Download US History Standard 4.1

UNITED STATES
HISTORY
AND THE
CONSTITUTION
South Carolina
Standard USHC-4.1
Mr. Hoover,
Abbeville High School
America Heads West
 During and after the Civil War, the United
States entered a period of rapid
economic growth and westward
expansion fostered by government
policies.
 This growth created a national market but
also threatened the cultural survival of
the Native Americans of the west.
Kansas Nebraska Act
 The Civil War marked an important turning
point in the development of a national system
of transportation.
 Railroad construction prior to the Civil War had
impacted the growing tension between the
regions as Northerners and Southerners vied
for routes to the Pacific Ocean.
 The Kansas Nebraska Act had been passed in
order to provide a route west for the railroad.
Republicans Do As They
Pleased
 The absence of Southern Democrats
from Congress during the war allowed
Republicans to pass laws that reflected
their understanding of the broader role of
the national government.
Land Grants?
 The authorization of subsidies in the form
of land grants.
 The Pacific Railway Act promoted the
building of transcontinental railroads
because it provided both a route and land
to sell to raise capital for the building of
the tracks.
Homestead Act
 The passage of a law granting western
farm land to settlers for free as long as
they created a home there [Homestead
Act] also promoted the growth of the west
and of the national economy.
Railroad
 The transcontinental railroad fostered the
development of a national market by
linking all parts of the country.
 The railroad provided access for farmers
and ranchers to markets in the east as
well as access for emerging industries to
the natural resources of the west.
Railroad Wipes Out Bison
 The building of railroads profoundly
impacted Native Americans in the west.
 Because the roaming buffalo posed a
threat to the integrity of railroad tracks on
the plains, the railroad encouraged the
killing of the bison.
Free Land?
 Plains Indian, largely dependent on the
buffalo, could no longer sustain
themselves.
 White settlers were attracted to the west
by the availability of free land with access
to markets via the railroad.
Trail of Tears, Again?
 Just as the Trail of Tears had resulted in
the removal of eastern Native American
tribes to the Indian Territory in Oklahoma,
a similar policy of moving native peoples
off of their traditional lands to
reservations to make way for white
settlers was followed for western tribes.
Corrupt Agents
 Native peoples were forced to agree to
treaties that moved them onto smaller
reservations where they were taken
advantage of by corrupt agents of the
U.S. government.
 Some Native Americans resisted but
were relentlessly pursued in a series of
Indian Wars by the U.S. cavalry.
Precious Metals
 Others acquiesced only to be driven from
the reservations because of the
discovery of some precious mineral in the
lands they had been granted.
Breaking Treaties
 Criticisms of the U.S. policy of breaking
treaties with the Native Americans
resulted in a change of policy. The new
policy attempted to foster Native
American assimilation into American
society [Dawes Severalty Act].
Land Ownership
 Tribal lands were divided into farming
parcels and given to individual families.
However this arrangement did not match
the cultural habits of native peoples who
believed in tribal ownership of lands and
who did not know how to be farmers.
 As a result, many Native Americans lost
the land to whites.
Assimilation
 In an additional attempt to promote
assimilation, Native American children
were taken from their families and sent to
boarding schools in the east where they
were taught English and how to dress
and act like white Americans, thus losing
their cultural heritage.
Poverty
 Native Americans’ attempts to revive
their traditions, such as the Ghost Dance,
were viewed as threat by the United
States army and resulted in a massacre
at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
 Native Americans were left in poverty
and cultural decline, without a voice in
America’s democracy.