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
William Cronon
William "Bill" Cronon, FBA is a noted environmental historian and the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was president of the American Historical Association in 2012.
Why did settlers move to the Great Plains in the 1800s?
Settlers moved to the Great Plains for several reasons. One reason was the government was offering 160 acres of land for free if the settler agreed to live on the land for five years.
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.
Why did people move from the east to the west?
Land prices in the East were getting too expensive, and the West (Great Plains) offered an opportunity for more people to own land. Although the area suffered from extreme weather and poor soils, many people decided to take the risk and venture to the Great Plains. The government was also committed to supporting those who decided to make the move.
What was the settlement of Great Plains?
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.
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 two reasons the United States encouraged settlement of the Great Plains?
One was to speed up the settlement of the United States as it was continuing to grow in people and was gaining land westward. Another was the need for food as the population in the large cities of the eastern seaboard was growing at a fast pace. They looked west into the Great Plains to seek land to grow crops.
What factors encouraged settlers to move west to the Great Plains?
Gold rush and mining opportunities (silver in Nevada) The opportunity to work in the cattle industry; to be a “cowboy” Faster travel to the West by railroad; availability of supplies due to the railroad. The opportunity to own land cheaply under the Homestead Act.
Why was there so little settlement on the Great Plains in the early 1800s?
Why was there so little settlement on the Great Plains in the early 1800s? Conditions were not suitable for the kind of farming done at that time. Which statement best describes the Indian Removal Act of 1830? The act helped relocate eastern American Indians to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River.
Why did farmers move to the 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.
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 are the Great Plains known for?
The Great Plains is mineral and oil-rich, which makes it a center for mineral production. In Texas and parts of Oklahoma and Kansas, oil and natural gas are produced. In Wyoming, Montana, and the Dakotas, coal is abundant. The vast open-pit mines of this region produce coal that has low sulfur content.
What factors pushed people to move to the Great Plains to farm?
European immigrants flooded onto the Great Plains, seeking political or religious freedom, or simply to escape poverty in their own country. Younger sons from the eastern seaboard - where the population was growing and land was becoming more expensive - went because it was a chance to own their own land.
What were three major pull factors for moving West?
Various conditions urged settlers westward. The Civil War had displaced thousands of farmers, former slaves, and other workers. Eastern farmland was increasingly costly, certainly for many African Americans or for impoverished immigrants. Failed entrepreneurs sought a second chance in a new location.
Who settled on the Great Plains quizlet?
Terms in this set (6) 1a) What groups settled in the Great Plains? African Americans and Scandinavians from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
Who settled on the Great Plains quizlet?
Terms in this set (6) 1a) What groups settled in the Great Plains? African Americans and Scandinavians from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.
Why is the Great Plains important?
Today, the plains serve as a major producer of livestock and crops. The Native American tribes and herds of bison that originally inhabited the plains were displaced in the nineteenth century through a concerted effort by the United States to settle the Great Plains and expand the nation's agriculture.
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 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 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.
Why did the Great Plains move?
Settlers moved to the Great Plains for several reasons. One reason was the government was offering 160 acres of land for free if the settler agreed to live on the land for five years. This was part of the Homestead Act of 1862. People had a significant interesting in owning land. This would give people a chance to farm this land.
Why did people choose the Great Plains?
Land prices in the East were getting too expensive, and the West (Great Plains) offered an opportunity for more people to own land. Although the area suffered from extreme weather and poor soils, many people decided to take the risk and venture to the Great Plains. The government was also...
Why did the cheap land give the Great Plains?
The cheap land accorded them an opportunity to own a factor of production that would go a long way in improving their economic status . American businessmen followed suit, attempting to tap into the emerging market. Their target was the farmers and everyone else moving to the Great Plains.
What were the inventions that helped farmers on the Great Plains?
There were new inventions that made it easier to farm. The seed drill allowed seeds to be planted deeper in the earth. The steel-tipped plow made it easier to turn over the soil. These inventions would help farmers on the Great Plains.
