Key Terms Turner s Frontier Thesis Homestead Act Dawes Severalty Act Transcontinental Railroad A Buffalo Bill Cody II Frontier Line is no more I Images of the Wild West in Hollywood start in the 1890s B Dramatization has very little resemblance to the actual West A Millions of people migrating from the East coast to the west B Turner s Frontier Thesis 1 Historian who gives address that says the frontier has a special place in the American Character 2 Frontier was the place that gave Americans optimism express their ruggedness 3 Creates the nation s character and values so what happens if the frontier is gone a going to create a problem for American men because they can t prove themselves anymore a gov t had helped clear frontier and establish clean water before settlers got there it wasn t men all on their own 2 Before railroad you could take a stagecoach that would take 3 4 months or a boat all around south america 5 6 months b causes people to panic 4 His thesis doesn t work all the time C Transcontinental Railroad 1 One of America s greatest technological achievements 3 Railroad New York to San Francisco in 5 6 days a so much easier to transport people and goods 4 Built during civil war North funds it 5 Gov t gives railroad companies thousands of dollars to fund built by mostly immigrants and confederate veterans 6 Incredibly dangerous work takes 6 years 7 Many people die and workers are treated terribly 8 Country is divided up into timezones by railroad companies a Gov t is not happy Washington refuses to follow times set by companies b Railroads are so powerful they change the way people behave 9 Construction of railroad is devastating to people living in Western areas where it s built Plains Indians III Settlement Surged Westward A Discovery of mineral deposits brought thousands of people into the region causing towns to spring up overnight B Many felt the Northern and Midwestern cities were growing too crowded and that industrialization wasn t good for families C Homestead Act pay a small fee then you own the land 1 Any citizen or immigrant can get a title to 160 acres of land from the gov t for free and they must live on the land and make some kind of improvement and 2 Congress doesn t want big companies to buy up the land they want families to go out and farm and have families 3 Most people that take this land are immigrants 4 They find out 160 acres is not enough to make a profitable farm in the West need 2500 acres 5 Railroad companies encourage people to move out West in hopes that they ll buy railroad land 6 1 3 of people give up it s impossible to make a living a Live in sod houses dirt houses people are very lonely climate is difficult grasshopper plague 7 People try to raise cattle and this is profitable for a short time 8 Mormons move out West to flee eye of government polygamy is criminalized D Struggle between people already occupying land and new settlers 1 Native Americans belief systems conflict with settlers 2 Railroad threatens bison this is detrimental for Native Americans who use Bison for everything 3 Native Americans move to reservations so they re allotted land from government 4 Only place where Native Americans feel safe to live 5 Progressives want to assimilate Native Americans into white culture want to help them 6 Dawes Act b Eradicate cultural heritage a Progressives solution was to dismantle Native American culture dissolve tribes educate children in white schools c Believed Native American culture was holding them back from civilization d Progressives thought they were helping Native Americans e Believed the key to becoming a true American was owning your own land f Act gives 160 acres of land to any Native American that wants it after 25 years of settlement on that land they can become a US citizen cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 g But Native Americans have much more land than 160 acres so gov t has to decide what to do with the rest of the land h Gov t decided to sell it and Native Americans have to give up their cultural and spiritual practices
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