The natural-resource frontier in the West and in the Great Plains offered a variety of resources, especially gold, oil, wood, and water. The Western terrain held many minerals and metals such as gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc, tin, and quartz. Prospectors who found metal, would sell their claims to mining organizations, such as the Anaconda Copper Company. The mining was needed to help build telephone and power wires, light bulbs, and to make steel for the steel industry. During the mid-1800s, "The mining frontier advanced rapidly, drawing thousands of people to Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Colorado. California, where a gold rush helped populate a thriving state by 1850, furnished many of the miners, who traveled to nearby states in
In the introduction, Hämäläinen introduces how Plains Indians horse culture is so often romanticized in the image of the “mounted warrior,” and how this romanticized image is frequently juxtaposed with the hardships of disease, death, and destruction brought on by the Europeans. It is also mentioned that many historians depict Plains Indians equestrianism as a typical success story, usually because such a depiction is an appealing story to use in textbooks. However, Plains Indians equestrianism is far from a basic story of success. Plains equestrianism was a double-edged sword: it both helped tribes complete their quotidian tasks more efficiently, but also gave rise to social issues, weakened the customary political system, created problems between other tribes, and was detrimental to the environment.
The creation of societies in the West resulted in the blossoming of three new industries: mining, ranching, and farming. Mining began at large with the discovery of gold in California in 1849 and continued with other discoveries and “rushes” later on; these rus...
to be a place to avoid. Few considered it a place to traverse, to spread
As most folks do, when I think of the term “Gold Rush”, it conjures up images of the West! Images of cowboys and crusty old miners ruthlessly and savagely staking their claims. Immigrants coming by boat, folks on foot, horseback, and covered wagon form all over the US to rape and pillage the land that was newly acquired from Mexico through the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo… California. But let me tell you about a gold rush of another kind, in another place, even more significant. It was the actual first documented discovery of gold in the United States! Fifty years earlier…in North Carolina!
James Marshall discovered gold in the American River in northern California which caused a great migration to California. Due to this discovery, the United States commodity prices increased and raise in commodity prices urged workers to go on strike in order to protect their standard of living. The U.S. provided 45 percent of the world's gold production between 1851 and 1855. Many people benefited from finding gold because the amount of gold that was found will determine how well they succeeded in becoming rich. The Gold Rush led to the exploration of different territories in California, the encountering of gold, and the exchange of different cultural ideas. The exploration of gold in California during the 1800's affected immigration, the exchange of cultural ideas and shaped the social structure during this period also known as the "Gold Rush."
The Native Americans were well put and establish early in the eighteen and nineteen century.As time continues many of the natives were disappearing from their homes as people from other places where taking over. Everything started with the Europeans taking over their lands and many of them had to flea to other places because of three reasons: The Buffalo Decline, Dawes Act, and Great Sioux War.
Kathleen DuVal, professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, contests long held beliefs about the historiography of native people and their place in America with her work, The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent. DuVal’s insightful book focuses on the Arkansas River Valley and the diverse group of both native groups and European powers that contented over the physical landscape, its resources, and the perception of control and power. The premise of Native is to show that native groups such as the Quapaws, Osage, and the Cherokee had the upper hand in almost every aspect from their economy, military might, and physical presence up until the 1800s.
California was becoming known for its entrepreneurial opportunities; soon many were coming to California, not to work in the mining filed, rather to set up business and cater to the mining communities. Soon there were saloons, hotels, and red light districts spread throughout San Francisco and outer mining communities. Women who were forced to rely on men to support them back home, came to California and were able to work and support themselves in these towns.
The Natural environment of the West greatly affected the development of the west. First natural environmental factor was gold and other precious minerals. The discovery of gold and silver led many poor Americans to move to the far West. The great and sudden rush of people led to boom towns, which were towns that were basically built over night. These towns often had no police and mainly had just bars, brothels, and motels. Most of these boom towns became ghost towns when the mine dried up. On occasion some of these towns would remain and grow greatly. Some of these towns included San Francisco, Sacramento Denver, and Greeley. The growth of Greeley, Colorado can be seen in Document G. In addition to gold and other minerals being an important natural environmental factor, so was the land. To the east of the Mississippi river, according to the map in document A, most of the land was forest. In the west however, most of the land was grass or desert. This shaped the development of the west because the grass lands allowed for vast amounts of farming and grazing, while the desert was full of precious minerals to be mined. The negative of the desert was the lack of water, which led to a little amount towns showing up over the desert. The lack of water in the mid west led to a great increase in dry-farming techniques. The lack of water also made cattle herding very hard, which can best be seen in Andy Adams, The Log of a Cowboy, when he writes, “…after passing the next chain of lakes it was sixty miles to the next water. …There are only five herds ahead of us, and the first three went through the old rout, but the last two… for some reason or other turned and went westward” (Doc.
The tremendous economic growth in the United States was fueled by Americans desire to expand westward. America’s ability to expand westward was due to the advantage in mining and transpiration that came from industrialization.
Arizona's minerals attracted most of the early explorers, and mining continued periodically. In 1849 a small numbers of prospectors crossed Arizona to join the California gold rush. The miners found silver, copper and gold. Copper was discovered in 1854, and mining for copper was Arizona’s primary industry until the
Smith-Baranzini, Marlene, Richard J. Orsi, and James J. Rawls. A Golden State: Mining And Economic Development In Gold Rush California. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1999. eBook (EBSCOhost). Web. 26 Mar. 2014.
The first gold findings were found at a mill business in stream beds in 1848. Gold mines were immediately put into action underground and above. Easy gold extraction reeled in the inexperienced and experts knowing they could find large quantities of the valuable mineral making them richer faster. Also the actions of cutting class lines with the skilled upper class men and the unskilled lower class laborers working at the same gold fields next to one another(Gold Rush 1849). The extremely wealthy anxious to get more rich than they already were. The poor and middle class to find gold and wealth for a better
Raw materials, new techniques in the workplace, a massive increase in the labor force, and numerous technological inventions all played integral parts in the United State’s economic and industrial boom. Large quantities of coal, iron ore, silver, and gold were discovered in various regions in the West. Lead, quartz, zinc, copper, and other precious metals were also found as new areas were uncovered. Around the mines and quarries gathered the workers of the sites along with their families. These people created towns known as “boomtowns”, which required transportation in the form of trains for their supplies. The same process happened with numerous other raw materials found in the country as well (Brinkley, 449).
The American frontier began in the year of 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia. This was the earliest days of European settlement. The frontier paved the path to essentially what is known as the United States of America. There are a plethora of claims concerning the frontier. Some historians claim that the frontier created the spirit of American equality, while others believe America is essentially a place of inequality. There are arguments for both sides depending on the person asked and their background.