Chapter 18 Questions

1. The settlement of the West by the miners was propelled by the gold and sliver discoveries and the cattlemen were attracted to the west by the rapid increase in the population of longhorn cattle. Miners rushed to the rich copper mines opened in Montana as the demand for copper wire increased with Bell's invention of the telephone and Edison's invention of the light bulb and electric generator. The mining frontier was filled with violence and robbery. Mining became a highly capitalized industry and led to the formation of the first Western Federation of Miners. Longhorn cattle, introduced by the Spaniards in Texas multiplied rapidly by 1850's. Texans quickly took advantage of this opportunity and started on a trail to Sedalia,Missouri. The travel was dangerous but the new railroads developed after the Civil War made traveling and shipping Cattle. The ghost town of Sedalia overnight became a boom town. The transcontinental railroad was the biggest facilitator of the expansion of the west by farmers, miners and cattlemen

2. The decline of the plains Indian was caused due to cession of all native lands, which led to starvation, conflicts and wars. The westward expansion of farmers was also a cause. Th civil war drained the Union Treasury, delaying the annuity payments to the tribes. This created serious consequences for the northern Plains Indians. A war which lasted a decade between the army and Sioux led to the decline of the most war-like Plains Indians, the Sioux. At the climax of the war, the Sioux defeated George A. Custer and his 225 men. In retaliation, General Philip Sheridan wiped out the Sioux and Cheyenne. With the defeat, the Sioux were confined to a reservation where their people declined due to poverty, disease,apathy, and alcoholism. With the decline of the Sioux other Northern Plains Indians were defeated. The decline of the Southern Plains Indians was triggered by the gold rush to Colorado, which forced the Plains Indians to give up all their lands and to live on a reservation. Due to hunger the Cheyenne started to raid white settlements. This turned to war and Colonel attacked the Cheyenne Camp killing 200 Indians. These kind of attacks occurred in other Indian villages too. The white destroyed the Indian crops and homes. In order to stop the Indian raid, the army started killing buffalo. Finally, when the Indians were left with no food and home they were forced to return to the reservation. Lastly under the Peace policy the Indians were compelled to lose their nomadic culture and adopt white American culture through school and Christian missions bringing a complete end to the Plain's Indians.

3. Crop Line system, overproduction, declining prices of cotton and a weak credit system were all contributing problems to the Southern Agriculture. Although Southern manufacturing increased dramatically after the war, Southern agriculture only increased by 29% per capita. The war left the Southern economy in short of money, credit and banks. Also, land value dropped during the war. In order to restart the farming economy, the new merchants gave farmers supplies and groceries in return for a lien of their next crop. The system failed because merchants charged credit price that was 50% of 60% higher then the cash price, leaving the farmer with 0 profit and higher debt. Also, cotton prices decreased after the war due to overproduction and competition. During the war, Britain encouraged cotton growing in Egypt and India to make up for American cotton. After the war, the South had foreign competition to worry about so, the production of cotton doubled. The farmers were planting every acre with cotton to receive a credit. This exhausted the soil of good nutrients, therefor requiring fertilizer and restarting the cycle of overproduction and reduced prices. Also with every acre being used for cotton the farmers weren't able to grow food crops which compelled them to depend even more on merchant supplies. the frustration about the declining southern agriculture economy turned to anger towards the black population. Lynching rose to an average of 188 per year in the 1890's. Black riots broke out and new constitution were being put in place which disenfranchised the blacks. Some blacks were even forced to a level much worse that slavery. Under the convict leasing system, convicts were leased to coal-mining firms, railroad construction companies and planters where they worked as slaves and worked almost to death. The convict leasing system was an attack against blacks because 90% of the convicts were black.

4. In the time period from 1876 to 1892, there were five greatly contested elections where only a shift of few thousand votes could change the outcome of the election. the two major political parties during this time were the Republicans and Democrats. In the five administration the Democrats mostly held power in the House of Representative while the Republicans held power in the Senate. Also, during this time both political parties focused little on legislative programs. During these five elections platform of the candidates dealt with past issues instead of the president. The Republicans candidates "waved the bloody shirt" to bring back the memory of the civil war and the memory of the rebel south which cannot be trusted with the country's future. The Democrats labeled the republicans as supporters of the "Negro Rule". Basically, the qualification for presidency and vice- presidency was just time not politically opinions. Eventhough the five election were closely contested there weren't any serious political issue being discussed.