Unit 2 Westward Expansion SOLs Covered USII 2

Unit 2 – Westward Expansion SOL’s Covered: USII. 2 a, 4 a

I. Westward movement A. Following the Civil War, the westward movement of settlers intensified into the vast region between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean.

B. The years immediately before and after the Civil War were the era of the American cowboy, marked by long cattle drives for hundreds of miles over unfenced open land in the West, the only way to get cattle to market.

C. Many Americans had to rebuild their lives after the Civil War. They responded to the incentive of free public land moved west.

1. The Homestead Act of 1862 gave free public land in the western territories to settlers who would live on and farm the land.

D. Southerners and African Americans, in particular, moved west to seek new opportunities after the Civil War.

II. How did people’s perceptions and use of the Great Plains change after the Civil War? A. Physical features/climate of the Great Plains 1. Flatlands that rise gradually from east to west. 2. Low/ little rain fall 3. Erosion by wind and rain 4. Dust storms caused by erosion.

B. New opportunities and technological advances led to westward migration following the Civil War. 1. New technologies like railroads and the mechanical reaper, opened new lands in the West for settlement and made farming profitable by increasing the efficiency of production and linking resources and markets more prosperous.

C. Because of new technologies, people saw the Great Plains not as a “treeless wasteland” but as a vast area to be settled.

1. By the turn of the century, the Great Plains was no longer a mostly unsettled frontier, but was fast becoming a region of farms, ranches, and towns.

IV. How did people adapt to life in challenging environments? A. Technological advances allowed people to live in more challenging environments.

B. Inventions/adaptations 1. Barbed wire 2. Steel plows

3. Dry farming 4. Sod houses

5. Beef cattle raising 6. Wheat farming

7. Windmills 8. Railroads

V. Why did westward expansion occur? A. Reasons for westward expansion 1. Opportunities for land ownership.

2. Technological advances, including the Transcontinental Railroad.

3. Possibility of wealth created by the discovery of gold and silver. 4. Adventure

5. A new beginning former enslaved African Americans.

• 17. Transcontinental Railroad- It spanned across the nation from the east to the west. It created the four time zones and connected the Atlantic to the Pacific. Much of the land was purchased or obtained by treaties from Native Americans. This sped up western movement. • Homestead Act- In 1862 government passed this act to encourage settlement on the Plains. It gave 160 free acres of land to a settler who paid a $10 filing fee and lived there for five years.

• 18. 5 ways the lives of American Indians Changed

VI. How did the lives of American Indians change with western expansion? A. Impact on American Indians 1. Opposition by American Indians to westward expansion.

a. Battle of Little Bighorn (1876) - American Indians won, but the result was an expanded campaign of opposition.

b. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse – They were chiefs who led the Sioux and Cheyenne to victory over General George Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

c. Geronimo – Apache who led raids on settlers and the army in Arizona.

2. Forced relocation from traditional lands to reservations.

a. Chief Joseph and the Nez Percé “Hear me, my chiefs, I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever. ”

3. Reduced population through warfare and disease. a. Battle of Wounded Knee (1890) – Massacre of 150 Sioux Indians following the death of Sitting Bull. - The battle was the final armed conflict with the Native Americans.

4. Assimilation attempts and lifestyle changes. a. Reduction of the buffalo population.

5. Reduced their homeland through treaties that were broken. 6. The forcible removal of the American Indians from their lands would continue throughout the remainder of the 19 th century as settlers continued to move west following the Civil War.

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