Push Factors: Leave(Poverty, fear, disasters, unemployment)
Pull Factors: Find(Safety, opportunity, stability, freedom)
Transcontinental Railroad
-Construction Began in 1863
-Workers were mostly irish immigrants building the Union railway westward from Omaha
-Chinese workers laid the tracks for the Pacific Railroad in Sacramento
-Both met in Utah in May 1869
Discovery of Precious Metals/Mining Booms
-Gold Rush in California 1849 but also later in Colorado, Nevada, South Dakota, Arizona and other states
-World's gold supply doubled
-Boom Town=Where thousands of adventurers and miners populate the town
-Once surface mining wore out, people left and boom towns became ghost towns
Homestead Act
-Law passed by Congress 1862
-Promised 160 acres of land for $1.65 an acre for improving it for six months
-Or for free if they farmed it for five years
Relocation of Native Americans
-Indian Wars 1864-1890
-Clashed between settlers and Indians(Cheyenne and the Sioux)
-Southwest fighting Apache Indians and Comanche in Texas
-1851 Treaty of Fort Laramarie
-Most Americans did not consider Indians equal and broke treaties
-Native Americans were outmanned and outgunned