Factors Contributing to the Settlement of the West

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 Laramie 

• 1898 Second Treaty of Fort Laramie 

• Most Americans did not consider Indians equal and broke treaties 

• Native Americans were outmanned and outgunned

• Impacts 

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 adventures 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 

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

• What are the impacts? Travel Time? Transportation?