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FOURTH EXAM

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LECTURES FOR THE SECOND EXAM:

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THE NEW WEST: This lecture traced the rapid erosion of the frontier by examining the contributions of three groups: miners, cattlemen, and farmers.  It also addressed what the loss of the frontier meant to the United States over the long term.

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You need to know the following:

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  • The situation in the west in 1877.

  • The number of states in the US in 1877

  • The speed in which Americans settled the frontier.  The 1890 census findings.

  • The amount of land settled in the Gilded Age vs the amount settled in HIST 1301.

  • The significance of the frontier in the American mind.

  • Why so much land got settled so quickly.

  • The significance of the railroad to the west.

  • The need for a transcontinental railroad and the role the South played in blocking its construction.

  • What Thomas Rusk discovered about the South and Southern attitudes about federally funded railroad construction.

  • The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862.

  • The impact of the transcontinental railroad line.

  • The major decades of railroad construction in the west and the importance of overseas investors.

  • Placer miners and their role in the mining frontier.

  • The money that could be realized in the mining industry.  The Anaconda Copper example.

  • The new states/cities that developed in the mining frontier.

  • The significance of the saloon.  Some of the name brands that date to the Old West.

  • The role the Old West has played in shaping the modern United States industrial economy.

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CATTLE AND FARMING IN THE OLD WEST

  • The evolution of cattle drives 

  • Sedalia, Missouri; Abilene, Kansas 

  • The issue with Texas cattle and Texas Cattle Ticks.

  • Joseph McCoy, 1867 

  • Cowboys 

  • What happened to the cattle industry in the 1880s.

  • What delayed farmers from going into the west.

  • Homestead Act, Desert Land Act, Timber Culture Act 

  • Barbed wire, sod houses.

  • The nature of violence in the west 

  • Courre d'Alene, Cripple Creek, Ludlow Massacre 

  • Frederick Jackson Turner and “The Significance of the Frontier in American History.” 

  • Relevant dates. DON’T FORGET THE DATES!!!!! 

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INDIAN WARS: Here, the examination turned to how the closing of the frontier affected Native Americans.  The lecture explored the various methods used by the federal government to address the “Indian Problem” in the west.  Several traumatic events of the 1860s were examined in detail, as was the reservation policy of the 1870s.  A short written lecture covered some lengthy and detailed Indian Wars, including the Apache conflicts and the experience of the Nez Perce.

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You need to know the following:

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  • The similarities of western tribes and how their cultures differed from that of the United States.

  • How/why the United States and Native Americans triggered each other.

  • The permanent Indian frontier

  • The population of the western tribes at the time of the Gilded Age (approximate) 

  • Tribal Territories 

  • Fort Laramie Treaty, 1851 

  • Fort Atkinson Treaty, 1851 

  • Fetterman Massacre, Sand Creek Massacre, and what these indicate about Indian/American relations 

  • Captain Fetterman and his attitude about the Sioux.

  • John Chivington 

  • Small Reservations 

  • Fort Laramie Treaty, 1868 

  • Medicine Lodge Creek Treaty, 1867 

  • The Great Sioux War 

  • George Custer 

  • Battle of Little Bighorn 

  • Red River War, 1874-75 

  • The European role in the destruction of the buffalo.

  • Dawes Severalty Act 

  • Wounded Knee Massacre, Ghost Dance 

  • Relevant dates 

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INDIAN WARS WRITTEN LECTURE:

  • Apache resistance

  • The Camp Grant Massacre

  • The Modoc Experience - why this small tribe fell into fatalism and a sense that its members simply wanted to fight and die.

  • Bloody Point

  • Nez Perce resistance

  • Chief Joseph

  • The dangers in Native American life.

  • What Medicine Men could do for illness and injury

  • The western natives' belief system about the nature of the physical and spiritual worlds

  • Things to remember about why Native American medicine likely won't work for a modern citizen of the US:  Different rituals in different tribes.  Tribes don't always share their information.  Tribes have lost the fully knowledge of the medicine practiced over a century ago.  Native medicine required a world view and discipline modern Americans are unlikely to be able to follow.

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NEW FOREIGN POLICY: This lecture traced Gilded Age developments in American foreign policy and discussed the evolution of an American empire.  Written lecture.

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You need to know the following:

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  • Empire Building 

  • Pearl Harbor, Pago Pago, James Blaine 

  • Alfred T. Mahan and The Significance of Seapower upon History 

  • Hawaii and the United States – 1890s 

  • The Spanish-American War 

  • Yellow Journalism 

  • USS Maine 

  • The American empire as it looked after the Spanish-American War 

  • The size of the American empire and American military and the significance of both

  • The United States and China, late 1800s, 1900 

  • The Open Door Policy 

  • The Philippine War 

  • The Insular Cases 

  • Social Darwinism 

 

POLITICS IN THE GILDED AGE: This lecture discussed the federal government’s early emergence as a source of business, economic, and social regulation.

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You need to know the following:

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  • The traditional role of the National Government

  • The behavior of RRs in the Gilded Age

  • Why states were ineffective regulators of railroads and big businesses 

  • Munn V Illinois - 1877

  • Railroad Regulation and the Interstate Commerce Act 

  • Wabash, St. Louis, and Pacific Railroad vs. Illinois  - 1886

  • The ICC 

  • The Sherman Anti-Trust Act 

  • The Spoils System 

  • Whiskey Ring

  • Credit Mobilier and how it operated.

  • Stalwarts and Half-Breeds  

  • James Garfield and Charles Guiteau

  • The torturous death of James Garfield and what it tells us about medicine in the late 1800s.

  • The Pendleton Civil Service Act 

 

GILDED AGE CONSIDERED: This lecture analyzed the nature of the Gilded Age through the example of a significant disaster.

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You need to know the following:

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  • The extravagance of the very rich 

  • Superconsuming

  • Biltmore House

  • The South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club

  • The Johnstown Flood of 1889 

  • Naturalism

  • McTeague 

  • The one thing the Gilded Age lacks, compared to the modern US.

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