AP US History Sem 2 Notes PDF
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These are notes for a US History course, covering Western Expansion in the United States from 1865 to 1898. The notes cover topics such as the closing of the West, the Mexican Cession, the Gold Rush, and the impact of railroads.
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nit 6: Western Expansion: Economic, Social and U Cultural Development (1865-1898) 6.2 - 6.3 The Closing of the West he Mexican Cession 1848: T Spanish-Speaking landowners are guaranteed property rights, and automatic citizenship. However, years after that Mexican-Americans are...
nit 6: Western Expansion: Economic, Social and U Cultural Development (1865-1898) 6.2 - 6.3 The Closing of the West he Mexican Cession 1848: T Spanish-Speaking landowners are guaranteed property rights, and automatic citizenship. However, years after that Mexican-Americans are starting to lose their land, due to legal reasons, drawn-out legal proceedings, often resulting in loss of lands, to Englo Settlers. ispanic culture remains preserved in dominant Spanish-Speaking H areas and New Mexico border towns, California barrios, and Texas areas. ontinued Migration from Mexico, and continuing Mexican Migration, C seeking work on farms (agriculture workers) and railroad construction. exas rangers committed violence Mexican landowners, to get them out T of property/land. The Impact of the Gold Rush (1849) - Sutter’s Mill built by John Marshall on the American River, 50 cents worth of gold discovered, largest of the time. - Begins 1849 Gold Rush - G old production 73 times over by 1854. 1852 the peak of gold production, 1.4 billion dollars by 1900. - Mass migration to California - Led to importance of constructing the transcontinental railroad followed by the transcontinental telegraph - R ailroads are private corporations. The government wants them to build these railroads. - Government offered land grants to railroad companies. - Railroad companies became powerful that they bought off our government. - The land sold off to pay off bonds, they overcharged the government. redit Mobilier Scandalof1872 C January 25, 2025 - Union Pacific railroad bribed federal lawmakers in return for various business favors - Reached the grand administration of President Grant The Golden State Advantage - L ed to the importance of constructing the transcontinental railroad followed by the transcontinental telegraph - Agriculture expands in California and some industrial manufacturing - Businesses created to support the miners, like denim, coffee, mining tools, brothels, etc. - San Francisco becomes a major shipping port for trade and immigration - California grain market outgrew gold and silver production - Genocidal impact on California indigenous population - 90% depopulation - Hunter gatherer society needed large areas, disrupted by Gold Rush - Began to haunt previously owned cattle, hostile tensions arose - Massacres of Native Americans were organized by militias financed by State and federal governments, passed Indian vagrancy law, and the birth rate collapsed. ining Spread Across the West | 65-98 M January 21th, 2025 - G old strikes in California and Nevada in the 1850s - Silver Comstock lode in Virginia City, Nevada. Gold fields discovered in Colorado. - Idaho, Montana, South Dakota in the 1860s and the 1870s, gold and silver in Arizona in the 1870s - Erosion lead to magma veins dispersing gold and silver down into rivers, streams, and mountain sides. - Gold pebbles, nuggets, and dust found. - Prospectors wanted larger finds - Move to hydraulic mining on an industrial scale - Required major financing for labor and capital - Flumes built to deliver water - Reshaped geology of the region (destruction of the environment) - Negative environmental impact - Tons of dirt turned into sludge refuse material for every ounce of gold. - Its gone, hooray! Many lawsuits stop hydraulic mining I mmigration and Settlement Due to the Gold Rush and Silver Rush - Homestead Act 1862 - H elped populate the Great Plains regions for agriculture. - Gave citizens and future citizens 160 acres of public land to live on, improve the land, and pay a small registration fee. - Helped built tax revenue and state development - Demographics of migration to the West - M ixed ethnic backgrounds in the West, many foreign born. - Settlers were usually part of a family unit, cowboys and ranchers, railroad construction, lumber, and mining camps all male dominated. - Many Germans (avoiding military draft) and Irish migrate to the region - Railroad corporations expanded lines - Mass Chinese immigration originally for gold prospecting. Mainly worked on railroad construction. - East European Jews escaping persecution in European migrated to the West to create a merchant class - The African-Americans population is very small (exodusters). Post Civil worked in cowboying and cattle drives, military Buffalo Soldier units, and farming. - Opportunities for single women came in domestic service, school teaching, and prostitution, especially in mining towns. Industrialized Farming and Cattle Business - hortcomings in Homestead Act due to semi-arid region of the Great Plains. S - Needed more land than acquired. - Turned towards industrial mechanized farming - Wheat production expanded to the Great Plains - Agricultural tool innovation such as twine binder, the combine, and eventually gas tractor = More Expensive ontinuing Unit C January 22, 2025 - G reat Plains ranching came with great demand in the Northeast after the Civil War - Texas has cattle but not enough demand. - R ailroads did not connect Texas to the East leading to major cattle drives out of Texas to north plains states. - Cattle Drives - Ranching spreads north and west - Investors poured into ranching, treating corporate ranchings holding massive land holdings. I mpact of Western Expansion on Native American Society and Sovereignty - D estruction of Bison population - 24 million bison in the early 1800s, dropped by half (12 million) by 1870. - Dropped to a little over a thousand due to industrial leather processing from bison hides, bones used for fertilizer. - Horse empires like Comanches and Lakota depending on Bisons - Comanches entered the Red River War with bison hunters and the US Army. - Comanches were forced to surrender and relocated. The Reservation System - C reated to keep Native Americans off land that European Americans wished to settle. - Allowed indigenous people to govern themselves and to maintain some of their cultural and social traditions - Resistance led to series of conflicts known as the Indian Wars - Despite tribal councils created for self government, reservations faced poverty, malnutrition, and low standard of living and economic development. - 1868, President Grant replaced government officials overseeing Native American policy with Christian clergy to convert i ndigenous people to Christianity and assimilate them into mainstream society. - Led to violent resistance by Native Ameircans. Policy abandoned in Hayes administration. - Lakota empire fell due to mining - Gold discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota, homeland of the Sioux nation. - Treaty declared in 1868 - President Grant gavesecret ordersto U.S. troopsunder George Custard to allow miners in Sioux territory. - 1875 Indians forced onto reservation, army attacked Sioux resistors. - Custard’s force annihilated in the summer of 1876 at Little BigHorn, Last Successful battle against U.S forces. - Greater military force returned in winter of 1877 resulting in Sioux surrender. - Other horse tribes of the Southwest were defeated by the US Army through strategy of trapping native forces during winter months where resources ran out. Dawes Severalty Act of1887 - G oal to assimilate Native Americans into mainstream society. - Authorized federal confiscation and redistribution of tribal lands - Aim of act to destroy tribal governing councils and assimilate Native Americans into mainstream U.S. society - Tribal lands were parceled out into individual allotments meant for farming. - Only those who accepted the individual's plots were allowed to become U.S. citizens. - Not until the 1930s was the reservation system reorganized under the US Reorganization Act that allowed Native Americans to reorganize and form their own tribal governments. Ghost Dance Movement - R eaction to forced assimilation - Spiritual movement founded in 1889 by Wovoka, a shaman of the northern Paiute tribe. - Prophesied the reuniting of the remaining Native Americans tribe of the West and Southwest - Spirits of the dead would join with warriors to fight with settlers and the U.S. Army. - White settlers would be banished forever from the land and the buffalo would return - Movement spreads among different tribes from Nevada to the Missouri river. - Wounded Knee Massacre - E mbraced by sitting Sitting Bull after Little Big Horn victory who facilitated it’s spread throughout the Sioux reservation - 1890, Sitting Bull shot by tribal police suspecting he would escape the reservation and further spread the movement. - Two weeks later, December 29, US Army 7th Cavalry surrounded an encampment of Sioux warriors near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota. - Scuffle broke out after attempting to disarm the Sioux, soldiers then indiscriminately killed hundreds of men, women, and children. - Army inquiry into the massacre exonerated the 7th Calvary and 20 soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor - Not the end of the Native American unrest but the massacre considered the end of the Indian Wars. - Remaining tribes either subdued militarily or forcibly assimilated into mainstream society. - Pre-European contact indigenous population estimated between 2 to 18 million - I ndigenous population reduced approximately too 237,000 by 1900. - 2010 Census, 2.9 million identified as American Indian or Alaska Native showing recovery. ass Industrialization6.5 M January 23, 2025 - nergy: steam energy (ran by water), whale oil (from whale) E - Coal mining - America was fortunate to have an abundance of natural resources. - Coal fueled the early industrial revolution - Burning coal produced steam used to move ships and trains - America had huge coal deposits all over the country - Coal mining extremely dangerous and low paying - I ron Mining - Important resource metal necessary in the building of the railroad tracks, iron gates, etc. - Steel can be made from iron but prior to the mid-1800s slow and expensive production - Mesabi Iron Range in Minnesota important to midwest. - Easier transport access the Great Lakes region - Breakthrough with Bessemer Process - British Inventor Henry Bessemer discovered a process to manufacture very strong steel much cheaper and faster. - Andrew Carnegie brought this process back to America (Bessemer Process) - A merican steel became one of the most successful and important industries of its time. - Most lasting impact, the skyscraper - The vertical city is the essential key in the modern metropolis. - P ittsburgh, Pennsylvania became major steel center - Discovery of petroleum in Pennsylvania in the mid-1800s - Petroleum refined into kerosene fuel for lamps, lubricating oils, machinery, and later gasoline for automobiles. - Oil built Los Angeles - Texas (the gold mine for oil) - new America for the 19th Century 6.5 - 6.6 A January 24, 2025 - E lectricity lights up America - Edison’s lightbulb invention in 1879 gave birth to the electric power industry. - By 1891 there were more than 1,300 power stations across the country providing adequate electrical supply in the cities. - Electricity had huge impact on American Industry - Businesses and factories could stay open later or run through the night. - Home life completely changed - Electricity powered home appliances and allowed people to read and work at home during the night Industrialization and Immigration - W ith many more opportunities offered by growth of industry the population of the U.S. triples between 1880 and 1920 - Approximately 24 million immigrants come to the U.S. in this period due to industry, the railroad, and the growth of cities. - Tired of sharecropping, and racist state laws, African-Americans begin the most from South to North - Knownas the Great Migration (3rd point) - Known as the largest migration in the United States Urbanization - The Grid | Urban Planning - Cities in the mid 1800s began to enlarge due to industry and population explosion from immigration - Cities like NYC had to be re-planned using a grid system - The grid allowed for an north/southeast/west street map. - Many growing U.S. cities adopted this urban plan - The grid of NYC accommodated space for living, business, entertainment, and recreation. - This included one of the first mass transit subway systems in America - First subway created in Boston - The Growth of the City - New York City incorporated the boroughs surrounding Manhattan Island to expand living and port space for the city. - The Brooklyn Bridge completed in 1883 linked to Manhattan island to Brooklyn for the first time (steel bridge) - Skyscrapers - The limited space on Manhattan Island caused developers to build even higher buildings. - No less than 8 different skyscrapers in New York held the title of world’s tallest building in the 20th century - Empire State building held the title for 41 years nit 6: Western Expansion: Economic, Social and U Cultural Development (1865-1898) 6.6 The Rise of Industrial Capitalism Growth of Big Business and Industrial Capitalists - Small businesses did not have enough capital (invested money) to expand. - Many formedcorporations. - People invest in corporations by buying stock (shares) in the corporation allowing more capital to reinvest in the business. - A corporation can own property, borrow, money, use, or be sued. - Competition between corporations provided consumers with wide variety of choices. - Resulted in prices decreasing for consumers but loss of profit for corporations. - Powerful capitalists had to find a way to limit competition Standard Oil Example - J ohn D. Rockefeller of Standard Oil began merging with or buying out smaller oil companies. - He also made deals with railroad companies to ship the oil at discount prices. - Standard Oil’s prices then went down. - Other oil companies could not compete - Rockefeller would buy them out when they closed in on bankruptcy. nit 6: Western Expansion: Economic, Social and U Cultural Development (1865-1898) 6.6 January 27, 2025 Continuing the Standard Oil Example - C orporate business strategies to eliminate competition - Vertical integration -one company in a particularindustry controls businesses at all levels of production - Horizontal integration -one company in particularindustry merges or buys out companies producing similar products Horizontal Example attle (raising cattle) -> slaughterhouse -> shipped out via refrigerated C railroad cars -> cooled warehouse -> meat packing plant -> delivery wagons - > to company ertical integration example V Independent oil refiners -> to one company - C onsolidation of Industry - Industrialists used horizontal and vertical integration to move towardoligopolyand then finallymonopoly. - Oligopoly- only a few sellers in the market/one industry. - Monopoly -complete control of one company over anindustry’s production, wages, and prices. Two more ways to create a monopoly - Holding company- a corporation that buys out stockof other companies, company can invest in other companies (like the competition) - Trust- a form of business merger in which major stockholders turn over their stock to a group of “trustees.” Trustees then run the separate corporations as one large corporation, or trust. ig Business in control of industry with “laissez-faire” policies resulting B in railroad, oil, and steel barons - Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads) - Jay Gould (railroads) - J.P. Morgan (railroads, banking) - Andrew Carnegie (steel) - John D. Rockefeller (oil) Negative Impact of Monopolies - Without competition, consolidated industries simply raised prices and/or lowered wages at a whim. - This began to affect the economy in a negative way Sherman Antitrust Actof 1890 - T he government passed first antitrust act to break up monopolies that limited competition - The act states any attempt to interfere with free trade between states or internationally by forming a trust is illegal. - The Sherman Antitrust Act was weak because it did not clearly define a trust. - Corporations found loopholes to beat the government in the courts - Or the trust simply split back into separate corporations - Stronger laws and leadership were going to have to be passed to change things. nit 6: Western Expansion: Economic, Social and U Cultural Development (1865-1898) 6.6 January 28, 2025 Social Darwinism - G rew out of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection, “survival of the fittest.” - Economists and industrialists adapted ideas to business. - Free competition in the economy, like natural selection, would ensure survival of the business. - This belief could justify laissez faire, the policy where the government stays out of the marketplace. - The theory played a major role in the growth of big business - Appealed to “protestant work ethic” of many Americans - Theory supported the notion of individual responsibility and blame - Theory justified if one is poor, one must also be so lazy. Social Darwinism in Popular Culture - P opular literature of the time reinforced the growing cult of “individualism.” - Horatio Alger wrote 135 novels which sold millions of copies. - The stories usually featured orphans or street urchins that rose to good fortune through model behavior and hard work. - Popularized the idea of “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps.” The Gospel of Wealth - P hilanthropy - the act of promoting human welfare through charitable donations - M any of the top industrialists gave millions of “endowments” or charitable long term donations to universities, libraries, hospitals, and centers for the arts. - Carnegie wroteThe Gospel of Wealthin 1889 rationalizinghis belief as a millionaire he was doing good for society. Example of Industrialist Philanthropy - U niversity of Chicago founded primarily by John D. Rockefeller’s 80 million endowment. - Carnegie Hall in New York City built by an endowment from Andrew Carnegie. nit 6: Western Expansion: Economic, Social and U Cultural Development (1865-1898) 6.6 The Labor Movement January 29, 2025 ARLY UNIONS QUESTIONS: E 1. What were the main reasons why industrial labor unions began to organize? he creation of unions were a variety of reasons, most notably the fact that many workers were that T many of the industrial jobs were labor intensive, combined with doing the same thing over and over again, and also the low wages that many workers were forced to experience, and also unsafe working conditions created high injury rates, and were often dangerous. 2. Why is restraint of trade dangerous to the economy? estraint of trade means that trade pretty much stops. You may imagine the Standard Oil refinery, if R everyone is at strike, then no oil would be shipped out, which would mean no kerosene, and other products that would be made by oil. Restraint of trade would stop the economy, which would drive prices up as demand would remain the same, whereas the product being produced would just stop or would slow down and wouldn’t keep up with demand. . What new and radical economic/political idea did the U.S. government and 3 general population fear? radical idea and political idea that the government feared would be Communism, which is a form A of a totalitarianism government (aka, dictatorship), and everyone is paid based on ability, and everything is publicly owned. 4. List the various reasons why unions had trouble organizing. t first, there weren't any laws protecting the common worker. Companies often resisted unions, A such as putting unions to the court system, and the court would often side with the companies. Unions then were often connected with Communism, and Communism was already not popular as it challenges Capitalism. In addition, many workers had to sign contracts pledging that they will not join a union, and when companies would fire union organizers, they would pretty much forbid them from applying to other jobs. People joining a union is risky, but when the people speak up, unions become the voice for the common people. . Why were the Knights of Labor established and what were its primary 5 goals? ne of the first ever unions, that fought for eight-hour work days, and had many goals, such as O economic and social reform, producer co-ops, and the creation of health and safety codes. These goals carry on to our modern-society, and many companies and establishments would have policies for health codes, and safety codes. . Why did the Haymarket Riot discredit unions in the eyes of the general 6 Population? he Haymarket Riot discredited unions because of the violence committed during the riot. Labor T protests were killed by police, and the violence did not appear well with the general public. The public perceived labor protests (and the union) as violent, radical, and chaotic individuals. Due to this, adaptation of unions would slow down, however, as mentioned in the slides, it opened the way for new unions. 7. How did AFL leader Samuel Gompers help unions to gain acceptance? he leader of the AFL did many things, combining 20 of the nations trade unions into one. He T created bargaining between the company, and the union, when bargaining occurs, you are negotiating the proper terms for the worker, and for the company, for what is considered fair to both sides. If negotiation falls through, the threat of a strike would be imminent. In addition, AFL pushed for “closed shops” which are companies that only employ union labor. . Why was it hard for women to enter labor unions at first and what actions 8 did they take in reaction to this? t first, women represented 18% of the labor force. During this period, AFL did exclude women from A joining the union, and women were also less paid than men. The reaction: creating the union and the advocacy for women. The WUTL, which promoted women labor issues, such as low pay, and poor working conditions, and the push for an 8 hour work week, a minimum wage, and the abolition of child labor (which are paid lower than adults). . Define Socialism and explain why this economic theory developed as a 9 reaction to laissez-faire Capitalism? I n comparison to Socialism and Capitalism, Capitalism is when governments generally do not step into business, primarily private-businesses. They do not control whatever is happening with the business, it is up to the business to decide on demand, manufacturing, and more, which is laissez-faire, keeping out of the private sector. Businesses do what they need to do, and it would sacrifice working conditions, prices of goods, and also wages, without any government (or some) government oversight. In turn, socialism is completely different. Socialism completely bypasses laissez-faire, the government decides on the factors, such as production output, wages, and more. The government would decide, not the businesses. Government for which is elected by the people, and challenges laissez-faire Capitalism, Socialism promotes equality and prioritizes “for use” in comparison to “for-profit.” Do you think workers were wise to organize unions in the late 19th century? Why or why not? Workers were wise (and brave) to organize unions in the 19th century. Here is why. As mentioned previously, working conditions of many workers were unsafe, factories were unsafe, coal mines were unsafe, and it was often dangerous for workers to even enter a coal mine, even making it out alive would be a question for a coal mine worker. In addition, companies are “for-profit” with shares, thus, pleasing more towards the shareholders, and in comparison to pleasing the workforce. In addition, wages are low, really low. Many of the labor required to perform a task may not even match the wage, since companies have a lot of power within our government. It was wise enough for the workers to organize unions in the 19th century, it is considered brave to even create one in the first place. If unions were never organized in the 19th century, how l ong would the idea of union exist? Since unions were created during the time of these big companies exploiting their workers, unions become part of many companies, jobs, and industries, and protecting workers.
