Transcript File


An American Tale: Fievel Goes West—Way Out West
An American Tale….

What was happening in the Cartoon Clip?
What did we see?
Who were the settlers

seen in the movie clip?
 Immigrants from Europe
 Those that ventured West would become known as
Frontier Settlers
 What made this possible?
Homestead Act
(May 20, 1862)

 The Homestead Act –set in motion a program of public
land grants to small farmers.
 any adult citizen (or person intending to become a citizen)
who headed a family could qualify for a grant of 160 acres of
public land
 paying a small registration fee
 living on the land continuously for five years.
 If the settler was willing to pay $1.25 an acre,
he could obtain the land after only six
months’ residence.
The Lure of the West

When geographers study reasons for major migrations, they
look at what they call push-pull factors-events and conditions
that either force (push) people to move elsewhere or strongly
attract (pull) them to do so. Here are some push-pull factors for
moving west.
“Push” Factors
 The Civil War had displaced
thousands of farmers, former
slaves, and other workers.
 Eastern farmland was too costly.
 Failed entrepreneurs sought a
second chance in a new locations.
 Ethnic and religious repression
caused people to seek the
freedom of the west.
 Outlaws sought refuge.
“Pull” Factors
 The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862
and 1864
 Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862
 Homestead Act, 1862
 Legally enforceable property rights
GO WEST, YOUNG MAN!
 The Myth of
the Frontier
 “Manifest
Destiny”
 Civil War
over
 Adventure
 Resources
 Wealth
(Gold,
Cattle, Land)
What was the benefit
and drawback?

 Did not provide the new
 By the end of the Civil
Benefit
War, 15,000 homestead
claims had been
established
 Provided a new
beginning for Americans
who were poor and
living in crowded cities
Drawback
beginning for urban slum
dwellers that some had
hoped;
 few families had the
resources to start farming,
 over time, the growing
mechanization of
agriculture led to the
replacement of individual
homesteads with a smaller
number of much larger
farms.
Pacific Railway Act
 The federal government passed the Pacific Railway Acts
of 1862 and 1864 after the South seceded from the Union.
 enabled the United States government to make a direct
grant of public land to private corporations for the
construction of a trans-continental railroad system.
 The Union Pacific Railroad, built West from the Missouri
River, met the Central Pacific Railroad, East from
Sacramento, California.

 The two railroad giants met at Promontory Point, Utah, in the
spring of 1869. By 1890, investors developed five more transcontinental lines.
What was the benefit
and drawback?

Benefit
 Larger amounts of goods
can ship faster
 Safer travel then
stagecoaches
 Helped unpopulated
areas get settled easier
and faster
Drawback
 Natives lost their land
 Natives were moved
onto reservations
 Tons of buffalo were
killed for sport on the
trains
Dawes Act 1887
 Gave the President the power to select what land would be
allotted for reservation
 Passed to “Americanize” Native Americans

 an attempt to transform Indians into independent farmers
where most land was infertile
 Threatened Indian Culture
 If Indians accepted this grant of (their own) land they could
then become full American citizens.
What was the benefit and drawback?

Benefit
 Opened Indian
Territory for settlement,
continuing with the
idea of manifest destiny
Drawback
 Loss of Native
American land
 Final defeat for Native
Americans in regard to
their land