American West Expansion

The two most important components in the development of the American West that took place in the second half of the nineteenth century were the expansion of the West and the decline of Native Americans. In the middle of the Civil War, Congressional Northerners were looking to populate the West with free labor and they developed the Homestead Act of 1862. This Act would promise settlers 160 acres of land to populate and develop and after five years, the land would become theirs. Almost 400,000 farms were developed and populated between 1862-1890. Although the settlers were dealing with locusts, tornadoes, hailstorms, and extreme heat, the success of these farms began to develop as corporate farming covered 13,000 acres. Many of the people began
to advocate for more railroads and that led to the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. There were cattle drives all along the railroad lines from Texas to Kansas. Cowboys were not just employees of the main corporations, but they also became a symbol of the Industrial Age. Corporations also began to develop more mines in areas like Colorado, Utah, and California and between 1865-1900 white Americans settled approximately 430 million acres of land.
There were also ten new states added to the Union and the commercial empires of farming, cattle, and mining continued to rise and fall as they became vital to the development of the West. Cities like Chicago began to rapidly grow as it became the capital of western commerce with the knack to develop cattle into cash. But as corporations began to dominate the key industries of the West a new group began to emerge in protest of these corporations. This group consisted of rural people and became known as The Populists. During this time crop prices were decreasing as people were buying more land causing farmers to go into debt. The rise and fall of the Industrial Age led to rapid deflation which meant farmers were getting less money for the goods they sold. During this time Agrarian Organizations began to develop in protest and in 1867, Oliver Kelly organized a group called The Grange, which was more of a fraternal organization. It wasn't until later it became more of a political organization to protect the interest of the
farmers. The organization began operating CO-OPs, campaigning for certain politicians, developing farmers banks that were easier on loans, and pushing for laws to regulate the amount of money railroads and grain elevators could charge the farmers. Out of this came the landmark court case of Munn V.
Illinois, which declared that states can now regulate how much a business can charge if it operates in the interest of the public. In the 1880's, farmers alliances were growing in rapid numbers to bring all farmer's organizations together in order to work through politics and in 1892 these alliances formed the national party known as "The People's Party". The members fought for the farmer's concerns within local, state, and federal politics, as well as to reverse deflation through regulation of storage and shipping costs. Making silver an acceptable commodity would increase prices in the marketplace making it easier for farmers to pay off their debts. The six basic principles of the organization were: 1) permanent union of workers, 2) economic redistribution, 3) government ownership of railroads, 4) government ownership of communication networks, 5) fair distribution of national currency, and 6) ownership of land by those who work it to include black and white workers (Schultz, 2018). This organization became a national movement of farmers in the early 1890's and three of their moderate demands became laws within 20 years, which were secret ballots, graduated income tax, and direct election of Senators (Schultz,
2018).

The second important component that took place in the West was the final defeat of Native American tribes. Prior to the move of Anglo-American settlers to the West, this land was occupied by approximately 300,000 Native Americans. Their numbers in population had already begun to decline due to disease and continuous war with the settlers. This increase in conflicts eventually led to the Sand Creek Massacre of 1865. The government's plan was to give the Indians reservations, divide them up into private property holdings, develop the settled farms, and convert the Indians to Christians. This was known as the government's idea of "conquest through kindness". However, land given to the Indians was intruded on if there were interesting things to be found on them. Americans continued to take land away from the Indians as homesteaders and corporate farmers continued to harvest the land providing most of the raw materials for the Industrial Age. As the Indians fled further West, they would occasionally protest the movement and actions of the government. Such protests were known as the "Ghost Dance" and quickly became too popular. During the Federal Government's investigation into one of the protests near Wounded Creek, South Dakota on December 29, 1890, a rifle was accidentally discharged causing U.S. Army soldiers to fire at the Indians. During this event, which became known as the Wounded Knee Massacre, 39 soldiers died and 46 Sioux Indians died. This marked the end of the Federal Government's war against the Indians which had lasted a century.