Essential Question :

1. Essential Question: • What factors led to the settlement of the West during the Gilded Age (1870-1900)? • Warm-Up Question: • Let’s review the Unit 7 Organizer

2. The Gilded Age: 1870-1900 • AftertheCivilWar,theU.S.entered an era known as the Gilded Age when America experienced rapid changes

3. The Gilded Age: 1870-1900 Tons of steel per year Industrialization & Urbanization Ranching, Mining, & Farming Reconstruction & Rise of Jim Crow Segregation

4. Introduction to the Gilded Age Video

5. Overview of the West • After the Civil War, the area west oftheMississippiRiverwassettled: • Miners, ranchers, farmers flooded into the “frontier” looking for economic opportunities • Transcontinental railroads connected the country • Plains Indians were forced to assimilate&movetoreservations • By 1890, the frontier was closed

6. What changed in America in the Gilded Age?

8. The Mining Bonanza • Mining was the 1st magnet to attract settlers to the West: • Before the Civil War, miners discovered gold in California, Colorado, & Nevada • After the Civil War, miners resumed their migration into the West to find more gold & silver

9. Mining Regions of the West John Mackay became the richest man in the world & earned $25 a minute from his “Big Bonanza” in Sierra Mountains Silver miners in Leadville, CO $306 million in gold & silver was discovered at the Comstock Lode Mining towns were formed in the West; Needed gov’t, law enforcement, & businesses

10. Corporations had the expensive machinery (“hydraulic mining techniques”) to extract most of the gold in the West

11. Chinese & Latin American immigrants came to find gold • Nativism led Congress to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which ended Chinese immigration

12. What changed in America in the Gilded Age?

14. Ranchers & The Cattle Boom • After the Civil War, the demand for beef skyrocketed • To meet this demand, ranchers drove Texas longhorns acrossthe open “range” to railroad towns: • Cattle bought in Texas for $4 could be sold for $40 in Kansas • Cattle drives created new towns

15. Ranchers & The Cattle Boom Ranchers used the “open range” to graze longhorns during the 3 month “long drive” By 1867, ranchers started using trains to ship cattle to meatpacking cities like Chicago

16. Cattle Drives Half of the cowboys in the West were African-American or Mexican

17. Ranchers & The Cattle Boom • By the 1880s, cattle ranching was difficult because: • The “open range” was closed as farmers used new barbed wire fencing to close off their farms • Overgrazing & drought left little grasslands for grazing cattle • Competition from sheep herding

19. What changed in America in the Gilded Age? 1850 1890

21. Homesteads & Farmers • The U.S. gov’t offered incentives for farmers to settle the West: • Homestead Act (1862) gave 160 acres to citizens who pledged to “improve the land” for at least 5 years • Other gov’t acts helped develop western lands by planting trees & building irrigation systems

23. By 1900, 600,000 Americans claimed homesteads

24. Homesteads & Farmers • Life in the Plains was difficult: • There were few trees so homesteaders built sod houses • 60% of homesteaders failed • But many homesteaders adapted: • Used dry farming techniques • Planted tough varieties of wheat • Used harvesting machinery

25. Sod House

26. By 1890, the U.S. became a major crop exporter

27. Exodusters • Exodusters were black farmers who moved West to escape crop liens & Jim Crow laws in the South

28. Exodusters

29. Homestead Sales, 1870-1940 In 1890, the western frontier “closed”:There were no more unorganized territories in the West

30. What changed in America in the Gilded Age?

31. Rails Across the Continent • In 1862, Congress authorized the first transcontinental railroad: • Union Pacific worked westward from Nebraska (Irish laborers) • Central Pacific worked eastward from CA (Chinese immigrants) • On May 10, 1869 the 2 tracks met at Promontory Point in Utah

32. Irish workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the eastern section Chinese workers made up a large percentage of laborers on the western leg The 1st transcontinental railroad connected the west coast to eastern cities in 1869

33. Federal Land Grants to Railroads by 1871 The national gov’t gave out $65 million & millions of acres to railroad companies to connect the East & West coasts with railroads Western railroad lines by 1887

34. The Transcontinental Railroad “Pullman cars” & “refrigeration cars” In 1870, railroads developed the 1st time zones

35. Railroad Construction, 1830-1920

36. What changed in America in the Gilded Age?

38. The Plains Indians In 1865, 2/3 of all Indians lived on the Great Plains Their culture was dependent upon the buffalo & the horse

39. The Importance of the Buffalo in Indian Culture

40. America’s Indian Policy • America’s Indian policy changed: • In the 1830s, Indians were moved across the Mississippi River into “one big reservation” • In the 1850s, (due to Manifest Destiny), Indians were moved into concentrated reservations • In the 1860s, reservations were violated by farmers & miners

41. Indians Wars In 1876, Americans flooded into Sioux territory in South Dakota when gold was discovered The Sioux, led by Sitting Bull, retaliated by ambushing Colonel Custer & all 197 soldiers in the Seventh Cavalry at Little Big Horn

42. Indians Wars When the U.S. army tried to stop Sioux “ghost dances,” 200 men, women, & children were slaughtered during the Battle of Wounded Knee The Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 was the last Indian war in American history

43. The End of Tribal Life • The final blow to Indian culture came with annihilation of buffalo: • Began with the construction of the transcontinental RR in 1860s • From 1872 to 1874, 3 million buffalo were killed each year

44. 1 hunter = 100 buffalo per day

45. The Cession of Indian Territory Lands Lost by Native Americans (1894)

46. Conclusions • By 1890, the frontier was closed: • Miners, ranchers, & farmers flooded West at the expense of Indians • But, Westerners began to grow frustrated due to their dependency on Eastern railroads, banks, & politicians

47. Closure Activity • What was the American “West” in 1750?1800?1850?1900? • Now that the United States has acquired & occupied all lands between the Atlantic & Pacific, what’s next?

48. Essential Question: • Who were the Populists & what new ideas did they promote in order to help western farmers? • Warm-Up Question: • ?

49. Group Activity:The Problem of Farmers & Rise of the Populist Party • In groups, complete these tasks: • Examine the documents provided & determine what major problems farmers faced in the Gilded Age • Write your answers in the matrix • When finished, generate a plan that provides a solution to meet the needs of farmers

50. The Problems of Farmers • In the 1870s & 1880s, western farmers faced serious problems: • Prices for their crops were falling due to over-production of grains • Banks were charging high interest rates on mortgages & were foreclosing on debtors • Railroads charged high rates for shipping & storing their crops