1. Manifest Destiny Fulfilled: Westward Expansion, 1865 to 1900
Standard 12

2. Westward Expansion: Impact of the Railroad Industry
The Railroad & the West
Following the Civil War, thousands of Americans began migrating westwards
Railroads would provide a fast, cheap way for people & goods to be transported to the west
Explosion of the Railroad
Government land grants
Abundant natural resources
Plenty of cheap labor
American ingenuity
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Began buying local railroads & convincing other companies to link to his

3. Westward Expansion : Transcontinental Railroad
The Transcontinental Railroad
Linked the east to the west
The first one was completed in 1869
There were 5 by 1900.
Benefits
Increased the size of markets
Markets-Places to buy & sell goods
Stimulated economy by spending on steel, coal, & timber
Increased Efficiency
Decreased travel
United Americans from different regions

4. Westward Expansion: Impact of Technology on Migration
The Steel Plow
Invented by John Deere in 1837.
It allowed the tough soil of the Great Plains to be tilled easier.
Now a farmer could use a horse to pull a plow, instead of an ox.
The Steel plow did not really sell well until after the Civil War, when so many migrated west.
The plow itself would come in parts
Farmers would assemble the plow upon receiving it.

5. Westward Expansion: The Plains Indians
Native American Life in the Plains
Tribes like the Sioux, followed Buffalo herds from place to place
Buffalo were a hazard to trains, imagine one getting hit by a train!
Railroad companies paid hunters to kill the animals
Indians fought back, which led the U.S. Army to intervene.

6. Westward Expansion: The Rise of Sitting Bull
Born in 1831
Member of the Lakota Sioux Indian tribe of the Great Plains
Red Cloud’s War
1866 to 1868
Chief Red Cloud of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) attack U.S. forces in modern day Montana.
Sitting Bull led numerous war parties against American forts in the area in support of Red Cloud.

7. Westward Expansion: Reservation System
Fort Laramie Treaty, 1868
Negotiated with the Lakota (Sioux) ending Red Cloud’s War.
It established an Indian Reservation out of traditional Lakota lands in North Dakota, known as the Black Hills.
The Reservation System
Tribes were offered parts of territory by the U.S. government, to live on reservations of land
Sitting Bull did not agree to the treaty.
He continued hit and run attacks on American forts in the Great Plains

8. Westward Expansion: Conflict on the Great Plains
The Battle of Little Bighorn
Tribes did fight back, the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana, 1876; General George Armstrong Custer and 200 soldiers were killed

9. Westward Expansion: Cattle Ranching
The Cattle Kingdom
The open plains provided plentiful grasslands for herds of cattle.
The western cattle industry was Mexican & Texan by ancestry.
These people developed the practice of branding cattle, as well as the open-range system in which cattle were not fenced in, but ranchers knew their boundaries.
Following the Civil War, northern markets began offering good money for cattle.
The issue for ranchers was about how to get the cattle from their ranches to market.
The railroad provided a solution.

10. Westward Expansion: Cattle Ranching
“The Long Drive”
Beginning in 1866, some ranchers began driving their cattle north to Sedalia, Missouri, where the cattle could be on loaded to the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
As the process continued, areas in between like Kansas, developed natural rest points for ranchers.
By the 1870s the long drive cattle ranchers were competing with another group of people for land, the Homesteaders.

11. Westward Expansion: Dawes Act
Dawes Act of 1887
Inspired by Jackson’s Century of Dishonor.
Designed to assimilate American Indians into the mainstream of American culture by dissolving tribes as legal entities & eliminating tribal ownership of land.
Consequences
Ignored the inherent reliance of traditional Indian culture on tribal lands
By 1900, Indians had lost 50% of the 156 million acres previously claimed
Forced assimilation doctrine of the Dawes Act became the cornerstone of American government policy for the next 50 years.

12. Westward Expansion: Wounded Knee
Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek
December 29, 1890.
Sioux Indian Reservation
Indians were practicing a self-mutilation ritual known as the Ghost Dance, which was thought to bring back the Buffalo, return land to Indians, & banish white men from earth.
The U.S. Army had asked the tribe to stop performing this dance. (T)
The U.S. Army attempted to confiscate weapons from Indians; shots were fired and the U.S. Army opened up with Gatling Guns unarmed Indians died.
Railroads destroyed native American culture.