A: Plan of the Investigation This investigation evaluated: To what extent does the railroad affect westward expansion in 19th century America? In order to assess its contribution, the investigation focused on the construction and expansion of the railroads westward; evaluating how and to what extent the western frontier used the railroads. This is done by assessing who the first settlers were, what the trains were transporting between the East and West, and how it affected the people of the 19th century. B. Summary of Evidence. The steam railroad, making its first appearance around 1930, soon became a form of transportation that could rival sea vessels. This land vessel could cross ridges, mountains, and could even run in the winter (Fehrenbacher 62). In 1831, the first railroad tunnel was built, allowing people to go through the land instead of around it, saving a lot of time for transporters (Bruno 507). In 1856, a railroad bridge was built that spanned the Mississippi river, the first of its kind (Stover 38). In 1856, the railroad extended to Illinois. Illinois in turn, started to sell thousands of acres of land, drawing in hundreds of settlers westward (Stover 45). Thanks to the railroad, wheat imports increased 900% and corn quadrupled between 1852 and 1856 in Chicago (Stover 51). In the 1870’s, the railroad system expanded past the frontier, bringing millions of Americans west (Stover 64). The expansion of the railroads west brought settlers to present day Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona (Stover 65). The west had very few rivers for ships to navigate on, however, the railroad was able to span across the land, bringing many settlers west and allowing for eastern markets to have access to western agricultura... ... middle of paper ... ...ogy. Washington D.C.: US. Government Printing Office, 1993. Print. Burlingame, Roger. March of the Iron Man. N.p.: Charles Scrinner's Sons, 1938. Print. Fehrenbacher, Don E. The Era of Expansion, 1800-1848. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1969. Print. Guggenheim, John S. "Ray A. Billington." Gf.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. . Miller, Sidney L. Railway Transportation. Chicago: A.W. Shaw, 1924. Print. Moody, John. The Railroad Builders. Extra-Illustrated ed. Vol. 38. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale UP, 1919. Print. The Chronicles of America. Ripley, William Z. Railroads; Finance and Organization. New York: Longmans, Green, and, 1920. Print. Stover, John F. The Chicago History of American Civilization. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1961. Print. Warman, Cy. The Railroad. New York: Brampton Society, 1908. Print.
Farmers began to cultivate vast areas of needed crops such as wheat, cotton, and even corn. Document D shows a picture of The Wheat Harvest in 1880, with men on earlier tractors and over 20-30 horses pulling the tractor along the long and wide fields of wheat. As farmers started to accumilate their goods, they needed to be able to transfer the goods across states, maybe from Illinios to Kansas, or Cheyenne to Ohmaha. Some farmers chose to use cattle trails to transport their goods. Document B demonstrates a good mapping of the major railroads in 1870 and 1890. Although cattle trails weren't used in 1890, this document shows the existent of several cattle trails leading into Chyenne, San Antonio, Kansas City and other towns nearby the named ones in 1870. So, farmers began to transport their goods by railroads, which were publically used in Germany by 1550 and migrated to the United States with the help of Colonel John Stevens in 1826. In 1890, railroads expanded not only from California, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada, but up along to Washington, Montana, Michigan, down to New Mexico and Arizona as well. Eastern States such as New Jersey, Tennesse, Virginia and many others were filled with existing railroads prior to 1870, as Colonel John Stevens started out his railroad revolutionzing movement in New Jersey in 1815.
The West is a very big part of American culture, and while the myth of the West is much more enticing than the reality of the west, it is no doubt a very big part of America. We’re constantly growing up playing games surrounded by the West such as cowboys and Indians and we’re watching movies that depict the cowboy to be a romanticized hero who constantly saves dames in saloons and rides off into the sunset. However, the characters of the West weren’t the only things that helped the development of America; many inventions were a part of the development of the West and helped it flourish into a thriving community. Barbed wire, the McCormick reaper and railroads—for example—were a large part of the development in the West—from helping to define claimed land boundaries, agricultural development and competition, and even growth of the West.
In Henry George’s article, What the Railroad Will Bring Us, it discusses the main social, political, and economic transformations that the trans-continental railroad would bring to the state of California. More importantly, he discusses not only the benefits, but also discusses the major drawbacks with the arrival of the railroad. Henry George stated the railroad would be the “greatest work of the age” (297). With a railroad stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, multiple benefits would be brought to the state of California. First, the railroad will not only create a new means of transportation across the United States, it additionally would also become “one of the greatest material prosperity” of its time (298). This means more people, more houses,
Through the period of 1865-1900, America’s agriculture underwent a series of changes. Changes that were a product of the influential role that technology, government policy and economic conditions played. To extend on this idea, changes included the increase in exported goods, the availability of products as well as the improved traveling system of rail roads. In the primate stages of these developing changes, farmers were able to benefit from the product, yet as time passed by, dissatisfaction grew within them. They no longer benefited from the changes (economy went bad), and therefore they no longer supported railroads.
Taylor, George Rogers, and Irene D. Neu. The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1956. Print.
The lives of the Plains Indians in the second half of the nineteenth century were greatly affected by the technological development and government actions. The development of the transcontinental railroad was the most devastating technological development that affected the Plains Indians. Although the railroad was powerful and helpful to the white man, it was not for the Plains Indians. The transcontinental railroad was the reason why the westward movement of the white man happened so quickly. With the white man moving westward they found valuable land for agriculture, which was the Plains Indians land, and they found a lot of gold mines.
The growth of agriculture and railroads in Texas and in the United States helped form our economy today. Railroads today pass through a lot of Texas, and even in big cities like Houston or Dallas. Since there are so many farms and open farmland (especially in south and west Texas), railroads can carry the produce and livestock to their destination. James Watt invented the first steam engine in about 1769, and from then on, railroads were a must for transportation, since cars had yet to be invented. Railroads began to be built before the Civil War. It originally took about 6 months to get from the west of the US to the east, but now it only took 7 days. With railroads expanding all across the country, agriculture was affected in a mostly positive way. Now, crops and other goods could be transported by train anywhere in the US, and fast.
Westward movement is the populating of lands, by the Europeans, in what is now known as the United States. The chief resolution of the westward expansion is economic betterment. The United States story begins with westward expansion and even before the Revolutionary war, early settlers were migrating westward into what is now known as the states of Kentucky,Tennessee, parts of the Ohio Valley and the South. Westward Expansion was slowed down by the French and the Native Americans, however the Louisiana Purchase significantly improved the expansion efforts. Westward expansion was enabled because of wars, the displacement of Native American Indians, buying land, and treaties. This paper will discuss the effects of westward expansion on domestic politics and on American relations with other nations.
As the need of human transportation and various forms of cargo began to rise in the United States of America, a group of railroads with terminal connections along the way began to form across the land mass of this country, ending with the result of one of the most influential innovations in American history, allowing trade to flow easily from location to location, and a fast form of transportation, named the Transcontinental Railroad.
The nation’s first transcontinental railroads were also being completed in the late 1860’s. The Union Pacific Railroad’s transcontinental rail was completed in 1869 originally went through Cheyenne and missed Denver entirely (Denver, H). Denver resident’s raised the needed funds and built their own railroad to Cheyenne and the Kansas Pacific Railroad came directly Denver shortly after (Denver). As a result, Denver became a successful railroad hub by the mid-1870’s that served as the mining industry’s center for the western US (H).
Many other farming machines were also developed during this time period, they all made farming in the west much more popular, easier, and profitable. The Trans-continental railroad was started in 1862, even though other trains were already running in different parts of the U.S. The telegraph also went up along with the railroads, although the first time it was used was in 1844. All four of these major technological advancements have helped the United States really get going on their Manifest Destiny. The economy would also blossom during this expansion.
Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the United States economy changed dramatically as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial gian, becoming the leading manufacturing country in the world. The vast expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s’ changed the early American economy by tying the country together into one national market. The railroads provided tremendous economic growth because it provided a massive market for transporting goods such as steel, lumber, and oil. Although the first railroads were extremely successful, the attempt to finance new railroads originally failed. Perhaps the greatest physical feat late 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Company, starting in San Francisco, and the new competitor, Union Pacific, starting in Omaha. The two companies slaved away crossing mountains, digging tunnels, and laying track the entire way. Both railroads met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, and drove one last golden spike into the completed railway. Of course the expansion of railroads wasn’t the only change being made. Another change in the economy was immigration.
Seavoy, Ronald E. "Railroads." An Economic History of the United States: From 1607 to the Present. New York: Routledge, 2006. 188-200. Print.
The railroad created a more economic means of transporting the grains and produce from the breadbasket of America to the markets in the population centers of the coast.