The Consequences Of Westward Expansion

One of the key parts of westward expansion in the US was The Homestead Act that was implemented on January 1st, 1863. This act stated that men and women (who were not married) and 21 or older could apply for up to 160 acres of land in the west. The requirement was that they must live on the land for 5 years and “improve upon the land”. If they did this then the land would become theirs for $10. The Homestead Act favored white homesteaders and they were able to acquire over 285 million acres of land. This act was part of the process of conquest and Indians were stripped of their lands.
Another key part to westward expansion and industrialization was the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1862 the Pacific Railroad Bill was passed. This bill provided
significant amounts of money and land to two railroad companies. These companies were the Union Pacific (who worked west) and the Central Pacific (who worked east).
The government paid an amount of money for each mile of track that was laid in the West as further incentive. Overall, 131 million acres of land was given to support the transcontinental railroad. This railroad allowed Americans to branch out further in the West and would connect from Nebraska to California. These incentives started a boom of railroad building between the two companies. Once the financing for this endeavor was secured the Union Pacific and Central Pacific began construction and this employed some 20,000 workers at one time. This began in 1865 and the two companies raced against each other to build their railroads and gain money in incentives and commerce. The Union Pacific used mainly Irish Laborers and the Central Pacific
used mainly Chinese.
Westward expansion further caused unrest amongst the already agitated Native Americans. One such conflict between the two groups was the Battle of Little Bighorn. This battle occurred in the Montana Territory on June 25th, 1876. Sioux warriors who were being led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull wiped out George Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. While this conflict was taking place in the northern plains more conflicts were taking place in the southern plains. After the discovery of gold in Pikes Peak Colorado the Arapaho and Cheyenne chiefs and their people were asked to leave and go live on a reservation. For a while they did so but then many people of the tribes started getting hungry from lack of food which caused resentment that lead to many of them to return to Pikes Peak to raid white settlements which sparked open warfare. After a while Cheyenne chief Black Kettle tried to make peace and believing he did returned back to the reservation but at night on November 29, militia lead by Colonel John Chivington surrounded Black Kettles reservation at Sand Creek and attacked him and his people. The massacre killed over 200 indians including women and children. After the massacre american soldiers adopted this way of killing the native americans who stepped out of line by ambushing them. After all this conflict Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce with his people tried to leave Montana to flee to Canada but were blocked by federal troops. Joseph said to the federal troops that he and his people were tired of fighting and that he and his people had nothing left to fight for because everything was taken away from them so he and his people were done fighting.
The native american “problem” was not really solved they were forced onto reservations with barely any food and no way of making enough to live on.
To top it all off the government made an act called the Dawes act that enticed Native Americans to reform into americans with the goal of owning their own land the catch to it was that they had to give up all that they were as an indian nation and were given even less land than the reservations which opened up more land for companies and settlers wanting the
land. The ranching frontier was located mainly in the west where longhorn cattle were prominent. The ranchers lived a grueling lifestyle consisting of getting the herds of cattle that they had to the train yard to be boxed up and shipped to the north for beef. The pay was good but it was at a cost. Many lost their lives to disease ,drought, indian raids, famine, natural disasters, and other settlers.
On the mining frontier the pay was again good but the job also very dangerous. At one point even voted as being the most dangerous job to have at that time. Many miners lost their lives or even became disabled by how unsafe the work environment was. They would lose their lives by gas leaks, cave ins, poor equipment, and even lack of sleep due to the long hours that a foreman would make the miners work.