The “Wild” WestU3T7 – I can describe the causes of continued movement to the American West after the Civil War.

U3T8 – I can explain positive and negative impacts of westward migration on various groups.

Review– RallyRobinWhatLedtoWesternExpansion?

LouisianaPurchase(1803)

LewisandClarkExpedition(1804)

ManifestDestiny:BeliefthattheU.S.shouldexpandacrossthecontinenttothePacificOcean

EstablishmentofWesterntrails(OregonTrail)

CaliforniaGoldRush

TreatyofGuadalupeHidalgo(1848):gavetheUnitedStatesvasttractsofland

HomesteadsFromPublicLands

FrontierSettlements:1870‐1890

LandUse:1880s

Today’s Notes

African Americans - Opportunity Exoduster

Movement -black migration from the South to the west came to be known as the "Great Exodus," and those participating in it were called "exodusters."

Railroad Owners & Workers -Opportunity

Transcontinental Railroad -Central Pacific and the Union Pacific RR met at Promontory, Utah in 1869.

http://www.history.com/topics/inventions/transcontinental-railroad

Populists - Opportunity

Western farmers organized to impact politics and economics.

(more next unit)

Miners

Settlers - Opportunities

Homestead Act (1862) – gov’t land grants (160 acres) to settlers who “improved” the plot for 5 years.

Prairie fan – water pump

Steel Plow – easier to prep hardened soil

American Indians -Challenges

Indian Wars – US gov’t violence against Natives

Assimilation – attempt to extinguish Indian culture

(more next class)

Ranchers and Cowboys

Opportunity – Bonanzas: industrial sized ranches

Challenge - Barbed wire ruined the open range

Finishing Notes – On your own

Step 1 Visit one of the eight stations around the room. Examine the sources.

Step 2 Discuss with your partner how this group of people might have been positively and negatively impacted out west.

Step 3 In the speech bubbles for this group, write 2 positives (opportunities) and 2 negatives (challenges).

Not this year…

Frontier Thesis

What was the main idea of Frederick Turner’s Frontier Thesis? Explain why you agree or disagree with his view.

Print and distribute the next slide to students

Frontier Thesis (1893)The famous paper Frederick Jackson Turner delivered at a meeting of the American Historical Association stated his thesis simply. The settlement of the West by white people was the central story of American history. The process of westward expansion had transformed a desolate and savage land into modern civilization. It had also continually renewed American ideas of democracy and individualism and had, therefore, shaped not just the West but the nation as a whole.

With his announcement of the "closing" of the frontier, moreover, Turner implied that the nation would be forced to undergo a painful transition, from a perception of America as a land of endless boundaries, to one which required Americans to accept that their nation was finally a closed-space world, replete with the limitations inherent therein.