Westward Expansion 1840-1900 - The Settlers

ASU HST 200 (Historical Themes) Westward Expansion, 1840-1900 The Settlers Relocating and beginning a new life required money in the nineteenth century, just like it does now. The first wave of western settlers along the Oregon Trail in the 1840s and 1850s consisted of moderately prosperous White farming families from the East because of the initial cost of relocation, land, and supplies, as well as months of preparation, planting, and subsequent harvesting before any produce was ready for market. However, by 1870, Americans with lesser wealth could now migrate to the West thanks to the Homestead Act and the building of the first transcontinental railroad. A slow trickle of migration turned into a continuous stream that persisted until the century's conclusion. By the time the exodus peaked in 1870, about 400,000 people had migrated west. Families did travel, but the most were males, despite the extreme difficulties faced by mothers with little children. The majority of the more recent immigrants were from Canada and Northern Europe, who also moved west. The most prevalent were Irish, German, and Scandinavian. These ethnic groups had a tendency to congregate in close proximity, forming robust rural communities that reflected the lifestyles they had left behind. As stated by U.S. According to Census Bureau data, the number of Scandinavian immigrants to the United States skyrocketed in the second half of the 1800s, rising from just 18,000 in 1850 to over 1.1 million in 1900. The number of Germanborn Americans increased from 584,000 to around 2.7 million during the same period, while the number of Irish-born Americans increased from 961,000 to 1.6 million. Many thousands of immigrants set up homesteads in the Midwest as they traveled westward, mostly in Minnesota and Wisconsin, where almost one-third of the population was foreign-born in 1900, and in North Dakota, where 45 percent of the population was immigrant at the beginning of the 20th century. Chinese immigrants were far less numerous than those from Europe, yet they were nonetheless important. Between 1876 and 1890, more than 200,000 Chinese immigrants landed in California, albeit for quite varied Gold Rush-related causes. Following the Civil War, many of African Americans moved west, joining a large influx of European immigrants who had fled the violence and bigotry of the Old South in search of better economic prospects. They left the bigotry of the South and were known as exodusters, a reference to the biblical escape from Egypt. The majority of them traveled to Kansas from Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. In only the years 1879–1880, about 25,000 exodusters came in Kansas. More than 500,000 Black people called the West of the Mississippi River home by 1890. Approximately twelve thousand Black migrants served as cowboys during the Texas cattle drives, despite the fact that the bulk of them became farmers. Several of them joined the battles against Native Americans as "Buffalo Soldiers." African Americans who were referred to as "Buffalo Soldiers" by several Native American tribes because they thought their curly, black hair resembled that of a buffalo. Six all-Black cavalry and infantry groups were formed, many of whom had fought in the Union army during the Civil War. Their main responsibilities were to defend settlers as they moved westward and to help construct the infrastructure needed to sustain western colonization. Prior to the United States government taking the region during its war with Mexico, many hundred thousand Hispanics had already lived in the American Southwest, while White Easterners, immigrants, and African Americans were coming west (1846–1848). Those who choose to remain in the United States were awarded American citizenship upon the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which concluded the war in 1848 and transferred possession of the territory from Mexico to the United States. Mexicans were allowed to keep their own property as well as their language, religion, and culture under the terms of the pact. Regarding citizenship, they had three options: 1) state that they intend to live in the United States but keep their Mexican citizenship; 2) get U.S. citizenship and full constitutional rights; or 3) depart for Mexico. Despite these assurances, the new Hispanic American citizens discovered within a generation that their culture was being attacked and that there was little to no legal protection for their property.