef in the East because cities expanding.

Cowboys and Wild West

• Dodge City, KS• Tombstone, AZ

• Billy the Kid• Doc Holliday • Wyatt Earp • Buffalo Bill

Immortalizing the West

• E.Z. Judson writer or “dime novels”• Iconized the “wild west”

End of the Cowboy

• Barbed wire• Refrigerated railcar

Railroads

• Railroads open the west

• Irish and Chinese immigrants primary labor

• Transcontinental railroad connects a Promontory Point, Utah

Big Business of Railroads• 1865 - 35,000 miles of track• 1900 – 193,000 miles of track • Greatest impact on America Economy

– National market– Mass consumption – production – Specialization– New industries – Connects east and west– Encourages travel

Railroads Companies

• B & O • Pennsylvania (Reading) • New York

• Make rails compatible• Consolidate competition

Questions

• Who should own the railroads?

• Private businessmen or the government?

Railroad Politics

• Corrupt Railroads– Consolidated rails price, gouged and took

bribes.

– Small farmers were charged high rates

– Big farmers paid bribes

Farming Problems

Life on the Great Plains

• Exodusters-black settlers.

• Soddy- house made out of grass and sod.

Changes in Farming

• Commercialization– Small farmer driven out of business– Buy household goods

• Sears and Roebuck catalogs

• Specialization– Concentrate on one large cash crop

Farming is Big Business

• Bonanza farms-large farms – Hurt smaller farms – Can’t compete.

Prices hurt Farmers

• Machinery expensive-took out loans.• Household good go up.• Railroads raise rates

• Prices for crops began to fall 1870’s.

Wheat Corn– 1867 $2.00 $.78– 1889 .70 .23

Farmers Organize

• Form the Farmer’s Alliances-– educate farmers and lobby the gov’t.

• National Grange Movement – Oliver H. Kelly – Political Actions – Granger Laws passed in states

• Control railroad “short haul” rates

States can regulate “short haul” or inside state hauling but what

about across state lines?

Laws

• Interstate Commerce Act– Sets up ICC that could investigate and penalize

“Unreasonable and unjust” rates or any discriminatory practices by railroads.

• List and explain 2 ways the railroads impacted the U.S. Economy?

• List and explain 2 ways farming changed and the problems farmers face