Essential Question: What was the balance between the economic gains and the social and
environmental costs of westward expansion after the Civil War?
I. Agencies of Westward Expansion
A. The farming frontier
1. The Homestead Act, and increased railroad access and mobility
spurred settlement and economic development on the plains and in the
mountain valleys
a. By 1890, 72,473 miles of railroad track crisscrossed the country
b. From the Mississippi to the Rockies, farms dotted the landscape
-This was the age of the �sodbuster,� who adapted to the
almost treeless prairies and plains by fencing and building
his first house of sod.
B. The mining frontier
1. By 1870s, silver eclipsed gold in volume and some years even in value
a. Demand for copper fueled by development of telephone,
incandescent lightbulb, and electric generator
2. Violence never far from surface on mining frontier
a. Claim-jumping, robberies, and vigilante justice common in early
days
3. As mining became heavily capitalized, workers feuded with owners and
operators
4. Western Federation of Miners (1893) became one of the most militant
U.S. labor unions
C. The ranching frontier
1. Dominant symbol of Old West was the cowboy
2. Postwar boom in range cattle industry began in Texas
a. Railroad provided efficient and cost-effective form of cattle
transportation
b. Development of refrigerated cars allowed for the shipment of
dressed beef all over the country
c. Towns throughout Kansas mushroomed and grew to meet needs
of cattle drivers
3. Ranchers adopted open-range grazing to feed cattle for free on open,
unfenced gov�t land
a. Led to clashes between ranchers and farmers
b. Open-range ranching declined after the 1880s
4. Classic cowboy image became staple of American popular culture
5. Unfortunately, the westward expansion of the ranching, mining, and
farming frontiers doomed the free range of the Plains Indians and the
buffalo
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Frontiers of Change, Politics of Stalemate, 1865-1898 (sec 2)
Essential Question: How did the Indian peoples of the trans-Mississippi West respond to white settlement and U.S. government policies?
II. The Last Indian Frontier
A. Westward expansion of the ranching and farming frontiers doomed the free
range of the Plains Indians
B. Conflict with the Sioux
1. Violence erupted after gold seekers poured into the Black Hills of
western Dakota in 1874 and 1875
2. Sioux warriors wiped out Seventh Cavalry at Battle of Little Big Horn
in June 1876
a. In retaliation, Philip Sheridan crushed the Sioux and the
Cheyenne
3. Sioux existence in Dakota Territory was grim
a. Poverty, disease, apathy, and alcoholism reduced the Sioux
b. Morale and hope for the future generated by the Ghost Dance in
1890
-Led to confrontation at Wounded Knee, which signaled
the death of nineteenth-century Plains Indian culture
C. Suppression of other Plains Indians
1. Massacre of Cheyennes in Colorado in 1864 sparked a decade of
conflict on the southern plains
2. Gov�t had earlier forced Cheyennes onto the Sand Creek reservation in
southeast Colorado to open up their traditional land to gold seekers
a. Open conflict with settlers in 1864
b. Subsequently, militia troops massacred 200 Cheyenne, half of
them women and children
c. Set pattern for several similar attacks on Indian villages in
subsequent years
d. In addition to corralling Indians onto reservations, also engaged
in systematic destruction of the buffalo
e. By 1880s, Indians had no choice but to settle on reservations
D. The �Peace Policy�
1. Many eastern reformers condemned the violent repression of the
Indians
2. Grant announced �Peace Policy� toward Indians in his 1869 inaugural
address
a. Urged Indians to accept the English language, Christianity, and
the individual ownership of property
b. Called for allegiance to the United States rather than a tribe
3. Dawes Act (1887) called for dissolution of Indian tribes as legal
entities, offered Indians opportunity to become citizens, and allotted
each head of family 160 acres of farmland or 320 acres of grazing land
a. Unmitigated disaster for the Indians, as it destroyed their very
culture and traditional way of life
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Frontiers of Change, Politics of Stalemate, 1865-1898 (sec 3)
Essential Questions: What were the central themes of economic development, race relations and politics in the post reconstruction South?
III. The New South
A. Southern Industry
1. South�s textile industry expanded rapidly during the 1880s
a. Workers paid about half what northern textile workers earned
-Cheap labor gave southern mill owners a competitive
advantage.
2. Tobacco was another southern industry that developed rapidly during
the late nineteenth century
a. Most tobacco factory workers were black
B. Southern agriculture
1. Main reason for south�s relative poverty was its weak agriculture
a. Region plagued by one-crop specialization, overproduction,
declining prices, and an exploitative credit system
2. Reliance on cotton meant farmers had to purchase foodstuffs they could
have grown themselves
C. Race relations in the New South
1. Downward spiral of the southern economy caused frustration and
bitterness in which blacks became the scapegoats for white rage
a. Lynchings, anti-black riots, political disenfranchisement all
common
b. Most blacks lost right to vote in south, and Republican Party
almost disappeared from most southern states
c. States passed �Jim Crow� laws mandating racial segregation in
public facilities of all kinds
d. Separate facilities sanctioned in 1896 Supreme Court case
Plessy v. Ferguson
IV. The Politics of Stalemate
A. Knife-edge electoral balance
1. Five presidential elections from 1876 through 1892, taken together,
were the most closely contested elections in U.S. history
2. Parties were almost evenly balanced throughout this period
a. Neither party had power to enact a bold legislative program
b. Both parties avoided taking firm stands on controversial issues
B. Civil service reform
1. Most salient issue of national politics in early 1880s was civil service
reform
2. Old-guard factions in both parties opposed reform
3. Republicans split into three factions
a. Mugwumps supported reform
b. Stalwarts opposed reform
c. Half-breeds supported halfway reforms