Education
Westward Expansion - (bring up Economic, social, and cultural development) Gabriel - I want to talk a little bit about manifest destiny so manifest destiny was the idea that the united states was destined by God which lets be honest if your expanding and taking territory you better believe your destined by god like nah dude im just evil love expanding through violence or not Caydan - The louisiana purchase took place in 1803 was a event where thomas jefferson wanted to buy the land around the mississippi river so that he could transport goods easily across it he bought the land from france for 10 million dollars after previously rejected overs of a lower sum france agreed because they needed cash for the war they were gonna fight with britain they also added a ton of other land between the mississippi river and the rocky mountains which sounds great but in reality they really did not own the land because native americans still inhabited the land Illy- so the westward expansion started after the louisiana purchase which was like around 1803 i think and people took this opportunity to explore this new territory, so the native americans lived very differently than the settlers moving in the westward expansion and because of this the colonist called them savages and tried to change their way of life, when the settlers started moving to the west they needed land to live on so what did they do? the only thing they knew how i guess because the didnt even think of any other way to get land other than kicking all of the indians out and said hey you can either become a citizen and start living like us or you can leave and we’ll take your land for ourselves anyways Audrey - In 1820 the US was a young nation with just 22 states. 11 were free states and 11 were slave states. But then Missouri, which was acquired through the Louisiana Purchase, wanted to be admitted into the Union as a slave state. This threw off the balance in congress because now there would be 12 slave states and only 11 free states. So as a kind of compromise, in exchange for Missouri becoming a slave state, Maine would be a free state. That evened out the power in congress giving equal representation while still letting Missouri be a slave state. This was called the Missouri compromise. Jonathan-There was much population grown in the eastern states so the westward expansion began however that wasn't the only reason for the westward expansion.There was a lot of available cheap and fertile land for farming, also there an economic opportunity that was seen by many people and this opportunity was known as the california gold rush, along with this open land runaway slaves could settle without having to worry about having to hiding and just being able to live the rest of their lives free. Ben - Shortly after the Louisiana purchase Thomas Jefferson tasked two men to explore and map the entire area. In 1804, Meriweather Lewis and William Clark began an 8,000 mile journey joined by 43 others they had trained prior to the expedition. They encountered around 50 different Native American tribes during their travels, and there were no violent instances of first contact. Lewis and Clark actually had a very robust plan for interacting with the native people, they packed an assortment of trading materials and also carried coins with Thomas Jefferson’s face as well as the inscription “Peace and Friendship” which carries a different weight after what colonists did to the Native Americans. The Gold Rush Gabe - The gold rush started in 1848 when in california James W. Marshall who was building a mill for Johann sutter FOUND GOLD. news got out by 1849 we’ve got tons of people going to california for the gold sense it was 1849 the people were dubbed the name forty niner’s and this brought in around 300,000 people Caydan- gold rush influenced the making of california with more people coming there and settling there. It also made industrial and agricultural develop significantly and led to the settling of the west coast states significantly Illy- well while the discovery of gold did influence people to move west and go to california the glory really didn last that long starting from 1848 and ended in 1855 which yes was prolly really like successful time frame for those people that made it there and found gold but what a lot of people don't know is that even after this rush ended people still kept coming to the west in search of gold and then were disappointed when they couldn't find anything Jonathan- The gold rush attracted immigrants from around the entire world and by 1850 more than 25% of california's population was not born in the united states and when the amounts of gold began to drop miners started getting frustrated that they were not finding anything so they blamed the immigrants, California’s legislature then passed a foreign miners tax which brought a monthly fee of 20$ on non citizens which was equivalent to 500 dollars a month in today's money Ben - The economic effects of the California Gold Rush can not be understated. There were countless technological advances industrially and in agriculture because of just how much people wanted to find gold. It brought countless profits to thousands of Americans and gave the economy a much needed boost. There were a lot of side effects, however. They needed water for the mining, which redirected a lot of it away from farms, drying up a lot of land. This left a large portion of California near destroyed. Audrey - When people panned for gold that was called placer mining and when mining for gold was becoming more industrialized they started hydraulic mining which was where they would use pressurized water to blast rocks. It kind of left a mess and was destroying the environment but it was very effective. By the end of the 1850s mining for gold was mostly just a corporate thing. The Dawes Act Ebag - The Dawes Act in 1887 allowed the allotment of lands to individual indians not tribes and to extend the united states laws and protections and give indians territories I don't really know how to feel about this one i cant say its bad because technically we were giving indians citizen ship so they could get land just like us Jonathan- So this act is named after senator henry laurens dawes.So this act actually completely reversed the long standing american policy which basically allowed indian tribes to have control over their land and practice their economic uses on their land, instead this act gave power to the president to divide the indians land. This act game men with families 160 acres, single adult men were given 80 acres and, boys were given 40 acres, while women got no land. Illy- So i mean i'm a little bit biased about this topic, but nobody ever really looks at it from the side of the native americans ,this topic also goes along with what i was talking about in the beginning and there are lots of native americans who didn appreciate this act because of the fact that they were here first so they didn think they should have to become a citizen just to keep the land and things they already owned for generations before then ,so while it may seem like it was a good idea and fair to the native americans it really wasn't i mean we pretty much said ok hey we are gonna let you have this land but not for your whole tribe or anything just for you individually and oh yea we’ll let you become citizen in our country that we basically took from you guys! Ben - From an honest perspective, without trying to assume that our ancestors had good intentions for everyone, this act seems to try and split and expand entire tribes to make their land easier to take. The plan that I can see, whether or not this was actually what they had in mind, was that it’d be easier to take a big piece of land from 1 person, instead of trying to take a big piece of land from a lot of people. The whole citizen gesture might’ve been more of a curse than a blessing too, because now if they wanted to keep any land, they had to follow any and all laws put in place at the time. Caydan- i think that the dawes act was the people of the age trying to more civilize the indians by giving them land instead of them living in tribes trying to make them move like the men of that age Audrey - All of the tribal lands were split into individual plots and only the native Americans who accepted these plots of land were allowed to become US citizens. That sounds like a pretty good deal but it went completely against how native Americans didn't feel like they should “own” land that they should just live on it and take care of it. And then in the end any of the land that was left was sold off to white settlers. So they took all their land, gave some of it back (with conditions), and then sold the rest. Chinese immigrants and Mexican Americans in the age of westward expansion (Opens a modal) Leirbag - Chinese immigrants in the 1820s was very few with a little 650 living in the us but by the end of 1852 over 25,000 chinese immigrants were attracted by quick fortunes of the gold by 1880 there were over 300,000 chinese most in california many found employment in the transcontinental railroad alot of them actually got here using a credit ticket in which there ticket was paid in advance by an american businessmen who they were then indebted too for a period of work Few chinese planned to stay permanently but alot didnt have the funds to return home. Illy- so im gonna talk about mexican americans so in 1848 there was a treaty called the Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the mexican- american war and it promised the almost 75,000 mexicans already living in what had just become the american south west land and citizenship now only about 90 percent of them actually stayed and became citizens, but of course shortly after they became citizens and got land and everything else they began to loose it just as fast as they got it and i mean honestly i'm seeing a pattern here this has basically happened to anyone who has any kind of skin color other than white it seems so they tried to fight for their rights as american citizens but people of authority just looked the other way as more and more people lost their land Ben - Greaser Laws, Sunday Laws, and the Chinese Exclusion Act made it very clear just how racist these political figures were. I think it’s been long enough now (over 100 years) that we don’t have to absolutely give them the benefit of the doubt. I still think it’s crazy how many blatantly exclusionary laws were passed back then, like everyone was just okay with it. I guess it makes sense considering how long it took us to figure out slavery is bad. Audrey - Las Gorras Blancas (the white caps) were a group of rebel Mexican-Americans who fought back against the white settlers taking their land. They tried to intimidate the settlers by burning their farms, homes and crops in order to reclaim their land. The raiding never had any substantial success and several white caps ended up getting captured and beat so many others eventually gave up. Jonathan-Prohibited by law in 1790 from getting US citizenship through naturalization. Chinese immigrants were faced with discrimination beatdowns from american settelers in the west. Chinese immigrants were looking for a better life and would participate in the gold rush, however they had to pay to get in just because of them being immigrants, the chinese community ended up coming together to make cultural centers in cities like san francisco. White Americans began to make anti coolie clubs which were clubs to discriminate against anyone from the asian descent. These clubs resulted in violence against chinese immigrants and teardowns of cultural centers. Little Big Horn Ben - June 25-26, 1876. This was the day of the Battle of Little Bighorn, this battle has really made me think. The Native Americans weren’t the helpless savages that the early colonists paint them to be, and this battle just proves that more and more every day. The significant forces of the native people goes to show just how hard the U.S. worked to take their land. It wasn’t just a “Well this is here so, lets take it” thing it was definitely a fight. There was never any question in their mind what they wanted from, and for, the Native Americans. Illy- the battle of little bighorn was known to the lakota and other plain indians as the battle of greasy grass, ok honestly this is probably the shortest battle i've ever heard of in my whole life it was only 24 hours, something i just found was that Custer who was the major General at this battle was killed and along with 5 companies of the 7th calvary so for y’all that don't know a company can have two dozen or up to 200 soldiers in this case Custer had a total of 221 men fighting alongside with him Jonathan - at midday custers 600 men entered the valley of little bighorn word spread pretty quickly that an attack was soon to come. Custer's soldiers panicked and spread out when they had seen as many as 3000 natives charging towards him and his 200 men that were still together he and all his soldiers were then all killed in under an hour. Audrey - The battle of Little Bighorn is also known as Custer's Last Stand. Colonel George Armstrong Custer led his battalion in an attack on the main Sioux camp in Little Bighorn. Custer was incredibly outnumbered by the Indians who ended up defeating them in the battle and killing Custer. Even though the battle was a huge success for the Sioux, they ended up abandoning their camp at Little Bighorn and fled, scared the US army would send more enforcement. This battle kind of marked the beginning of the end of the Indian wars. Wounded Knee Illy- so this battle took place in 1890 was in other words a giant massacre that killed almost 300 lakota (aka sioux) indians, these indians practiced a dance called the Ghost Dance and believed that if you practice the ghost dance then you would get to see the new world when the gods cleansed it and got rid of all non-believers including non-indians, on december 15, 1890 the reservation police tried to arrest Sitting Bull who was a famous sioux chief, who the officers believed was a Ghost Dancer ,and in this point in time was not a good thing to be, they ended up killing Sitting Bull in the process of arresting him and that just rose the tension that was building up to this battle Ben - 1890 was 14 years after the Battle of Little Bighorn, which emphasizes just how long they were fighting the entire Native American race. There was a three day blizzard after the massacre, and after it had ended they hired civilians to gather the dead and place them in a mass grave. The reaction of the American settlers was generally… positive. Many at that time were still not used to treating everyone like people, and there is an abundance of quotes calling natives “untamable creatures.” Audrey - While trying to disarm the Sioux, a shot was fired and the US army opened fire on the Indians killing hundreds of men, women, and children. The few Sioux who survived fled. After the massacre, an official army inquiry not only exonerated the 7th Calvary but awarded medals of honor to 20 soldiers. Jonathan- the troubles of wounded knee were not over yet, a virtual civil war broke out when two indian factions had a disagreement this fight left over 100 indians dead, Then 2 FBI agents were killed and the agency raided the area of the battle and arrested AIM leader and held him responsible for the 2 deaths and he had life in prison.