Download
1 / 136
1.38k likes | 1.55k Views
Westward Expansion. Key Questions . Why move west? Resources that will help our economy grow. How does the movie Avatar compare to the white/Indian interaction? How does it differ? No, we are not watching Avatar. Clash of Cultures (Frontier).
E N D
Key Questions • Why move west? • Resources that will help our economy grow. • How does the movie Avatar compare to the white/Indian interaction? How does it differ? • No, we are not watching Avatar.
Clash of Cultures (Frontier) • Gold, Cattle, and Farming forced Indian culture to clash with white prospectors and the Railroad. • Native Americans did not believe in land ownership. • White Americans however believed that it was man’s destiny to settle and improve land so that they may make their stake in America. • Native Americans needs a small fraction of land in comparison to one white man. (100 acres)
“Indian Problem” • Extermination • Relocation • Reservation • Assimilation • All were tried during the clash of Native Americans and the Whites
Cultures Clash on the Prairie • The discovery of gold drew tens of thousands of miners to the west and led to the growth of mining camps and frontier towns
Cultures Class • Gold, Cattle, and Farming forced Indian culture to clash with white prospectors and the Railroad. • Sand Creek Massacre • Bozeman Trail • Treaty of Fort Laramie • Red River War • Battle of Little Big Horn • Wounded Knee
Culture Clash on the Prairie • Custer led 200 soldiers against what turned out to be 2,000-3,000 Indian Warriors. Within 20 minutes, Custer and all his men were killed.
Cultures Clash on the Prairie • To formalize the policy of assimilation (Americanization) of Native Americans by teaching them to desire property and to farm.
Cultures Clash on the Prairie • Wounded Knee Creek: The Seventh Cavalry rounded up 340 starving, freezing Sioux and demanded their weapons. After one warrior fired his rifle, soldiers used cannons to slaughter 300 Indians • The end of Indian/White conflict
What you didn’t cover… • Cattle Becomes Big Business • The cowboy way of life was attributed to the Mexican vaquero. • Cowboys were not in great demand until the railroad came to the west. • Demand for beef created cattle trails and cow towns. • Overgrazing of the land, extended bad weather , and the invention of barbed wire were largely responsible to the decline of the open range and the cowboy.
Settling on the Great Plains • Land Grants: Railroads sold land to farmers at low rates and recruited Europeans to buy and farm frontier land.
Settling the Great Plains • Laws passed in 1870: The Homestead Act offered 160 acres of land free to anyone who would cultivate it for five years; similar acts offered land for cheap or for free in Oklahoma and Kansas.
Settling the Great Plains • Inventions: Increased farm productivity by decreasing the amount of effort and time required to produce farm goods.
Settling the Great Plains • Morrill and Hatch Acts: Supported farmers by financing agricultural education and research in farm technology and methodology
Settling the Great Plains • Hardships: • Bad weather (Droughts, Floods, blizzards) • Fires • Locust plagues • Raids by outlaws and Native Americans • Providing enough food and shelter • Living in dugouts and soddies • Self-sufficient for clothing and medical care • Physical hardships of farm work • Financial problems (debt, bankruptcy, fluctuating prices, rising cost of shipping and equipment)
American Imperialism • Imperialism- policy in which stronger nations extend their economic, political or military control over weaker territory
Setting the tone for American Imperialism: the current situation.
Monroe Doctrine: western hemisphere could not be colonized by European powers (1823)
Reasons for Imperialism in America Essential Question?--Why did the US seek and acquire new territories and expand its area, influence, and power during the period?
1. Desire for Military Strength • Alfred T. Mahan—wrote The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
Urged U.S. to obtain Pacific Naval bases to gain access to China
2. Thirst for New Market • U.S. needed raw materials to continue to produce goods • As a result of a surplus of agricultural and manufactured goods, new markets were needed for trade • Foreign trade was considered the only solution to American over-production, unemployment, and economic depression (1893)
Social Darwinism- belief in survival of the fittest due to racial superiority U.S. responsibility to spread Christianity and Civilized ways to inferior people 3. Belief in Cultural Superiority
Imperialism Examples • How and why was the territory obtained or opened? • Opening of Japan- military (1853) • Opening of Japan • Annexation of Hawaii- political (1896) • Hawaii • Purchasing of Alaska- economic (1868) • Purchasing Alaska • How has imperialism in these areas benefitted the United States today?
Focus Question • What is the definition of imperialism? Why did America choose to become imperialistic? List and explain America’s first three imperial pursuit.
Main Idea • The Spanish American War demonstrated America’s expansionism. It left the nation with an overseas empire and made the United States a leading world power.
Spanish American War video Spanish American War
Cubans rebellion peaks American interest • Jose Marti- destroys American property in order to encourage US involvement. • American interest were caught in the cross fire of the rebellion
Yellow Journalism and the Maine • William Randolph Hearst: “You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.” • Yellow Journalism: sensationalizing the news in order to sell papers or achieve an agenda
The Spanish American War highlighted poor military preparedness. As a result of the SAW the United States overhauled the US military and improved standards for future global conflicts.
