What was the western settlement of the 1800s?
Western Settlement. Between the years 1800 and 1820 the American population nearly doubled and by 1830 a quarter of the people lived west of the Appalachians. Westward movement was made easier by government efforts to push Native American peoples even farther west. A series of new states were admitted to the Union: Indiana in 1816,...
What was the significance of western settlement in the Far West?
Western Settlement. The Far West had been Spanish territory, but in 1821 Mexico won her independence and opened its lands to all traders. Hundreds of Americans poured into the areas of Texas, New Mexico and California, setting the stage for commerce and conflict. The attraction of the Far West was more than farmland; the lure of timber, gold,...
How did the United States government encourage white settlement in the west?
By war's end, federal actions to encourage white settlement in the West and more tightly bind the western territories to the Union were institutionalized and gathering momentum.
How did western settlement affect Native Americans?
Western settlement continued to force Native Americans from their lands. Native Americans supported western settlement because it brought money they needed. Western settlers turned to Native Americans because settlers appreciated their knowledge of the land.
What legislation impacted the development of the West?
The notion that the United States government should give free land titles to settlers to encourage westward expansion became popular in the 1850s.
What law brought many settlers out to the western frontier?
Nearly four million homesteaders settled land across 30 states over 123 years. The Homestead Act of 1862 allowed anyone over 21 years of age or the head of a household to apply for free federal land with two simple stipulations: Be a citizen of the United States or legally declare their intent to become one.
What laws or acts were passed that impacted settlement of the Great Plains?
The Homestead Act and the Settlement of the Great Plains Signed into law in 1862 by Abraham Lincoln after the secession of southern states, this Act turned over vast amounts of the public domain to private citizens. 270 millions acres, or 10% of the area of the United States was claimed and settled under this act.
How did the Homestead Act of 1862 increase Western settlement?
Passed on May 20, 1862, the Homestead Act accelerated the settlement of the western territory by granting adult heads of families 160 acres of surveyed public land for a minimal filing fee and five years of continuous residence on that land.
What two pieces of legislation led to the opening of the West?
To assist the settlers in their move westward and transform the migration from a trickle into a steady flow, Congress passed two significant pieces of legislation in 1862: the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railway Act. encourage the expansion of a "free soil" mentality across the West.
What helped the westward expansion movement?
That westward expansion was greatly aided by the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869, and passage of the Homestead Act in 1862.
What was one way the US government encouraged western settlement?
The Federal government responded with measures (Homestead Act, transcontinental railroad) and military campaigns designed to encourage settlement, solidify Union control of the trans-Mississippi West, and further marginalize the physical and cultural presence of tribes native to the West.
How did the Pacific Railway Acts influence Western settlement?
How did the Pacific Railway Acts influence western settlement? It gave large land grants to the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads which provided new avenues for migration into the American interior. People wanted to live near railway stations.
How did the Homestead Act change the Great Plains?
This revolutionary act opened up huge amounts land in the American Great Plains to private settlement. As a result of this act, 270 million acres of land was claimed and settled. Under the act, if someone was either the head of a household or at least 21 years of age, they could claim a 160 acre parcel of land.
What did the Homestead Act of 1862 promise to potential migrants to the West?
What did the Homestead Act of 1862 promise to potential migrants to the West? 160 acres free to any citizen or prospective citizen who settled on land west of the Mississippi River for five years. How did the invention of barbed wire revolutionize the cattle industry? It allowed ranchers to fence in their cattle.
What is the difference between the Homestead Act and the Dawes Act?
The Dawes Act designated 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land to the head of each Native American family. This was comparable to the Homestead Act, but there were important differences. The tribes controlled the land now being allotted to them. The lands were not owned by the federal government.
How did the Homestead Act affect natives?
The Native Americans were gravely affected during the time of the Homestead Act. The government took their land and before they knew it their land was populated by homesteaders. Part of the homestead agreement was to cultivate the land leaving nothing for the previous residence to come back to.
What were some impacts of American settlement on 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 contributed most to the settlement of the Great Plains?
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 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.
How did the US government help in the 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.
What was the impact of the American Indians on the West?
Although advanced under the mantle of protection, the nation's American Indian population in the West bore the cost of these military and political undertakings, which accelerated the dispossession of American Indians and threatened the security of their lands, property, culture, and core existence.
What were the western volunteers filling in behind the Regular Army soldiers?
The western volunteers filling in behind the Regular Army soldiers were of a distinctly different mettle. As one officer noted, they were men "made of stern stuff. . . inured to mountain life. . . pioneers and miners; men self-reliant and enduring" but also prone to have "advocated the extermination of the Indians.".
What was the Confederacy's plan for the Southwest?
Using Texas as a base, the Confederate plan focused on dislodging Union forces from the Southwest and continuing north to the resource-rich mines of Colorado, and possibly on to the California gold fields.
What were the consequences of the expansionist Civil War?
In the expansionist Civil War-era, Federal American Indian policies often resulted in violated treaties, violence, and the end of access to traditional lands, trade and migratory routes, water, food sources, and cultural practices.
What was the Westward Movement?
Until the eve of the Civil War, the Westward Movement was Manifest Destiny incarnate; as such, it was consistently popularized as an East-to-West phenomenon. As unabashedly romanticized in Leutze's 1861 mural study, established routes -including the Oregon, California and Santa Fe Trails -siphoned settlers and miners westward . In response to calls for their protection from the American Indians, the federal government responded by establishing frontier and coastal forts garrisoned by Regular Army soldiers. By 1861, almost 75% of the Army's soldiers served at dozens of posts west of the Mississippi River, ranging from Pickett's post in Washington Territory to Fort Point in California's San Francisco Bay to forts scattered throughout the Southwest. The civil war brought dramatic change to these outposts. Shortly before the bombardment of Fort Sumter, U.S. Army responsibility for national protection and security set in motion an unprecedented eastward movement of soldiers and equipment.
What was the threat of the Far West in 1861?
Exacerbated by the country's crumbling harmony, concern for safety and stability flooded all corners of the fledgling nation in early 1861. As war erupted, oft-conflicting interpretations of protection presented distinctive challenges to those living, working, or with interests in what was then known as the Far West.
What was the central concern of the war of 1861?
Viewed collectively, they speak to a broader, core concern of the era: the desire for protection and security . Exacerbated by the country's crumbling harmony, concern for safety and stability flooded all corners of the fledgling nation in early 1861. As war erupted, oft-conflicting interpretations of protection presented distinctive challenges to those living, working, or with interests in what was then known as the Far West. Spurred by a desire to retain the western states and territories within the Union, the federal government's responses to these perceptions helped redefine the Western Movement and shaped the area's future for decades to come.
What was the Westward Expansion and the Compromise of 1850?
Westward Expansion and the Compromise of 1850. Bleeding Kansas. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States.
What was the Westward Migration?
Westward migration was an essential part of the republican project , he argued, and it was Americans’ “ manifest destiny ” to carry the “great experiment of liberty” to the edge of the continent: to “overspread and to possess the whole of the [land] which Providence has given us,” O’Sullivan wrote.
What was the Missouri compromise?
The acquisition of this land re-opened the question that the Missouri Compromise had ostensibly settled: What would be the status of slavery in new American territories? After two years of increasingly volatile debate over the issue, Kentucky Senator Henry Clay proposed another compromise. It had four parts: first, California would enter the Union as a free state; second, the status of slavery in the rest of the Mexican territory would be decided by the people who lived there; third, the slave trade (but not slavery) would be abolished in Washington, D.C.; and fourth, a new Fugitive Slave Act would enable Southerners to reclaim runaway slaves who had escaped to Northern states where slavery was not allowed.
What did Jefferson believe about the Westward Expansion?
To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms.
Which two states were established in the Louisiana Purchase?
In 1854, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed that two new states, Kansas and Nebraska, be established in the Louisiana Purchase west of Iowa and Missouri. According to the terms of the Missouri Compromise, both new states would prohibit slavery because both were north of the 36º30’ parallel.
Where did the American settlers move to?
Thousands of people crossed the Rockies to the Oregon Territory, which belonged to Great Britain, and thousands more moved into the Mexican territories of California, New Mexico and Texas. In 1837, American settlers in Texas joined with their Tejano neighbors (Texans of Spanish origin) and won independence from Mexico.
How many square miles did the Gadsden Purchase add to the United States?
Did you know? In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase added about 30,000 square miles of Mexican territory to the United States and fixed the boundaries of the “lower 48” where they are today.
What was the impact of the 1980s on Aboriginal people?
While it would be difficult to suggest that in 1980 Aboriginals are still being subjected to the level of overt oppression and persecution that they have suffered during the past 200 years, the disadvantaged position which Aboriginals hold in society reflects this historical pattern. As a group, Aboriginals still cannot participate fully, effectively and equally in the day-to-day life of a community, notwithstanding the fact that changes in the law and social attitudes have occurred. The recent history of Aboriginal people is one of hostile dealings with non-Aboriginals and with policies of governments which have had an extraordinary impact on the Aboriginal people’s consciousness. This has helped separate Aboriginals as a group within Australian society. It is reinforced by a common resentment by Aborigines of past treatment and control by non-Aborigines and by a lack of trust of authorities including the courts, the police and the welfare. [55]
How many aborigines were on the waiting list for housing?
A survey by the Aboriginal Development Commission in June 1983 showed that 6003 Aborigines were on the waiting lists of housing organisations and that an additional 2000 houses were needed to house fringe-dwellers.
What are the factors that affect the situation of Aboriginal people?
The situation varies greatly in different areas, and is influenced by such factors as economic development, the level of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population, the degree of government intervention or non-intervention, land rights, the outstation movement and the internal dynamics of particular communities.
Why are Aboriginal people undermining traditional authority?
The reasons for the undermining of traditional authority go much deeper than references to alcohol, to material goods or to the influence of the mass media would suggest. The general non-recognition of Aboriginal customary laws was another factor. [39] While the outstation movement and the granting of land rights are aspects of what has been seen as a ‘revival’ of Aboriginal traditionality and culture, it remains true that from the earliest days, European contact tended to undermine Aboriginal laws, society, culture and religion — a process which is a continuing one. Aboriginal people continue to face difficult choices about their lives and their place in their own communities. An example is the encouragement now given to the establishment of Aboriginal organisations. Aborigines elected to hold office in community councils are often younger, school-educated Aborigines who are more skilled in the ways and concepts of the wider Australian society than the elders. This can produce tensions or divisions within a community, cutting across and undermining traditional lines of authority. On the other hand this pattern is not universal’ in some communities the holders of traditional authority continue to exercise their influence through the elected office holders, while elsewhere a clear distinction may be drawn between the powers exercised by the elected council and the authority of older men or women. The granting of land, the impact of mining and the payment of royalty money has similarly. had a significant effect on traditional Aboriginal authority. [40] Whatever the advantages to be gained by Aborigines from mining operations on Aboriginal land, or from the incorporation or registration of councils, such processes necessarily involve the members of the particular group in change and in redefinition of their relation to each other and to the wider society. These processes are Often painful, difficult and contentious.
When will Aboriginal traditional life disappear?
Aboriginal traditional life as a functioning reality and as a major emphasis will have virtually disappeared from the face of this continent within the next ten years or so. [65]
What continued to force Native Americans from their lands?
Western settlement continued to force Native Americans from their lands.
What were the labor saving inventions?
Labor-saving inventions allowed most children to give up their jobs and attend school. Children between the ages of 12 and 18 were required to learn an industrial trade. Children often had to work long hours in factories, mills, or mines. Work done by children in factories and mills was easier than farm work.
Why did farmers prefer to raise their own cattle?
Farmers preferred to raise their own cattle. Farmers wanted to protect their crops, but cattle overran farmland. Cattlemen expected more hospitality from farmers than they usually received. Cattlemen drove their herds through farmland, but objected to paying the high tariffs for doing so.
Where did the Nez Perce escape?
The Nez Perce were able to escape to Canada.
What was the movement for statehood?
The movement for statehood opened doors for Native Americans to gain full citizenship.
Was the acquisition of all of those resources carefully regulated?
The acquisition of all of those resources was carefully regulated .
