1. Expanding West

2. Why did Westward Expansion occur?
Opportunities for land ownership (Homestead Act)
Technological advances, including the
Transcontinental Railroad
Possibility of wealth created by the discovery
of gold and silver
A new beginning for former slaves
Adventure

3. How did people’s perceptions and use of the Great Plains change after the Civil War?
Before 1860, those who crossed the Mississippi generally traveled all the way to the west coast. Few settled in the Great Plains.
Bitter cold winters
Low rainfall: drought and dust storms
Fierce winds: eroded soil
Treeless wasteland
Great American Desert

4. Free Land READ THE HOMESTEAD ACT
Encouraged by the Homestead Act of 1862
Gave free public land in the western territories to settlers who would live on and farm the land.
African Americans and Southerners moved west to seek new opportunities after the war.
farmers and immigrants flocked to the Great Plains during the decades after the Civil War
People began to see the Great Plains not as a "treeless wasteland" but as a vast area to be settled.
READ THE HOMESTEAD ACT

6. New Technology
Opened new lands in the West for settlement and made farming prosperous
The Great Plains region was becoming a region of farms, ranches, and towns

7. New Technology Railroads: Beef Cattle Raising: Barbed Wire:
RR grew fast
Transcontinental Railroad (1869)
Linked the Atlantic and Pacific Coast
Encouraging industrial and economic growth
Beef Cattle Raising:
Cattle Ranching appeared throughout the Great Plains: Texas
Demand for beef was high; ranchers would “drive” their cattle north to the railroad lines
Barbed Wire:
Allowed farmers to keep cattle from their crops

8. New Technology Wheat Farming: Steel Plow/Dry Farming:
Farmers adopted an improved form of Russian wheat which required less water and grew well in dryer soil of the Great Plains
Steel Plow/Dry Farming:
With improved steel plows, farmers could break up the tough soil
Sod Houses/Windmills
Lacking trees and other materials, settlers on the Great Plains built their homes from sod; a sort of packed dirt held together by roots and cut into squares.
New models of windmills were used throughout the Great Plains to pump water from the ground and to provide power.

9. Regions Associated with Westward Expansion
Southeast
Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas  
Midwest
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota
Southwest
Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona
Rocky Mountains
Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho

10. Cities Associated with Westward Expansion
Midwest
Chicago, St. Louis
Southwest
San Antonio, Santa Fe
Western (Rocky Mountains)
Denver, Salt Lake City
Pacific
Seattle

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