Undeveloped region at the edge of a settled area

What is a frontier?

Open for development Can provide adventure &

discovery Can be conquered

Manifest Destiny

1840s ~ Expansion Fever

Belief that it was the American destiny to expand to the Pacific & develop it for future generations

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“Great American Desert”Pre-1860, most did not

want to risk moving WestGreat Plains were arid

(dry) and without forests

Difficult to set up farms

Millions of people settled in the Great Plains and beyond

after 1860.

WHY???

Granted land to RRsGov. Promoted

Settlement Transcontinental RRs

completed

RRs sold land to settlers

Homestead Act (1862)Gov. Promoted

Settlement Offered 160

acres of FREE land to anyone who would live on it and cultivate it for 5 years

Free land and RRs were BOTH needed to attract settlers!

Settlers needed a reliable way to trade with the

East.

Who went West?People of all ethnicities,

but most were wealthy, white, native-born farming families

3/4 of migrants were men

Much of the land was only suitable for ranching, not farming

Settlers Faced Hardships

Natural disastersSettlers Faced

Hardships

Droughts

Blizzards

Raids by outlaws or IndiansSettlers Faced

Hardships

Very few treesSettlers Faced

Hardships Had to live in sod

houses

Difficult to farm the land, and new farming inventions could be expensive

Settlers Faced Hardships

2/3 of settlers stayed, but many

were angry by 1890 because they were not very successful