Before the Civil War the whites made their homes in the Great Plains (also known as the Great American Desert). The Great Plains were usually very hot in the summer and icy cold in the winter. This weather made it hard for them to travel. Women had it harder than others because they had to leave families, endure dangerous conditions and do hard physical labor to work the new land.
During the migration west the Americans encountered Indians. The Indians during this time had changed from a purely agricultural way of life to a nomadic way of hunting the buffalo. This changed took place after acquiring Spanish horses. The Plains Indians …show more content…
But when gold was found in the West in 1849 the Indians were moved to areas on the reservation. This made the Indians mad. The Americans had to fight for the land. There were hundreds of Indians killed and beaten so that the Americans could take over their lands.
In 1862 the government began the Homestead Act which gave free land to anyone willing to work the land and grow a new nation. This attracted big corporations like the railroad. The railroad owned the mot land during this time. The railroad acquired much of this land by killing settlers that already owned the land. The law or sheriff in the communities at this time were normally on the railroad’s payroll. Most people had to own a gun to survive this time of history where there were no morals or rules.
The new Northern American Empire between 1865 and 1885 saw an increase in profits from cattle. The cattle bonanza drove 6 million cattle by 1880 to the north. These drives of cattle ended when refrigerated railcars and barbed wire were