What was the first settlement in the Great Plains?
European Settlement of the Great Plains. The main settlement of the Great Plains occurred after the 1840 migrations to Oregon and the 1849 Gold Rush to California. Environmental historian William Cronon has interpreted the history of the Great Plains in terms of narrative.
What is the narrative of the Great Plains history?
Environmental historian William Cronon has interpreted the history of the Great Plains in terms of narrative. The grand narrative of America, Cronon argues, is a story of progress.
What happened to the Great Plains after European settlement?
European Settlement of the Great Plains. The overgrazed Plains were depleted of the perennial grasses that had supported one steer on every two acres and were seeded with less nutritious annuals that supported one steer per 5 to 10 acres. As perennials declined, wind and water erosion increased and topsoils were lost.
What is the Great Plains according to William Cronon?
Environmental historian William Cronon has interpreted the history of the Great Plains in terms of narrative. The grand narrative of America, Cronon argues, is a story of progress. The frontier narrative depicts that formative story and, as such, is the master narrative of American culture.
How was the Great Plains settled?
The Great Plains were sparsely populated until about 1600. Spanish colonists from Mexico had begun occupying the southern plains in the 16th century and had brought with them horses and cattle. The introduction of the horse subsequently gave rise to a flourishing Plains Indian culture.
Which of the following was the main reason for rapid settlement of the Great Plains during the late 1800's?
Which of the following was the MAIN reason for the RAPID settlement of the GREAT PLAINS during the late 1800s? Congress passed a law allowing people to claims public land and CONVERT it to PRIVATE PROPERTY through HOMESTEADING.
Why did Americans settle in the Great Plains?
1) Manifest Destiny: The US Government wanted settlers to move onto the Plains as they needed the land to be settled and farmed and for communities and towns to grow up and expand. This was needed if the USA was to be a rich and successful country. The government therefore promoted the idea of Manifest Destiny.
What were the effects of settlement in the Great Plains?
Settlement from the East transformed the Great Plains. The huge herds of American bison that roamed the plains were almost wiped out, and farmers plowed the natural grasses to plant wheat and other crops. The cattle industry rose in importance as the railroad provided a practical means for getting the cattle to market.
What encouraged settlers to move west to Great Plains?
The Homestead Act encouraged settlers to move to the Great Plains. Life was hard, but settlers discovered that they could grow wheat using new technologies. By 1890 the land had been settled and farmed, and there was no longer a true frontier in the United States.
What factor caused the greatest increase in settlement of the Great Plains after the Civil War?
Encouraged by the Homestead Act of 1862 which gave willing farmers land on the Great Plains, and new technologies which allowed people to live in more challenging environments, farmers and immigrants flocked to the Great Plains during the decades after the Civil War.
What were the factors that contributed to the development of the Great Plains?
Students' answers will vary but they should mention some of the following factors: the free land provided to people willing to work the land; the decade of unusually frequent rain; the global demand for wheat; the Great Plains' suitability for bonanza wheat farming; and the new farming technologies developed in the ...
What are the Great Plains known for?
Eight of the leading U.S. wheat states (Kansas, North Dakota, Texas, Montana, Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, and South Dakota) lie within the Great Plains, and the Prairie Provinces are the leading wheat producers in Canada. Of increasing importance are crops of such oilseeds as sunflower and canola.
Why did farmers move to the Great Plains?
The reason that most settlers moved to the Plains was because they hoped to find success there. They did this usually by starting their own farms.
How did the government encourage settlement of the Great Plains?
In 1862 the government encouraged settlement on the Great Plains by passing the Homestead Act. For a small registration fee, an individual could file for a homestead—a tract of public land available for settlement.
How did dry farming help the settlement of the Great Plains?
Farmers of the Great Plains developed dry farming techniques to adapt to the low rainfall and conserve as much moisture in the soil as possible. These techniques included: 1. Choice of a crop (wheat) that did not require much rainfall to grow.
What was railroads role in settlement of Great Plains in late 1800s quizlet?
Railroad companies sold land along rail lines at low prices, provided credit to potential settlers, and spread the news about the availability of cheap land. The Homestead Act, which granted land to American citizens for a small registration fee, also promoted migration to the Plains.
Why did farmers move to the plains quizlet?
People moved to the Great Plains because there was free land. Why was it hard to be a wheat farmer on the Great Plains? It was hard to be a wheat farmer on the Great Plains because there was not always enough rain for the wheat to grow and there were terrible snowstorms in the winter.
What was one reason why the Great Plains farmers did not exercise their political power?
Farmers lacked political power. Washington was a long way from the Great Plains, and politicians seemed to turn deaf ears to the farmers' cries. Social problems were also prevalent. With each neighbor on 160-acre plots of land, communication was difficult and loneliness was widespread.
What groups settled in the Great Plains quizlet?
what groups settled in the great plains? farming families, single women, exodusters, and immigrants.
What was the main settlement of the Great Plains?
European Settlement of the Great Plains. The main settlement of the Great Plains occurred after the 1840 migrations to Oregon and the 1849 Gold Rush to California. Environmental historian William Cronon has interpreted the history of the Great Plains in terms of narrative. The grand narrative of America, Cronon argues, is a story of progress.
What were the two factors that led to the development of the Great Plains?
Historian Walter Prescott Webb's The Great Plains (1931) builds on Turner's progressive narrative, describing the rancher's and farmer's fron tiers on the Plains in terms of two formative factors — environment and technology . Webb states: "New inventions and discoveries had to be made before the pioneer farmer could go into the Great Plains and establish himself."12 Technologies allowed settlers to subdue a forbidding environment that had three main characteristics not found in the eastern United States. First, as pioneers moved west of the 100th meridian, the environment of the Plains became increasingly arid, lacking the minimum twenty inches of rainfall per year that would support agriculture reliably. Second, the Plains were treeless, and therefore did not provide the timber for fuel and building materials readily available in the East. Third, the Trans-Mississippi Plains were level, rising only gradually westward, which meant that rivers were shallow and lacked the power to operate mills or float ships.
What was the fourth technology that subdued the Plains?
The fourth technology that subdued the Plains was the John Deere plow. Like the mill, the plow was one of the important pieces of technology that changed Western history. The earliest plows of southern Europe, pulled by oxen, successfully scratched the dry shallow soils of the Mediterranean region.
What are the two formsative accounts of the Great Plains?
Two formative accounts reveal the environmental history of the Great Plains as a progressive narrative: Frederick Jackson Turner's "Significance of the Frontier in American History" (1893); and Walter Prescott Webb's The Great Plains (1931) . The opposite, or declensionist narrative, according to Cronon, relates history as environmental decline.
What technology did Webb use to control the Plains?
Following the Colt six-shooter (1835), which had subdued the Plains Indians, the second piece of technology that, from Webb's perspective, transformed the Plains was barbed wire.
What is the grand narrative of the Great Plains?
The grand narrative of America, Cronon argues, is a story of progress. The frontier narrative depicts that formative story and, as such, is the master narrative of American culture. A hostile environment, initially conceptualized as ...
What was the Great Plains?
A hostile environment, initially conceptualized as a Great American desert, was gradually brought under control and transformed into a garden, making the Great Plains a Garden of the World. That transition in perception occurred as people increasingly settled the Plains and gained control over nature.
What brought a boom in construction and industry in the Deep South?
C. In the Deep South a sharp increase in immigration brought a boom in construction and industry
Which government could dissolve business monopolies?
C. The federal government could dissolve business monopolies
Who sold most of their tribal lands directly to railroad companies?
d. Native Americans sold most of their tribal lands directly to railroad companies.
Why did the Spanish American War lead to the United States becoming a world power?
At the end of the war, America had gained world power status because of its acquisition of territories across the globe. This is extremely similar to how Europe operated.
Why was the Homestead Act so controversial?
It had difficulty getting passed because the government was concerned about new states being founded and tipping the balance of free states and slave states. Eventually Lincoln got this law passed. Americans were given acres of land to settle. The land was tough to farm and several new farming machines, such as a mechanical reaper and seeder were established to till the soil. Living out west was tough as people lived in grass huts (remember the letter the farmer sent to his wife trying to boast about how good things were when the really weren't and the advertisement the government put out trying to entice people to settle west)
Which war led to world power status for the United States?
a. The 1898 Spanish-American War led to world power status for the United States.
