Name___________________________Date________
Chapter 26. The Great West and the Agricultural Revolution, 1865-1896.
Theme 1: After the Civil War, whites overcame the Plains Indians’ fierce resistance and settled the Great West,
bringing to a close the long frontier phase of American history.
Theme 2: The farmers who populated the West found themselves the victims of an economic revolution in
agriculture. Trapped in a permanent debtor dependency, in the 1880s they finally turned to political action to
protest their condition. Their efforts culminated in the Populist Party’s attempt to create an interracial farmer/labor
coalition in the 1890s, but William Jennings Bryan’s defeat in the pivotal election of 1896 signaled the triumph of
urbanism and the middle class.
1. At the close of the Civil War, the Great Plains and Mountain West were still occupied by Indians who hunted
buffalo on horseback and fiercely resisted white encroachment on their land and way of life. But as the whites’
livestock grazed the prairies and diseases undercut Indian strength and numbers, a cycle of environmental
destruction and intertribal warfare soon threatened Native Americans’ existence. The federal government
combined a misconceived “treaty” program with intermittent warfare to force the Indians into largely barren
reservations.
2. Attempting to coerce Indians into adopting white ways, the government passed the Dawes Act, which eliminated
tribal ownership of land while often insensitive “humanitarians” created a network of Indian boarding schools that
further assaulted traditional Native American culture.
3. The mining and cattle frontiers created colorful chapters in western history. Farmers carried out the final phase
of settlement, lured by free homesteads, railroads, and irrigation. The census declared the end of the frontier in
1890, concluding a formative phase of American history. The frontier was less a “safety valve” than many
believed, but the growth of cities actually made the West the most urbanized region of the United States by the
1890s.
4. Beginning in the 1870s, farmers began pushing into the treeless prairies beyond the 100th meridian, using the
techniques of dry farming that gradually contributed to soil loss. Irrigation projects, later financed by the federal
government, allowed specialized farming in many areas of the arid West, including California. The “closing” of
the frontier in 1890 signified the end of traditional westward expansion, but the Great West remained a unique
social and environmental region.
5. As the farmers opened vast new lands, agriculture was becoming a mechanized business dependent on
specialized production and international markets. Once declining prices and other woes doomed the farmers
to permanent debt and dependency, they began to protest their lot, first through the Grange and then through
Farmers’ Alliances, the prelude to the People’s (Populist) party.
6. The major depression of the 1890s accelerated farmer and labor strikes and unrest, leading to a growing sense of
class conflict. In 1896 pro-silverite William Jennings Bryan captured the Democratic Party’s nomination, and led
a fervent campaign against the “goldbug” Republicans and their candidate William McKinley. McKinley’s
success in winning urban workers away from Bryan proved a turning point in American politics, signaling the
triumph of the city, the middle class, and a new party system that turned away from monetary issues and put
the Republicans in the political driver’s seat for two generations.
II. Major questions & concepts for consideration. Write these out on a separate sheet of paper. These
will be the topics of discussion and class participation. Look above in the summary of the chapter, as you
answer the following conceptual questions:
1. Discuss the causes and results of the warfare between whites and Native Americans in the great West.
2. Explain the development of federal policy toward Native Americans in the late nineteenth century.
3. Analyze the brief flowering and decline of the cattle and mining frontiers.
4. Explain the impact of the closing of the frontier and the long-term significance of the frontier for American
history.
6. Describe the economic forces that drove farmers into debt, and describe how the Grange, the Farmers’ Alliances
and the Populist Party organized to protest their oppression.
7. Explain the major issues in the critical campaign of 1896 and describe the long term effects of McKinley’s victory.
III. Significant names, terms, and topics: Know these terms etc. A.P. Jeopardy:
• Overview Cause: The encroachment of white settlement and the violation of treaties. Effect: Led to nearly
constant warfare with Planes Indians from 1868 to about 1890.
2. Effects of European diseases, and white introduced livestock had devastating results.
3. Pacification Treaties marked the beginning of the reservation system in the West.
• Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1851
•
• Treaty of Fort Atkinson, 1853
•
• These treaties established boundaries for each:
•
• Attempted to separate Indians into two great colonies North and South of intended:
5. (1860) Great Sioux reservation (Dakota Territory) and Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
• Continued dishonesty of federal Indian agents.
•
• Immigrant and Buffalo Soldiers were involved in fierce warfare on the plains. See picture on page 597.
7. Fetterman Massacre (1866) The Sioux led by Chief Red Cloud attempted to stop the Bozeman Trail, which was
to go from Fort Laramie, Wyoming, straight through the heart of the Sioux hunting ground in Montana. Captain
William Fetterman and his command of 81 were killed in Wyoming.
• The cycle of vicious warfare followed.
8. Treaty of Fort Laramie, (1868) The U.S. government abandoned building the Bozeman Trail.
9. “Black Hills gold” (1864) Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s scientific expedition into the South Dakota.
• Gold Rush
10. Little Big Horn Massacre (1876) Col. Custer’s Seventh Cavalry of 264 officers and men killed.
• Indian leaders were Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
•
• Indian resistance was gradually worn down, and by the end of the 1870s, most Sioux were on reservations.
•
11. Nez Perce (1977)
• In 1877 the U.S. government ordered the Nez Perce of eastern Oregon to move to a smaller reservation in
Idaho. When they were given the orders to move the young braves staged a series of raids. Fearing reprisals,
the Nez Perce attempted to escape to Canada, led by Chief Joseph. This group of 800 Indians evaded capture
for 75 days before surrendering to the U.S. troops just 40 miles from the Canadian border. In advising his
people to give up, Chief Joseph made a moving speech.
• “I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed…The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led
the young men is dead. It is cold and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of
them, have run away to the hills, have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I
want time to have to look for my children and see how many I can find. Hear me, my chiefs. I am tired. My heat is sick and
sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever”.
14. Name the factors that” tamed the Indian” Note that the author has prioritized the factors, often this is what you
are asked to do in historical essays. Can you see the type of question that could be asked here, and how you
would set up your thesis? Within your thesis one would include what major factors?
• Railroad
•
• Diseases
•
• Alcohol
•
• Extermination of the Buffalo
•
• Note that you have a classic cause and effect: Railroad building, disease, and the destruction of the buffalo,
decimated Indian and hastened their defeat at the hands of advancing whites.
• Read the documents Civil War veteran General Sheridan reflected on page 602.
21. Dawes Severalty Act of 1887. This dissolved many tribes as legal entities. Forced-assimilation
• No tribal ownership
•
• Individual family heads with
•
• Severalty: The condition, as of land being held or owned by separate or individual right.
• Reservation land not given to the Indians was sold, money going to help “civilize” and educate the Indians.
• Why do the authors call this a misbegotten offspring of the Indian reform policy?
22. Carlisle Indian School (1879) Pennsylvania. Kill the Indian and save the man.
• By 1900 Indians had lost;
27. Boomtowns
• Vigilante justice
29. The great abundance of precious metals mined in the West had a profound affect on the nation. (Thesis)
• Note the factors of importance given by the author and how they prioritize these factors.
• Quickly list those factors under:
• economic:
•
• political:
•
• social:
•
31. “Beef barons” Swift and Armour Giant meat packers at Kansas City and Chicago
34. The Railroad and what other factors killed the Long Drive?
•
• Winter of 1886-1887
•
35. As a result the stockmen did what to save his livelihood?
The Farming Frontier (Page 606) Note the DBQ The Farmers’ Movement, 1870-1900 on page A118.
36. Sodbuster
38. How did railways play a major role in the development of the agricultural West?
• Marketing of crops
• RR induced people to buy cheap land (Propaganda)
•
39. The myth of the great American Desert What does the author mean?
•
•
40. 100th meridian and its significance?
• John Wesley Powell director of the U.S. Geological Survey warned in 1874:
•
• See Average Annual Precipitation map on page 610. Locate the 100th meridian line.
• Drought 1887-1892
43. Irrigation systems. One should note the consequences of this damming of the rivers in Marc Reisner”s classic
book: Cadillac Desert. The American West and its Disappearing Water.
50. “Safety-valve theory” You should be able to restate this in your own words, and give reasons for its validity.
The author suggests that the safety valve of the late 19th century was:
•
•
•
• Some validity?
•
•
• Study the chart Homestead from Public Lands on page 611.
• Real safety valve in late 19th century was in western cities:
•
• Study the chart
51. In this last section the author’s sets in motion a thesis based upon the trans-Mississippi West as a unique area.
• Note how they bring in diversity and a blend of cultures.
•
• Native American
•
• Anglo culture
•
• Hispanic culture
•
• Asian-American
Look at VI. Below: Expanding Viewpoints and see how historians Turner and White disagree. These thoughts are
expanded also on page 622 “Was the West Really Won”?
Do you recognize their thesis?
•
64. Restriction of production was forced by the Federal government during the Great depression under Franklin
Roosevelt’s New Deal. See Paying Farmers Not to Farm, pages 783.
72. Colored Farmers’ National alliance (1880) History of racial division and divide and rule.
• Mary Elizabeth Lease (1853-1933) Raise “Less Corn and more Hell.” See the picture and caption on page
616.
• Standing almost six feet tall, she spoke passionately on behalf of the downtrodden farmers and challenged them
to unite to improve their condition. Her legendary speeches could mesmerize an audience for two or three
hours. “You may call me an anarchist, a socialist, or a communist, I care not, but I hold to the theory that if one
man has not enough to eat three times a day and another has $25 million, that last man has something that
belongs to the first.” By 1890 she backed the Populist Party and traveled West and South, stirring up support for
the third party. “Let the old political parties know that the raid is over,” she exhorted, “and that monopolies,
trusts, and combines shall be relegated t Hades.” The Gilded Age, Janette T. Greewood,Oxford U. Press, page
140
• The other major political parties began to pay attention to Populist issues. See James B. Weaver in the election
of 1892. .
Coxey’s Army and the Pullman Strike (Page 614)
• Before your study of Coxey’s Army and its significance, one might want to make the connection with other
rebellions in American history and see what their origins were and note any similarities.
• See: Andros Rebellion (1689) page 53. Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) page 68.
• Leisler’s Rebellion (1689-91) page 82. Salem Witch Trials (1692-3) page 79-80.
• Paxton Boys (1764) page 88. (Also see Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson, pp. 210-14.)
• Shays’s Rebellion (1786) page 176. Whiskey Rebellion (1794) page 196. Bonus Army (1932) page 766.
76. The Panic of 1893 (This lasted from 1893-1894), followed by the Silver Campaign Depression 1895-98
77. The goals of General Jacob S. Coxey (1894)
•
•
• Study the photograph and caption Coxey’s Army Enters the District of Columbia, 1894 on page 617.
Coxey’s achievement:
•
78. Pullman Strike of 1894.
• See the picture and caption on page 618.
• Eugene V. Debs, American Railway Union
• Union Grievances
•
79. Governor Peter Altgeld
•
• Vs. Att. Gen. Richard Olney.
• President Cleveland’s stance.
•
80. What is a Federal Court Injunction?
•
•
81. What was the unholy alliance between business and the courts?
•
• What was the significance of this belief?
•
” Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests
and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the
brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold”.
93. The authors make the point the” the free-silver election of 1896” was ...the most significant political turning point
since Lincoln’s victories in 1860 and 1864.”
• What evidence do they give?
•
• Eastern wage earners voted for jobs
•
• Wage earners had no reason to favor inflation
•
• Outcome of the election was a victory for big business, big cities, middle class values and financial
conservatives.
• Last real effort to win the Presidency with mostly agrarian votes.
•
94. Republicans held on to the White House from 1896 to 1912 when Democrat Woodrow Wilson was elected.
95. Republican dominance in 1896 gave the death knell of the Gilded Age political party system.
• See map and caption Presidential Election of 1896 on page 623.
• Diminishing voter participation
• Weakening of political organizations
• Fading of money,and civil service reform issues
• Replaced by Issues of industrial regulation and welfare for labor (The 4th Party system)
• Read carefully the footnote at the bottom of page 623 dealing with the 5 party systems, it is important to
understand these party systems, as it will make more sense as we move ahead to the study of F.D. Roosevelt’s
New Deal (5th party system) and R.M. Nixon’s election of 1968-the 6th party system? Did we enter a 7th party
system with George W. Bush?
1. Why has the Plains Indians’ resistance to white encroachment played such a large part in the popular American
view of the West? How is that mythical past related to the Indians’ actual history?
2. What was “romantic” about the final phases of frontier settlement, and what was not?
3. Why was the “passing of the frontier” in 1890 a disturbing development for many Americans? Was the frontier
more important as a particular place or as an idea?
4. Was the federal government biased against farmers and workers in the late ninetieth century? Why or why not?
5. Was McKinley’s election really a “conservative” one, or was it Bryan and the Populists who represented the
agrarian past resisting a progressive urban American future?
1. Compare the Plains Indians’ history and culture, especially before the coming of the whites, to that of the Iroquois
(Chapter 2). How does this comparison prove the assertion that the cultures of various Indian peoples differ
greatly?
2. In what ways did the Plains Indians benefit by the transformation of their way of life brought about by the horse? In
what ways were they harmed?
• A view of the West as a place permanently shaping the formerly “European” American character: (His thesis)
“The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward
explain American development.... This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its
opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American
character.... In this advance, the frontier is the outer edge of the wave--the meeting point between savagery and
civilization....”
“(The West) is not a traditional world either seeking to maintain itself unchanged or eroding under the pressure of
whites. It is a joint Indian-white creation.... The real crisis came... when Indians ceased to have power to force whites
onto the middle ground. Then the desire of whites to dictate the terms of the accommodation could be given its
head.... Americans invented Indians and forced Indians to live with the consequences.”
1. What does each of these historians understand to be the essential characteristics of the West?
2. How does White’s assessment differ from Turner’s view of the frontier as a “meeting point between savagery and
civilization”?
3. How would each of there historians interpret the Plains Indian wars and the confinement of Indians on
reservations?
1. Ironically, popular belief in the ‘self-sufficient farmer’ and the ‘self-made man’ increased during the nineteenth
century as the reality behind these beliefs faded.
(1978)
Assess the validity of this statement.
2. In what ways were the late nineteenth-century Populists the heirs of the Jacksonian Democrats with respect to
overall objectives AND specific proposals for reform?
(1989)
3. Although the economic development of the Trans-Mississippi West is popularly associated with hard
individualism, it was in fact largely dependent on the federal government.
Assess the validity of this statement with specific reference to western economic activities in the nineteenth
century. (1991)
4. To what extent did the natural environment shape the development of the West beyond the Mississippi and the
lives of those who lived and settled there? how important were other factors?
DBQ (1992)
Use BOTH evidence from the documents AND your knowledge of the period from the 1840s through the 1890s to
compose your answer.
5. Analyze the economic consequences of the Civil War with respect to any TWO of the following in the United States
between 1865 and 1880.
(1997)
Agriculture
Labor
Industrialization
Transportation
(See Free Response Question 1997 booklet Rubric-Question # 4, pages 53-62.)
6. How were the Plains Indians in the second half of the nineteenth century affected by technological developments
and government actions?
(1999)
7. Ironically, popular belief in the ‘self-sufficient farmer’ and the ‘self-made man’ increased during the ninetieth
century as the reality behind these beliefs faded
(1978)
Assess the validity of this statement.
8. Documents A-H reveal some of the problems that many farmers in the late nineteenth century (1880-1900) saw as
threats to their way of life. Using the documents and your knowledge of the period, (a) explain the reasons for
agrarian discontent and (b) evaluate the validity of the farmers’ complaints.
The Populists. (1983 DBQ) Doing the DBQ pages # 130-138 (A-H = 8 Docs.)
9. Analyze the reasons for the emergence of the Populist movement in the late nineteenth century.
(1995)
10. Analyze the ways in which technology, government policy, and economic conditions changed agriculture in the
period 1865 – 1900.
DBQ (2007)
In your answer be sure to evaluate farmers’ responses to these changes.