Westward Expansion Economic Development
Summary
TLDRThis script discusses the westward expansion of the United States during the Gilded Age, focusing on the Homestead Act of 1863 and its impact on settlers. It explores the realities of manifest destiny, the role of railroads in opening the west, and the challenges faced by farmers due to globalization and monopolies. The script also covers the rise of organizations like the Grange and the Farmers Alliance, which sought to address farmer grievances and eventually influenced the Populist Party's formation.
Takeaways
- 🏰 Thomas Jefferson envisioned the American West as a land of small farms, independent farmers, and virtuous citizens.
- 🌾 The Free Soil Movement and the Republican Party supported the idea of the West as a territory for small white farmers, unchallenged by wealthy plantation owners.
- 📜 The Homestead Act of 1863 granted up to 160 acres of Western land to loyal Union citizens, aiming to discourage Confederates and encourage Union supporters.
- 🛤️ The U.S. government supported westward expansion by granting land to railroad companies and extending telegraph wires, despite the ongoing Civil War.
- 🚂 The railroads were crucial in opening up the West to settlement and global markets, and even influenced the establishment of U.S. time zones.
- ⛏️ The discovery of precious metals and minerals in the West drew thousands of settlers and led to the creation of boom towns, which often became ghost towns once resources were depleted.
- 🏭 Industrial innovations of the Gilded Age revolutionized farming, increasing harvest yields but also making farmers reliant on the global market and vulnerable to price fluctuations.
- 💵 The late 19th-century farmers faced financial difficulties due to high shipping rates, monopolies, and unfavorable government policies, leading to debt and bankruptcy.
- 🤝 In response to these challenges, farmers organized into groups like the Grange and the Farmers Alliance, advocating for increased railroad regulations and corporate buying and selling of equipment and produce.
- 🗳️ The Populist Party emerged from these alliances, advocating for the interests of farmers and pushing for policies to weaken the monopolistic power of big businesses, banks, and railroad corporations.
Q & A
What was the main topic discussed in the video script?
-The main topic discussed was the westward expansion of the United States during the Gilded Age, focusing on economic development, land mining, and the impact of improved transportation systems like railroads.
What was Thomas Jefferson's vision for the American West?
-Thomas Jefferson envisioned the American West as a territory made up of small farms, where independent farmers would till the soil, become virtuous citizens, and make an honest living without the influence of wealthy plantation owners and slave labor.
What was the Homestead Act of 1863, and who did it benefit?
-The Homestead Act of 1863 granted up to 160 acres of western land to loyal citizens (Unioners, not Confederates), aiming to encourage westward migration and settlement, and to promote the Jeffersonian ideal of small, independent farmers.
How did the railroad companies contribute to westward expansion?
-Railroad companies were granted land by the U.S. government, which they used to expand the railroad network. They also sold excess land to settlers and speculators, thus opening up the West to settlement and connecting it to world markets.
What was the significance of the discovery of precious metals and minerals in the West?
-The discovery of gold, silver, and copper in several western states led to significant migration of miners and the creation of boom towns. However, these mining towns often became ghost towns once the easily accessible minerals were exhausted.
How did the industrial innovations of the Gilded Age affect farming?
-Industrial innovations such as the twine binder, combine, reaper, thresher, and gasoline tractor increased harvest yields and decreased labor needs. However, they also made farmers reliant on a single cash crop and subject to the whims of the global market.
What were the challenges faced by farmers in the late 19th century due to economic policies?
-Farmers faced high shipping rates due to railroad monopolies, unfavorable government policies, and the high costs of farm machinery and fertilizers. These factors, along with the devaluation of their crops due to overproduction, drove many farmers into debt and bankruptcy.
What role did organizations like the Grange and the Farmers Alliance play in addressing farmers' issues?
-The Grange and the Farmers Alliance were organizations formed to advocate for increased railroad regulations, corporate buying and selling of equipment and produce, and better conditions for farmers. They eventually influenced the formation of the Populist Party.
How did the Populist Party emerge from the farmers' alliances, and what were its goals?
-The Populist Party emerged as a political force representing the interests of farmers, advocating for policies to strengthen farmers and weaken the monopolistic power of big businesses, banks, and railroad corporations.
What was the impact of the Populist Party on American politics, and what happened to it eventually?
-The Populist Party had a significant impact by bringing attention to the plight of farmers and influencing the Democratic Party to adopt some of its policies. However, it eventually merged with the Democratic Party, and its influence faded after the turn of the century.
How did the concept of Manifest Destiny shape the westward expansion, and how did reality differ from the ideal?
-Manifest Destiny was a belief in the inevitability of the continued territorial expansion of the U.S. However, the reality of westward expansion often involved land grabs by wealthy interests, the displacement of indigenous peoples, and the exploitation of the environment and resources, diverging from the ideal of a virtuous and independent agrarian society.
Outlines
🌏 Westward Expansion and Economic Development
The paragraph discusses the westward expansion of the United States during the Gilded Age, focusing on land acquisition, mining, and improved transportation. It highlights the role of the railroad in bringing settlers to the American West and the philosophy behind the expansion, including Manifest Destiny. The Homestead Act of 1863 is mentioned as a key legislation that granted land to loyal citizens, encouraging westward migration. The paragraph also touches on the challenges faced during the Civil War, such as destroyed infrastructure and the impact on families, which limited immediate migration despite the expansion efforts.
🏔️ The Impact of Mining and Railroads on Western Development
This section delves into the significant role of mining and the discovery of precious metals in attracting settlers to the western states. It outlines the short-lived nature of mining boom towns and the eventual dominance of large mining corporations by the 1880s. The paragraph also emphasizes the transformative effect of railroads on the western landscape, not only in promoting trade and transportation but also in shaping the concept of time through the establishment of time zones. The economic opportunities and challenges faced by farmers in the industrial age are also discussed, including the shift from diverse farming to focusing on single cash crops due to market pressures.
📉 The Plight of Farmers in the Global Market
The paragraph addresses the difficulties faced by farmers in the late 19th century due to the global market and monopolistic practices. It discusses how farmers, once self-sufficient, became reliant on a single cash crop and the global market, leading to financial instability when crop prices dropped. The high shipping rates imposed by railroad monopolies and the unfavorable government policies further exacerbated the farmers' struggles, driving many into debt. The response of farmers to these challenges is also highlighted, with the formation of organizations like the Grange and the Farmers Alliance to advocate for their interests and push for policy changes.
🗳️ The Rise of Populism and Political Advocacy
This section explores the formation of the Farmers Alliance and the Populist Party as political movements in response to the economic hardships faced by farmers. It details the goals of these organizations, such as advocating for increased railroad regulations and corporate buying and selling of equipment and produce. The paragraph also discusses the impact of the Panic of 1873 on the agricultural sector and how it led to a surge in membership for organizations like the Grange. The political influence of the Populist Party is examined, including its eventual integration into the Democratic Party and the lasting effects on American politics and policies.
🚂 Reflections on Westward Expansion and Its Discontents
The final paragraph invites reflection on the economic factors that drew settlers to the West, the benefits and drawbacks of railroad expansion, and the challenges faced by farmers in the late 19th century. It prompts consideration of Thomas Jefferson's idealized vision of the West and the reality of Manifest Destiny, highlighting the gap between the utopian aspirations and the complex economic and social realities that emerged.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Westwood Expansion
💡Economic Development
💡Land Mining
💡Improved Transportation
💡Manifest Destiny
💡Homestead Act
💡Railroad Companies
💡Cattle West
💡Industrial Innovation
💡Populist Party
Highlights
Westward expansion during the Gilded Age included land mining, improved transportation, and the introduction of railroads, which brought settlers to the American West.
Thomas Jefferson envisioned the West as a land of small farms where independent farmers would thrive, contributing to a virtuous republic.
The Homestead Act of 1863 granted up to 160 acres of western land to loyal citizens, encouraging settlement, but excluding Confederates during the Civil War.
Railroad companies were granted land by the government to promote westward expansion, contributing to economic growth and the transportation of goods.
Although the Homestead Act aimed to promote small farms, large corporations and wealthy aristocrats soon dominated, exploiting settlers.
Mining booms, driven by the discovery of gold, silver, and copper, created short-lived boomtowns that later became ghost towns as resources were depleted.
Railroads not only promoted settlement but connected the West to global markets, enabling the shipment of meat and crops to distant cities and countries.
Railroad companies divided the U.S. into four time zones in 1883 to standardize schedules, which remain in place today.
New machinery during the Gilded Age, such as the twine binder, reaper, and gasoline tractor, revolutionized farming by increasing yields and decreasing labor.
Farmers who focused on cash crops, like wheat and corn, faced significant challenges due to falling crop prices and monopolistic railroad practices.
Railroad monopolies charged farmers high shipping rates, sometimes making it cheaper to burn crops for fuel than to ship them to market.
Farmers organized into groups like the Grange and Farmers Alliance to push for regulations on railroad rates and to address their economic struggles.
Despite the efforts of farmers' groups, large monopolies continued to dominate, contributing to rising farmer debt and financial hardships in the late 19th century.
The Populist Party, representing the interests of rural farmers, gained political traction but ultimately merged with the Democratic Party in the 1896 election.
Despite initial failures, the Populist Party's ideas influenced later progressive movements, including federal regulation of private industry and workers' rights.
Transcripts
welcome all so today we're going to talk
a little bit about westwood expansion
and economic
development and a couple of things that
we're going to talk about
are land mining and improved
transportation
um which brought railroad which brought
settlers to the american west during the
gilded age
now i know we talked a little bit about
the american west or the wild wild west
um in our last video but we're going to
go over a couple of different things
manifest destiny and get kind of more
into the philosophy behind
expansion of the west so one of the
biggest questions was who owned
the west
and when thomas jefferson imagined the
ideal environment for the republic to
thrive he pictured a country made up of
small farms
independent farmers who would make an
honest living tilling the soil and in
doing so
they would become virtuous citizens
before the civil war
the free soil movement and the
republican party embraced this idea for
the american west a territory reserved
for small white farmers
unchallenged by the wealthy plantation
owners who could buy up
vast tracts of land and employ slave
labor now the indigenous
residents of the west obviously didn't
figure into this this
vision except for being obstacles to
remove
during the civil war the republican
trolls controlled congress
worked to make the dream of the farmer's
paradise
paradise a reality by passing the
homestead act in 1863
which granted up to 160 acres of western
land to loyal citizens
to loyal citizens so unioners not
confederates
the united states government also helped
westward expansion by granting land to
railroad companies and extending
telegraph wires across the country
now again this was still during the
civil war 1863
so while we are making strides
to um toward expansion and toward
all of this economic growth remember
that we still are in the middle of the
war
um and so a lot of this
seems kind of odd to have happened
during the war
but it was also to discourage unioners
or sorry to score discourage
confederates
um because you know you you go to your
loyal citizen you get free lands
you can move west you can start a new
life um but that
that invitation wasn't extended to
confederates
and i think it was also a
[Music]
distraction from what was going on
some kind of good news in the midst of
this horrible conflict
however at this time a lot of a lot of
citizens were not able to migrate during
the civil war i mean even though we are
expanding the railroads and we're
expanding the telegraph wires they're
getting cut
um bridges are getting burned railroads
are getting destroyed i mean this is
the war and lots of
women and children are left by
themselves
widowed because their husbands and their
sons have gone off to war and been
killed
so it's not very feasible for them
to go and get this land under the
homestead act um so
the migration that we will see from the
homestead act comes later
after the civil war um you know into the
1880s
um but this is where it started in 1863
with the homestead act
okay so after the civil war um the dream
of independent farmers remained but the
reality was more complex
i mean just as big businesses were
coming to dominate the factories of the
eastern cities
so too were powerful corporate interests
beginning to elbow out the independent
farmers miners cowboys who had built the
image of the west
as the land of opportunity for the
rugged individual
so now we're going to move on to
developing the west so what we're seeing
here
is that while jefferson had this master
plan of
making the west somewhere that you can
go and and single families they can go
and get attractive land they're going to
farm that land and they don't really
have to worry about all the aristocracy
like they would
like they would in the east so actually
what we start to see
here um is we see some
some land grabs going on we see some
aristocrats coming in taking the land
then running it out or
um letting you know kind of maybe almost
taking it out from under
white settlers who were promised that
land by the federal government so this
doesn't actually work out the way it was
planned
so a variety of factors enticed american
settlers and immigrants to head west in
the late 19th century
um chief among these was the
availability of jeep land
logging and ranching hundreds and
thousands of people obtain land through
the homestead act
through it the united states government
transferred more than 270 million acres
of public land into private hands 270
million acres
that is a lot of land the discovery of
precious metals and minerals also drew
people to the west miners discovered
gold silver and copper
in several western states this was not
just in california
um north dakota south dakota new mexico
the discovery of silver and the comstock
load in
in nevada in 1858 promoted the largest
rush of prospectors since the california
gold rush decade a decade earlier
hoarders hordes of miners looking to
strike it rich
created short-lived boom towns um as we
talked about in our last video that
swiftly turned into abandoned ghost
towns
um when the community is exhausted the
easily accessible
minerals so this was not something that
lasted
that lasted too long and as we talked
about in our last video
the mining west was relatively
short-lived
um the cattle west was the shortest
lives um but
you know these miners would move to this
town
there would be a period of lawlessness
and then they would get things under
control when they finally get things
under control well
all the gold or minerals were gone and
it was time to move on and
the town became a ghost town so this was
very very common
in mining boom towns by the 1880s
only large mining corporations had the
money and machinery necessary to
undertake the difficult work
of extracting ore from the earth so
again
we see this jefferson's
vision for what the american west should
have been
versus actually how it pans out and i
think we'll see that in a lot of
scenarios
and we see that in a lot of scenarios
today um
with politics and certain policies you
know in a utopian world
certain things would work out well you
know the government would give
white families a bunch of land and they
would be able to develop it and prosper
and and be happy in the west that's not
what happened because there's always
going to be somebody who's going to take
advantage
and these wealthy aristocrats
saw this opportunity and they really
used it to exploit
white solar
and i'm going to put up a picture of
virginia city um but
this is a very expansive mining town
probably one of the biggest
mining towns in the west and this is
circus 1876
and so i will link that either
on your module or i'll try to import it
into this video
um but it's very very expansive
so these are huge mining towns that you
know were developed and then
kind of unabandoned um but aside from
gold and minerals the biggest
contributor to the development of the
west was the railroad
i'm eager to promote trade and
transportation federal state and local
governments they granted land to
railroad companies the companies used
that land to triple the miles of
railroad track in the united states
between 1860 and 1880
all the while turning a tidy profit
selling excess land to settlers
and speculators the railroads opened up
the west
by not only to not only to settlement
but to the world market
making it possible to ship meats and
crops to distant cities and even across
oceans to do so the railroads even
transformed time itself in 1883
the railroad companies coordinated their
schedules by dividing the united states
into four time zones
which are still standard today so
when you're driving across the united
states and you have to change your
clocks
remember you could thank the
transcontinental railroad for that
little
tidbit all right so
farmers in an industrial age now we're
going to look at
the industrial innovation of the gilded
age um and it all it
this this has a lot to do with the
ever-changing environment
after the civil war from agricultural to
developmental
um or industrial
excuse me um and the shifts from
farming to factories and and all that
jazz
so the industrial innovation of the
gilded age also revolutionized farming
new machinery increased the speed of
planting and harvesting crops
invented in the 19th century the twine
binder the combine
the reaper the thresher gasoline tractor
all increased harvest yields and
decreased the amount of labor needed to
produce them because remember we don't
have slavery anymore so what are we
going to do how are we going to
how are we going to harvest all these
crops and get them shipped up north to
the
to manufacturing plants to be turned
into textiles cigars whatever
um but this new productivity it came at
a pretty steep price
so thanks to the railroads farmers were
now at the mercy of the competitor
competitive worldwide market unlike
easier substance farmers who had grown a
variety of crops and produced everything
necessary for their families
american farmers now focused their
efforts on growing a single cash crop
this was usually corner wheat especially
in the west
and buying everything else they needed
so when crop prices were high the
farmers did well but if crop prices
dropped
the farmers were in trouble and again
this goes back to thomas jefferson's
ideal world um you know this was
going to be really good for everybody
really good for all the white settlers
but actually
it didn't turn out that way um and this
is what happens when
expansion kind of gets ahead of itself
and while
globalization is a good thing in many
respects
to the little man this was not a good
thing
and in the late 19th century you know
farmers were in trouble because of this
and to some extent they were the victims
of their own success
the more they produced the less it was
worth which really stinks
but farmers also found themselves
contending with unfavorable government
policies and unchecked corporate
monopolies
because we're getting into the era of
the robber barons
the us government enacted high
protective tariffs for industry and a
deflammatory monetary policy
both of which place farmers at a
financial disadvan disadvantage
railroad monopolies charge shipping
rates so high that in some cases it was
cheaper for farmers to burn their crops
for fuel
than to ship them to market i'll read
that again
in some cases it was cheaper for farmers
to burn their crops for fuel
than to ship them to markets farm
machinery and fertilizer were also
subject to steep markups all of these
factors
combined to to drive farmers into debt
and bankruptcy
so this really really hurts the farmers
um this was this was a bad deal i mean
when you can burn your crops that's more
you know cheaper than to just sell them
on the world market to get it to get any
kind of profit
there's an issue with this kind of
economy and here in lies the problems
with monopolies so
because of this there were some some
organizations that popped up
like the grange and the farmers alliance
and this was
all geared around the frustrations with
their circumstances that led them to
band together into corporate
organizations the order of the patrons
of husbandry
commonly called the grange was formed in
1867.
the grange called for increased railroad
regulations and corporate buying and
selling of equipment and produce
at its height the grange had more than
700
000 members mainly in the upper states
of illinois iowa minnesota and wisconsin
so if we look at this date 1867 i mean
that's not
far i mean two years after the close of
the civil war um so
pretty soon after the civil war people
started to migrate and take advantage of
this homestead act but as we talked
about before
during the civil war the migration
really wasn't that um
that that what really wasn't possible to
the degree that it was
after the close of the civil war
in the late 1870s an even larger
organization called the farmers alliance
spread among southern and western
farmers farmers the farmers alliance
established exchanges
that would issue loans to farmers and
sell their crops and propose that the
federal government loan money to farmers
at low interest rates
and create warehouses to store their
crops
by 1890 the farmers alliance had more
than 3 million members
strictly segregated the alliance did not
accept african-american farmers into its
ranks
they created a separate colored farmers
alliance
with more than one million members
so the majority of this of the country
at this time the majority of these
settlers were not happy
with the way things were going and they
were organizing
and doing something about it although
neither the grange nor the farmers
alliance
affected long-term economic change for
farmers these corporative
corporate organizations would emerge on
the national politics
political stage as the populist party of
the 1890s
so while these organizations in
themselves didn't really
affect overall economics the political
party that would come out
of these alliances would
backing up a little bit the farmer's
alliance was established in texas with
the goal of ending ending the crop lean
system
that had thrown so many farmers into
poverty so the crop lean system operated
in
the cotton growing south among
sharecroppers and tenant farmers both
white and black
who did not own the land that they
worked these workers took out loans to
obtain
seeds tools and other supplies they
needed to grow their cotton but after
the harvest they were required to pay
back the loans in the form of cotton
crops
and then when cotton prices tanked these
workers were sometimes left with nothing
and their crops were collected by
creditors they were not making a profit
they were not getting
their crops and nothing the farmer's
alliance was not the only alliance that
sprang up
obviously we just talked about the
grange that was found in 1868 in new
york
to advocate on behalf of the rural
communities in that area
from 1873 to 1875 local chapters of the
grains were established across the
country and membership
skyrocketed this was partly due to the
panic of 1873
which was a financial crisis that
resulted in a number of bank failures
and the bankruptcy of several national
uh several of the nation's railroads
the panic of 1873 depressed wages for
workers and the prices of agricultural
products plummeted
saddling farmers with massive amounts of
debts that they had little hope of
paying off
this is a very this was just almost like
a um stock market crash but in cotton
um and in um in the railroads
because obviously we didn't have the
stock market yet but
this was a major major crash and it
affected everybody but especially the
farmers in rural areas
who were getting more debt and no money
in 1891 the people's party also known as
the populist party or the populists were
found as were founded as a
political party representing the
interests of the nation's agricultural
sect sector the farmer's alliance is a
major part of the populist
populist coalition excuse me guys i
can't talk today
the people's party nominated james b
weaver a former u.s representative from
the state of iowa
as its candidate in 1892 presidential
election
campaigning on a platform designed to
strengthen farmers and weaken
monop monopolistic power of big
businesses banks and railroad
corporations
the people's party gen garnered 8.5
percent of the popular vote
that is a lot for a third party
candidate
usually third-party candidates don't
even get you know
three percent of the vote so that 8.5
percent was it was a big deal
because of the mass appeal the populist
movement the democratic party began to
champion many of its policies goals
so while the populist party didn't
necessarily make a huge difference
eventually the democratic party saw that
this was a major concern
of the rural farmers and took up these
concerns as part of their party
campaign efforts and eventually there
would be change because of this
the democratic party began to champion
many of its political goals
of the populist movement in an 1896
presidential election
the democrats nominated william jennings
bryan as its candidate and the populist
agreed to support him
the people's party was thus founded into
the democratic party and began to fade
from the national scene
the effect of the fusion of the populist
party in the democratic party was a
disaster
in the south though there had always
been conflict within the populist
movement
about whether african americans should
be included the democratic party in the
south
was unmatchingly racist and though brian
performed
strongly in areas of greatest populist
influence
he lost the election to republican
william mckinley
and the people's party can continue to
function and fielded candidates in both
the 1904 and 1908 presidential elections
but the heyday
of the party's influence was over
although the people's party was formally
disbanded in 1908 the progressive
movement would take up many of the goals
and causes of popular populism including
anti-trust
legislation greater federal regulation
of private industry
and stronger support for the nation's
agricultural and working classes
so this was not something that was
settled
um in 1867 in fact
here we are at 1908 and we are still
not getting much done for the populist
party however
the populist party has now gained
traction um
through the democratic party and the pop
and the progressive movement
and this would be that we would see
changes into the 1920s 1930s because of
this and especially because of
the existence of rubber barons and
monopolies
and then all of these workers rights
that are going to be coming up
as part of an issue as we're developing
the west and going to a
more factory-based society
rather than an agricultural based
society
so some of the things i want you to
think about as we're going to be going
into
continuing with this unit is you know
what were the major major economic
factors that drew settlers to the west
in this time period and were there
benefits what were the benefits and the
drawbacks of the expansion of the
railroad
um and why did farmers face difficulties
in late 19th century
what do you think was the biggest issue
they faced and why
and you know also how did thomas
jefferson's idea
of an ideal west of an ideal manifest
destiny
movement where white settlers would be
going and developing this land on their
own and
you know kind of frolicking that
frolicking in the field rose-colored
glasses kind of
outlook on what manifest destiny in the
wild west should look like how was that
how did that differ and why did that
differ in reality
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