USA in the 19th Century: Westward expansion

By evar0se.2018
  • Period: to

    The USA's gross national income rose 7 times and the income of ordinary families more than doubled

    economic cons.

  • The Louisiana Land Purchase

    Jefferson sent James Monroe to France to offer $10 million for New Orleans and West Florida, Napoleon offered $15 million for the entirety of Louisiana. This gave the USA 828,000 square miles of land for farming (role of fed. gov.)

  • Captain Merriweather's and William Clark's exploration of the West

    48 men set out from St Louis. They travelled 4000 miles and returned 2 years later with a collection of maps, biological and geological specimens, and details on Native American customs (role of individuals)

  • Lieutenant Pike's explores as far as Colorado

    He created the first detailed information of Native American customs

  • Road building of the national road to Ohio began

    role of transport developments

  • African Slave Trade made illegal

  • American settlers stormed Baron Range in Florida

    They proclaimed it a republic of the west (role of fed. gov.)

  • The 1812 War

    Didn't really help the USA and only really affirmed the border between the USA and Canada (role of fed. gov.)

  • The USA controlled all of West Florida

    Spain was pre-occupied with the war with France (role of fed. gov.)

  • 100 miles of canals

    role of transport

  • Only 17 steamboats on the canal

    role of transport

  • Work began on the Erie Canal

    This reached 363 miles long with 83 locks and 18 aqueducts (role of transport)

  • Invention of the iron plough

    Increased accessibility for farmers (role of economy)

  • The Panic of 1819

    Economic crash caused by global market adjustments after the Napoleonic Wars. It led to a recession and the prices of crops increased hugely. This caused angry farmers to move west and squat on farmland, leading to an increase in western agriculture production (role of economy)

  • Major Long's exploration across present day Nebraska and Colorado

    Declared The Plains as totally unstable for white settlers

  • The Missouri Compromise

    Admitted Missouri as a slave state and Maine as a free state

  • The Baltimore opened

    13 mile long wagons were pulled by steam locomotives (role of transport)

  • The Indian Removal Act was passed

    This was detrimental for Native Americans as they were forcibly removed from their eastern lands to even further western lands. The Choctaws lost 1600 people (nearly one tenth of their whole tribe) when they trekked west in the winter. The Cherokee were also treated awfully, their lands were declared invalid and they were unable to testify in court. (socio-cultural cons.)

  • Alexis de Tocqueville visited the USA

    He was surprised by how equal the country was

  • Invention of the mechanical reaper

    Created by Cyrus McCormick and revolutionised farming (role of economy)

  • Minimum land purchase reduced to 40 acres

    role of fed. gov.

  • National Anti-Slavery Society established

    Had 250,000 members

  • American settlers move into Texas and declare independence from Mexico

  • The amount of steamboats reached 361

    role of transport

  • Invention of the steel plough

    Increased accessibility of farming (role of economy)

  • The national road reached 800 miles long

    role of transport developments

  • There were 3326 miles of canals in the USA

    role of transport

  • 3328 miles of railway track were reached

    role of transport

  • The amount of settlers west of the Appalachians reached 7 million

    In 1800 there had only been 387,000
  • Period: to

    Food production increased 4x

  • Period: to

    Population increased from 17 million to 31 million

  • The Pre-emption Act was passed

    Squatters could purchase the property they had improved

  • The term 'Manifest Destiny' is coined

  • The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

    This ended the Mexican-American war and ceded 55% of Mexico's territory to the US, including California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and most of Colorado
  • Period: to

    The California gold rush

    Gold was found by James W. Marshall in California and this brough approximately 300,000 people to California from across the US and abroad

  • Free states had more power than slave states

    New states often joined as free states (political cons.)

  • The average white woman had 5 children

  • There were over 700 steamships on the Mississippi

  • One third of white southern families had slaves

  • 26% of Northerners lived in towns of 2500+ plus but only 10% of southerners did

  • Mail Company developed

    Provided a mail services between St Louis and San Francisco. It was 4500km and delivery was guaranteed in 25 days

  • Boom in gold mining in the East

    This caused 50,000 people to move east, but this quickly collapsed

  • Discovery of gold in Colorado

    This resulted in the Peak Pike rush. After two years, its total output was $350 million.

  • 75% of Southern families did not own states

    economic cons.

  • The top 5% of free adult males owned 53% of wealth

    The bottom 50% owned only 1% (economic cons.)

  • There were 50,000km more track in the US than the rest of the world

  • The population of New York reached 800,000

  • There were 36,672 civil servants and 30,000 postmasters

  • The Morrill Land Grant Act

    Founded colleges to teach agriculture and the mechanic arts. Struggled at first with a lack of students and a body of scientific knowledge to teach, but eventually prospered and brought useful information to farmers.

  • The Pacific Railroad Act

    Promoted the construction of a transcontinental railroad through the authorisation of government bonds and the grants of land to railroad companies. Had a major impact on western expansion.

  • The Homestead Act

    Granted Americans 160 acre plots of public land for a small fee. It led to Western expansion and allowed citizens of all walks of life to become landowners, but also displaced Native Americans and invited fraud. It also allowed women to claim their own land, and Native American women married to trappers were allowed to do typical male jobs like maintaining hides

  • The West was home to 300,000 Native Americans

  • Four main Native American groups in existence

    1) The Plains Indians
    2) Survivors of the 5 Civilised Tribes who were forced to leave their home and go to a place called 'Indian territory' (modern day Oklahoma)
    3) A few small tribes such as the Nez Perce in the north, the Apache in the south who inhabited the area between the Rockies and the Sierra Nevada's
    4) Peaceful farmers (like the Navano) in the south west

  • The Medicine Lodge Treaty was passed

    Signed between the Federal Government and the southern Plains Indians that hoped to bring to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans

  • President Grant's policy of peace

    Grant wanted Native Americans to integrate into white American society and created a policy of peace in 1868. He introduced an army to protect Native Americans on reservations from attacks

  • The Fort Laramie Treaty was passed

    The Plains Indians had to let white American settlers pass

  • Creation of the first effective barbed wire

    Joseph Glidden produced the first effective barbed wire, making it possible to fence land cheaply.

  • First National Park in the USA was created

    Congress passed an act designating 800,000 hectares of Wyoming territory

  • The Timber Culture Act was passed

    This allowed homesteaders to get another 160 acres of land if they planted trees on one-fourth of the land (ecological cons.)
  • Period: to

    Economic depression

    In the US 18,000 businesses went bankrupt, including 89 railroads. Unemployment reached 8.25% in 1878

  • The Dawes General Allotment Act

    The act broke up small reservation land into small units held by individuals or families. Each head of the family would receive 160 acres. Native Americans who accepted allotments and adopted habits of 'civilised life' were granted citizenship for 25 years. After a short time, most NAs had sold or lost their land and fallen into poverty