Westward Expansion Standard 5-2.4

Although the journey West often required groups of people to help one another, settlement also brought conflict among groups that competed for access to the natural resources, such as land and cattle, of the region.

Mining - The discovery of gold and silver brought men westward hoping to make a fortune. They all competed with one another in hopes of finding precious metals, creating lawless towns. Mining companies that had the equipment to dig deeper into the land in search of precious minerals competed with these men who were trying to make a fortune for rights to the richest sites to mine.

Gold Rush Video at

Boom towns were towns that suddenly had a huge increase in population due to the discovery of gold or silver. Boom towns quickly turned into ghost towns because there was no more gold and silver to mine.

Boom town

United Streaming Video (2:58): From Boom Towns to Ghost Towns From Boom Towns to Ghost Towns

Ranchers and Cowboys cooperated with one another. Ranchers – owned the herds of horses and cattle. Cowboys drove the herds, owned by the ranchers, across the open plains to the railroad for shipment to beef processing plants farther east. Along the way, Cowboys came into conflict with towns people they ran into. Ranchers and Cowboys

Cowboys

After the Civil War, when farmers settled and fenced large parts of the plains, they interfered with the open areas where cowboys drove the herds. The cowboy, who did not want to be fenced in, and the farmers, who built the fences, fought over how the western lands should be used and who should use them. The era of the cattle drive did not survive because of the farms on the plains.

At first, many Native Americans welcomed and cooperated with explorers of the West. As more and more people migrated to the West, the relationship between the Native Americans and the settlers became increasingly hostile. The railroad destroyed the buffalo and with it, much of the traditional Native American culture. Native Americans

In the second half of the 1800s, farmers and miners claimed the lands that the Native Americans believed were theirs. Native Americans were forced to live on reservations. Those who resisted were hunted down by the U.S. army and often massacred (killed in large numbers). After silver was discovered in the Black Hills, the Native Americans who lived there were driven out.

Many Mexican Americans were also driven from their land. The southwestern part of the U.S. and the California coast had both belonged to Spain and then Mexico until the Mexican War in the 1840s. Mexicans who lived in those regions owned property but they were forced to give it up when the U.S. won the land in the war. They were also discriminated against. Mexican Americans

Land that Mexico had to give up to the U.S.

United Streaming Video (1:08): The Mexican American War and the Gadsden Purchase The Mexican American War and the Gadsden Purchase

European Immigrants (Irish) Some European immigrants moved to the West to start new lives. (Many European immigrants however were too poor to move to the West and stayed in the industrial cities of the East and Midwest instead.) Many settled in regions with others from their home countries.

They were resented by those who had been born in the U.S. However, European Americans formed communities and helped each other to be successful in this new land. The European immigrants, such as the Irish, helped built the Transcontinental Railroad from the east to west.

Asian Immigrants (Chinese) Asian immigrants came to the U.S. to search for gold and later, in large numbers, to work on the Transcontinental Railroad. The Chinese workers laid the railroad from the west to the east (opposite the European Immigrants).

The Chinese were often paid less than white workers and suffered from discrimination at the work sites because of their unique culture. Their presence was tolerated so long as there was the railroad to build. Once the major projects were completed, the Chinese attempted to compete with white men in mining and also provided services, such as laundries, for the miners in boom towns.

This competition for scarce resources and jobs led to increasing prejudices and discrimination against the Chinese. Soon, the U.S. government passed a law to keep the Chinese from entering the U.S. as immigrants.

Did you know…? There was an anti-Chinese riot in Denver in October That anti-Chinese feeling spread into the mining districts where Chinese worked as laborers, cooks, and servants. Many Chinese mined land abandoned by others and through long, hard work they found precious metals there. In the 1860s, one-third of the miners in the West were Chinese. White miners resented the Chinese.

Groups helped each other at first. As resources such as gold, silver, land, and food were getting gone, different groups had to compete with each other. This led to resentment and hatred among many groups. Conflict – Whites didn’t want Asians to take their jobs and gold after the Transcontinental Railroad was finished. Cowboys and farmers fought over how the western lands should be used and who should use them. Cooperation – Whites needed Asians to build the railroad. Cowboys and farmers needed each other. Conflict – Settlers in the west fought against Native Americans to push them off of their land. Colonists invaded their land when they first came to Jamestown. Cooperation – Settlers set aside a specific place for Native Americans to live and be safe (reservations). Colonists learned how to grow crops from Native Americans.