In the post-Civil War United States, the various presidents, whether Democratic or Republican, faced challenges regarding the West. To many, it symbolized the American Dream- the idea that with hard work and determination, anyone could achieve success. The West turned some men, including Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, into millionaires, while others returned home empty-handed. Although the creation of new technologies in the mining industry and the mechanization of agriculture were important factors in the development of the western United States, government policies involving migration and settlement also played a role. New technologies developed during the gold and silver rush of the late nineteenth century were essential to U.S. …show more content…
The industries were all connected- the railroad, which transported crops from the West to other areas of the country, was supported by the banking and mining industries. During this time period, the farm became a factory. The farmer was both a producer and a consumer- they bought manufactured goods and sold their “cash” crops to many different parts of the world. It was the farmer’s responsibility to purchase the equipment they needed to plant and harvest their crops. Steam engines combined the power of the plow, seeder, and harrow. However, the invention of the twine binder in the 1870s and the reaper-thresher in the 1880s had a profound impact on the agricultural industry. Much like the Industrial Revolution of the mid-nineteenth century, agriculture was undergoing a revolution of its own. Some farmers were driven off the land, due to poor management and heavy financial losses. They moved to the East to look for work in the cities. This mechanization of agriculture allowed the United States to become the world’s number one producer of wheat and livestock. The farm was an outdoor grain factory- in Minnesota and North Dakota, more than half a dozen farms were larger than fifteen acres, while in California, farms were three times larger than the national average. Increased land productivity would not have been possible without the mechanization of …show more content…
The first of these was the reservation system, which allotted land with designated boundaries to Native American tribes in the West, including the Cheyenne and the Sioux. There was a culture clash between the Plains Indians and the white settlers, who contributed to the shrinking buffalo population. The government tried to separate the Native Americans into a North and South colony, built near railroads and other areas of intended white settlement. However, the settlers had a very limited understanding of the Native Americans’ nomadic lifestyle- it was strange for them to remain on a defined territory. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 dismantled American Indian tribes and set up individuals as family heads with 160 acres of land. It was an attempt to assimilate the Indian population into that of the white American. Of the 130 million acres of land given to Native Americans on reservations before the Act, 90 million were eventually sold to non-Natives. In addition, the Homestead Act encouraged white settlers to move West- the federal government gave them 130 acres of land if they promised to live there for five years. It made land accessible to the average person, but many were disappointed when they discovered that the valuable land had already been claimed by speculators. These policies were essential to the modernization of the American