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Unit 2 Vocabulary

Westward Expansion

Gold Rush

Cash Crops

Perspective

Speculation

Reservations

Trail of Tears

Settler

Invader

Manifest Destiny

Monopoly

Trust

Oil/Rockefeller

Cause & Effect

Historical fact & fiction

Essential Question: What drives US expansion before WWI?

Unit assessment:

Newspaper ad (emphasizing hook writing, perspective, audience, relates back to one of the main reasons for expansion i.e. gold, farmland, speculation, manifest destiny)

Module assessment:

Class news magazine—op-eds written by each student to create a newspaper (Modeled after stories-17 magazine, times, economist, etc.)

integrates narrative writing, differentiating between historical fact versus fiction, identifying bias/perspective, and synthesizing historical content

Critical Thinking Questions:

1. What were the positive and negative effects of expansion? 2. Why is money important in our world?3. Whose story is history? (analyzing perspective)

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Westward Expansion- Motivation Part 1: ProfitCash CropsOn May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, Utah, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroad companies connected tracks extending from Sacramento, California to Omaha, Nebraska. The historic moment created the first transcontinental railroad, enabling travelers to go from coast to coast in a week's time, making it significantly easier to travel west in search of land

for settlement. By 1872, under the Pacific Railroad Act, Congress awarded the railroads over 170 million acres in land grants. The railroads created bureaus and sent agents to the East and to Europe to attract potential settlers on these lands.

Portraying the West as a land of

limitless opportunity, the bureaus offered long-term loans and free transportation to the West. Between 1870 and 1900, not only did the railroads attract settlers from nearby states, but also brought 2.2 million

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foreign immigrants to the trans-Mississippi West. Desiring quick payment of loans, railroads encouraged these settlers to grow and sell cash crops or crops that are guaranteed to return a profit.

The land boom was fed by encouragement from the federal government and the actions of land speculators, who bought up large tracts of land in order to sell it in pieces to farmers at extremely high prices. The Homestead Act, passed in 1862, offered 160 acres of land to anyone who would pay $10, live on the land for five years, and cultivate and improve it. The Act encouraged many additional Americans and foreigners to move to the undeveloped West.

These farmers did not mind high prices and high interest on loans due to the growing success of American agricultural products. Most western farmers became cash croppers who sometimes neglected sustainable farming in order to focus on profit. Soon the farmers' dependence on distant markets caught up with them, however, as the state bank system that had sprung up to support speculation collapsed, dragging agricultural prices and land values down with it. Despite the romantic portrayals of the railroads, Western farmers continued to face difficult conditions. Suffering a depression between 1873 and 1878, and facing the constant threat of natural disaster, many returned East. Those who remained struggled to build homes and communities amid mosquito infestations and other harsh conditions. Farm settlements eventually became thriving communities, with churches, schools, and markets, and farmers grew close with their neighbors. The towns built opera houses and hotels and labored to bring modernization and sophistication to the West. Adapted from http://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion, http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/westwardexpansion/summary.html

Gold RushOn January 24, 1848, a carpenter working at a mill in northern California made a discovery that would change the course of American history—two gold nuggets. As news spread of the discovery, thousands of

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prospective gold miners (popularly known as ‘49ers) traveled by sea or over land to Sutter’s mill in San Francisco in hopes of striking it rich.

Throughout 1849, people around the United States (mostly men) borrowed money, mortgaged their property or spent their life savings to make the arduous journey to California. In pursuit of the kind of wealth they had never dreamed of, they left their families and hometowns; in turn, women left behind took on new responsibilities such as running farms or businesses and caring for their children alone. Thousands of would-be gold miners, traveled overland across the mountains or by sea, sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn, the southernmost point of South America.

By the end of 1849, the non-native population of the California territory was some 100,000 (compared with the pre-1848 figure of less than 1,000). Some failed, some were successful, but nearly all of the prospectors faced severe hardships during their fortune-hunting days. A total of $2 billion worth of precious metal was extracted from the area during the Gold Rush, which peaked in 1852. Source: http://www.history.com/topics/gold-rush-of-1849

Critical Thinking:What was the relationship between westward expansion and profit?

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Westward Expansion: Native American Removal

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White Americans, particularly those who lived on the western frontier, often feared and resented the Native Americans they encountered: To them, American Indians seemed to be an unfamiliar, alien people who occupied land that white settlers wanted (and believed they deserved). Some officials in the early years of the American republic, such as President George Washington, believed that the best way to solve this “Indian problem” was simply to “civilize” the Native Americans. The goal of this civilization campaign was to make Native Americans as much like white Americans as possible by encouraging them convert to Christianity, learn to speak and read English, and adopt European-style economic practices such as the individual ownership of land and other property (including, in some

instances in the South, African slaves)A major aspect of the conquest of the West was the removal of the Indians who dwelled there. Under the leadership of President Andrew Jackson in the early 1800s, the Native Americans who remained East of the Mississippi were cruelly and violently driven from their homes and concentrated in reservations in what is

now Oklahoma. The US Army crushed any resistance to removal. With the West cleared of this obstacle, westerners focused on developing new methods of transporting their goods to market. The canal and railroad systems, which grew up in the North, facilitated a much larger volume of trade and manufacturing while reducing costs a great deal. Great cities sprang up throughout the North and Northwest, bolstered by the improvement in transportation.

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Source: http://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion, http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/westwardexpansion/summary.html

What do you think the difference between a ‘settler’ and an ‘invader’?__________________________________________________________________

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How do you think Native Americans felt about Westward Expansion? Why? Use details from the text.

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_______________________________________________________________________Document 1:National News The trail of tears continues for Black Indians By Saeed Shabazz (Staff Writer, FinalCall.com News, Updated Nov 10, 2003 - 10:38:00 PM)

ENID, Oklahoma (FinalCall.com) - "History speaks of the ‘Trail of Tears’ in the past

tense, and perhaps for the Indian nations it is, but for Black Indians 173 years later, we find ourselves

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still traveling this journey," Eleanor "Gypsy" Wyatt, chairman of the Freedman Descendants of the Five Civilized Tribes told those gathered at the first annual Enid, Oklahoma, Black Indian pow wow.

She was speaking of the forced march at gunpoint that thousands of Native Americans endured in the 1930s after the United States government decided that they wanted the Indian lands east of the Mississippi.

Ms. Wyatt said her ancestors marched on the trail, and like many Black families, part of their history has been lost. "Though my complexion is of a dark hue, my African brothers don’t claim me for my hair is too straight or wavy, my nose is not broad, my lips are not full. My Choctaw and Chickasaw brothers won’t claim me, although my features are much like their own. I am a reminder of the inhumane treatment against a people," she said.

In 1929, settlers found gold on the Cherokee lands in northeastern Georgia, and they wanted government officials to remove the Indians off their land. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson. The act argued

that, "no state could achieve proper culture, civilization, and progress, as long as Indians remained within its boundaries." The bill called for the removal of all Indians in the southeastern United States to the territory west of the Mississippi River. In 1838, the first groups started out on their 1,000-mile trek, which became known as the Trail of Tears because of the horrors faced, such as disease, lack of food, water and bad weather.

Indian nations such as the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Kickapoo, Seminole, Wyandotte, Lenapi, Chickasaw and Mohawk had their lands taken away because settlers and corporations wanted more land, according to historians.

The Cherokee arrived on March 24, 1839 in their new land called the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma, a word that means "red people."

Today, organizations, such as the Black Indians United Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Freedman Descendants of the Five Civilized Tribes, argue that the history of Black Indians has been left out deliberately by government agencies such as the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA)…"I charge the BIA with ethnic

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cleansing, racial discrimination, ethnically exclusionary procedural systems and breach of contractual obligations," Ms. Molette said. She said the main purpose of the First Annual Black Indian Pow Wow in Enid was to call "members" of the

five tribes back home so that they may re-claim the heritage that was lost due to the forced exile. Historians have estimated that at least 18 percent of the Indians that survived the Trail of Tears were Black…

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Document 2:Trail of Tears:

The road 17,000 Cherokee Indians plodded along into exile almost 170 years ago winds 1,200 miles through the heartland of America from North Carolina to Oklahoma. Today, it is a road of hope and promise, but in 1838 it was a road of misery and heartache, sickness, and death known today as “The Trail of Tears.” A proud nation, uprooted and dispossessed, traveled it for six long, bitter months in the winter of 1838-39. Sickness broke out at every mile. One person out of every four died on the forced march. The humiliation and suffering that the Cherokee experienced on this sorrowful march have no parallel in American history. To preserve the story of that experience, the Cherokee Historical Association in 1951 sent an expedition out over the old trail. Four Cherokee tribal leaders headed the group that made the trip through North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas to Oklahoma. The story of that march into exile and its cause forms one of the darkest chapters in the history of American empire building.

ON A SEPARATE SHEET OF PAPER, ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:1. What questions was the historian trying to answer? How did this choice of

questions affect the historian’s telling of the story? 2. What does the historian believe about this event? How does this belief

affect the historian’s telling of the story? 3. What is the historian’s point of view? How does this point of view affect

the historian’s telling of the story? 4. Why were Native Americans moved from the Southeast to the Oklahoma

territory?

Document 3:The ‘Indian’ in the Latino

The native populations in the colonial land that Spanish conquerors called “New Spain” and the area later claimed by White settlers as the US

Southwest has had a long history of foreign control. Scholars date the continuous presence of native peoples in these regions back to 30,000 BCE. Over

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millennia, they built communities, cultures and societies there until 1519 AD, when imperialism, slavery, and colonial domination altered their world.

Some estimate that the population of Mexico’s Central Valleys was around 19 million before the arrival of the Spanish colonists: it had dropped to 2 million by 1550. That’s just around Mexico City: native populations on Cuba and Hispaniola were all but wiped out, and every native population in the New World suffered some loss. Although the bloody conquest took its toll, the main culprits were diseases like smallpox. The natives had no natural defenses against these new diseases, which killed them far more efficiently than the conquistadors ever could.

Under Spanish rule, native religion and culture were severely repressed. Whole libraries of native religious books were burned by Spanish priests who thought that they were the work of the Devil. Only a handful of these treasures remain. Their ancient culture is something that many native Latin American groups are currently trying to regain as the region struggles to find its identity.

Because the Spanish did not recognize native books and other forms of record keeping as legitimate, the history of the region was considered open for research and interpretation. What we know about pre-Columbian civilization comes to us in a jumbled mess of contradictions and riddles. Some writers seized the opportunity to paint earlier native leaders and cultures as bloody and tyrannical. With their history compromised, it is difficult for today’s Latin Americans to get a grasp on their past.

Figure 1: "From a Spanish man and an Indian woman results a Mestizo."

The destruction of whole cultures – in every sense – left the majority of the population lost and struggling to find their identities, a struggle which continues to this day. The power

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structures put in place by the Spanish and Portuguese still exist: witness the fact that Peru, a nation with a large indigenous population, just recently elected the first native president in their long history. The ethno-racial composition of modern day Latin American nations combines diverse Native American populations, with influence from Spanish colonizers and equally diverse African groups brought to the Americas as slave labor,

and also recent immigrant groups from all over the world.

However, in the US, Latinos do not automatically see themselves sharing the same ethnicity with the native inhabitants of the North American regions conquered and colonized by Spain. Not until the Chicano Movement's adoption of the legendary land of Aztlán did Latino discourse begin to speak of the desire to connect with pre-Hispanic ethnicity.

(Adapted from Silvio Torres-Saillant's The Indian in the Latino AND Christopher Minster’s Latin American History: Introduction to the Colonial Era)----Sources: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/lst/journal/v10/n4/full/lst201242a.html; http://latinamericanhistory.about.com/od/coloniallatinamerica/p/colonialera.htm

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Manifest Destiny and Westward ExpansionManifest Destiny Doctrinebased on the idea that America had a future that was destined by God to expand its borders, with no limit to area or

country: "It was white man's burden to conquer and christianize the land" (Demkin, Chapter 8).

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Document 1:

Document 2:

“Manifest Destiny” and the Writing of John O’Sullivan (Modified)John O’Sullivan, "The Great Nation of Futurity," 1839.

Our national birth (and the Declaration of Independence) was the beginning of a new history, which separates us from the past and connects us only with the future. We are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement. Our future history will be to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man the undeniable truth and goodness of God. America has been chosen for this mission among all the nations of the world, which are shut out from the life giving light of truth. Her high example shall put an end to the tyranny of kings, and carry the happy news of peace and good will to millions who now endure

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French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. (“Those who labor in the earth,” he wrote, “are the chosen people of God.”) In order to provide enough land to sustain this ideal population of virtuous farmers, the United States would have to continue to expand.

The westward expansion of the United States is one of the defining themes of 19th-century American history, but it is not just the story of Jefferson’s expanding “empire of liberty.” Rather, as one historian writes, in the six decades after the Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion “very nearly destroy[ed] the republic.”- http://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion

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an existence hardly better than that of beasts of the field. Who, then, can doubt that our country is destined to be the great nation of the future?

Document 3:Albert T. Beveridge, U.S. Senator 1899-1911 (Ryser)

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"God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Tectonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing but vain and idle self-admiration. No! He has

made us the master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns... He has made us adepts in government that we may administer

government among savages and senile peoples... endorsed with a strong sense of certainty the view that the Anglo-Saxon [Americans] was destined to rule the world...The superiority of the "white race" is the foundation on which the Anti-Indian Movement organizers and right-wing helpers rest

their efforts to dismember Indian tribes."

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Was it a good idea for Americans to expand westward? Why or Why not?__________________________________________________________________

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