1. Ch. 16
The Conquest of the West
After the Civil war, a dynamic period in American
history opened-the settlement of the West. The
lives of Western miners, farmers and ranchers
were often filled with great hardships, but the
wave of American settlers continued. Railroads
hastened this migration. During this period, many
Native Americans lost their homelands and their
way of life

2. What is the West?
• A mix of myth with reality
• The “Great American Desert” Stephen Long
• Diverse land and inhabitants

3. Who lived there?
• Native Americas—diverse

4. Native Americans
• The Great Plains were • As ranchers, miners and
home to many Native farmers moved out to
Americans the Plains—Native
• Some were farmers Americans were
• But the majority were deprived of their
nomads—roamed the hunting grounds
vast distances following • The Buffalo was killed
their source of food— for sport—by the
the buffalo millions

6. Hispanics
• New Mexico, Texas and California—as the Anglo
American presence increased and new ranching
and farming operations followed, Hispanics
were no longer in control of the region and
were relegated to unskilled farm work and
industrial labor

7. Chinese—RR, Chinese Exclusion Act,
Anti-Coolie clubs

8. Homestead Act
• “Rain follows the Plow”
• Homestead Act- the
government would give
up to 160 acres of land
and receive the title to
that land after 5 years.
• Life was hard

11. Despite all –settlement occurred.
Why?

12. Railroads—the US government gave
them land to build the RR—the RR in
turn sold land to prospective settlers

16. Migration from the East
• After the Civil War, over 2 million
came from the East—Scandinavians,
Germans, Irish, Russians, Czechs and
others

17. The Changing Western Economy
• In the 19th century the region produced 3
major industries: mining, ranching and
commercial farming
• Gold, silver and copper
• Boom to Bust

18. Cattle Kingdom
• Ranchers—at first
ranching was not
practical—no water,
cattle could not
survive—tough
prairie grasses—but
in Texas—The
Longhorn—lean and
rangy—the longhorn
could survive.

19. Open Range-a vast area of grassland
owned by the government.
• After the Civil War meat
• Hispanic cowhands prices soared
developed the tolls • Millions of longhorns roamed
in Texas
and techniques for • How to move the cattle to the
RR
rounding up and • Long cattle drives-The
driving cattle. Chisholm Trail
• Barbed wire
• Lariat, lasso, • http://player.discoveryeducati
on.com/index.cfm?guidAssetI
stampede d=5EB648BC-FBA8-42BD-
A0C0-
F9B5E28CE42D&blnFromSearc
h=1&productcode=US

20. Cowboy Culture
• Buffalo Bill and his Wild West Show
• http://youtu.be/SARb8vJJmuA

21. Romance of the West
• Artist flocked to the West to capture the
incredible magnificence of the scenery.
• Albert Bierstadt
• Thomas Moran

25. Thomas Moran

27. Frederic Remington