Unit 1.3: Technology and the West

Unit 1.3: Technology and the West I. Railroads  Why Build a ______Railroad?  Would tie the ______together  Would reduce travel time between East Coast and West Coast from months to ______ Would lead to growth of towns and cities along the rail line  Would make moving goods and raw materials ______ Which Route to Build?  Southerners wanted a route out of ______, but rough terrain in Arizona led to the purchase of flatter land from Mexico (the Gadsden Purchase)  Northerners wanted a route out of ______, but Southerners blocked their efforts in hopes that they could barter the route’s location in exchange for an expansion of slavery  The ______Railway Act  Passed in 1862 (during the Civil War, so the ______route won)  Congress approved the construction of a transcontinental railroad, awarding contracts to both the ______Pacific and ______Pacific Railroads  Both companies were given land along the right-of-way as payment, rather than cash; this encouraged competition and speedier construction – whoever built the most railroad, got the most land  The Union Pacific Railroad  Led by ______, a former general known for his organizational and managerial skills  Started construction on a rail line heading west out of ______, Nebraska in 1865  Union Pacific’s Workforce  The Union Pacific used a mixture of unemployed Civil War veterans and ______immigrants for labor  They hired over 10,000 men and housed them in camps along the tracks and in rolling dormitory cars  Rough living conditions led high crime rates – lots of ______, drinking, and fighting between workers  The Central Pacific Railroad  Organized in California under 4 investors, including ______, the future governor of California and the founder of Stanford University  Started construction of a railroad heading east out of ______ Had the major disadvantage of having to have all their railroad and construction equipment delivered by ______from the east  Also had to begin building in the mountains almost immediately, slowing their progress and increasing their expenses  Central Pacific’s Workforce  The organizers of the Central Pacific chose to hire over 10,000 ______laborers  Chinese were willing to work very ______because unemployment in China was very high due to the Taiping Rebellion  Chinese immigrants, who faced tremendous racism and were rarely treated fairly, tended to band together, creating “______” neighborhoods in major cities like San Francisco  The Workingman’s Party of California  The growing numbers of Chinese workers led to increased ______and anti-immigrant political activism  The Workingman’s Party of California was a political party founded by _____ immigrant Denis Kearney in the 1870s to oppose Chinese immigration and the use of Chinese labor to build the railroads  Simple motto: “The ______!”  The Chinese Exclusion Act  Growing anti-Chinese sentiments led Congress to pass a bill in 1882 banning all Chinese ______for 10 years  Additionally, Chinese immigrants already in the U.S. were blocked from becoming citizens  Congress renewed the Act for ____ more years in 1892 before banning Chinese immigration permanently in 1902 (the Act was repealed in 1942)  The ban led to a decline in the Chinese population in the U.S., since most early Chinese immigrants were men  Completion of the Railroad  The Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads finally met at ______, Utah on May 10, 1869  The completion of the railroad was celebrated with the driving of a golden spike to mark the spot where the two lines met  Amazingly, the entire railway had been built in only about ______ Time Zones Introduced  Prior to the railroads, time had been measured purely by the _____ position, so the time of day was determined locally  In 1883, the American Railway Association divided the nation into __ time zones to ease railroad scheduling and to improve ______; train wrecks were common due to discrepancies in local time, so a standardization of time measurement was necessary  Standardization of Trains  Hundreds of small, independent railroads quickly consolidated into just _____major companies, increasing efficiency, lowering shipping and travel costs, and allowing for the development of standardized technology which further increased efficiency  The growing railroad networks also tied America’s regions together after the ______, helping minimize sectionalism  The ______System  The federal government continued to ______land to the railroad companies alongside their rail lines as payment and to encourage development  The railroads ______this land to settlers to raise the capital needed to build more railroads  Over 120 million acres of public lands had been given to the railroad companies by the late 1800s II. Farming Technologies  The Steel Plow  John Deere patented a steel-bladed plow in 1837 that could cut through the tough sod of the Great Plains  Deere’s steel plow opened the way for “______” to farm the prairie, but they also led to the breakdown of prairie soils and the loss of topsoil to wind & water erosion, factors that would later cause serious problems for Plains farmers  The Mechanical Reaper  Developed by ______in 1834, the mechanical reaper was a horse-drawn machine which could harvest far more grain than a man swinging a scythe  The reaper led to farmers planting more ______, leading to an increase in grain production  Dry-farming  Farming method where seeds are planted deep in the ground where there is enough moisture to allow them to germinate ______or surface watering  This was the perfect method for use on the ______where surface water was scarce and rainfall irregular  The best crops for dry-farming were ______, so Plains farmers grew wheat and corn out of necessity  The ______Wars  As more farmers moved onto the Plains, they wanted to define and protect ______ As sheep ranchers moved in, they needed access to ______ Both groups were in conflict with the cattle ranchers who depended on the open range to graze and move their herds to the railheads  As a result, brief but violent range wars became common  ______Ends the Open Range Era  Invented by Joseph Glidden in 1874, barbed wire allowed large areas of land to be fenced off ______, without the use of very much wood  It allowed farmers and sheep ranchers to fence in the prairie and shut down routes (like the ______Trail) used by cattle drivers  Cattle ranchers were forced to change their practices, and organize defined, enclosed ranches rather than drive cattle across the open range  Farmers Fall on Hard Times  In the 1880s, a serious drought struck the Plains, wiping out many farmers and ranchers  In the 1890s, excessive wheat production caused grain prices to drop, hurting farmers again  To survive, farmers often ______their land to banks, but frequently lost their land when they couldn’t meet their mortgage payments