HIST 2057 Chapter : The Closing Of The West Part 1
The Closing of the West, 1865-1890, Part I
1865—most of the west is not states admitted to the union
I. State and Territories
a. The west gets divided into states and territories, and applies for
statehood.
b. Political incorporation
c. Same as the southern states, trying to become part of the US; but not
the same stipulations as the southern states
d. They have to become politically incorporated, but they also want to
develop
i. Need to develop, just like the south (New South Creed)
e. Racial dilemma with Native Americans
II. The Transcontinental Railroad
a. Very few other transportation methods
i. NO rivers, like the south
ii. For west: options are very limited; either covered wagon
(dangerous and long), or its taking a ship from east coast, all
the way down and around (expensive and dangerous)
1. Neither one is very convenient
iii. Federal government wants to be able to get out to the west;
wants a railroad built to connect west coast to the rest of the
country
b. Pacific Railroad Bill (1862,1864)
i. 1862, the Federal government passes a Pacific Railroad bill
1. Authorizes Union Pacific and Central Pacific to build
transcontinental railroads
2. Congress has 4 reasons
a. Want to be able to tap trade with China (need
easier way to transport goods to a place that can
be shipped to China)
b. Mining industry—attractions of the west
i. Minerals (gold/silver); the railroad will
make it easier for miners to access the
gold
c. Access cattle markets in Texas and the Great
Plains
i. Cattle being raised in Great Plains but
most people live in Northeast and
Midwest
ii. If you walk the cattle as transportation,
they become leaner, which means less
meat
d. People, especially farmers, can move out to the
west to start farmsteads
e. ALL ABOUT ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
3. No railroad company wants to build this on their own.
There is no guarantee that it will be profitable.
Government cannot expect private companies to do this,
so they have to authorize companies to do it for
government
4. Needs to provide incentives
a. Government provided land to companies
b. They get the land that the track will be built on
and 200 feet both ways
c. All the land will end up increasing in value, so
the companies can sell the land and end up
getting profit
i. Ensured to get a profit
d. All of this is to encourage development
5. Railroad companies also get loans—the companies
don’t have to put out their own money to make these
railroads
a. VERY LITTLE RISK TO BUILD RAILROAD
6. After bill passed, the companies argued the risk is still
too great
7. Convinced Government to pass a second Bill
a. Doubled the land that the companies were
getting
b. Greatest cost to the government is land
c. 45 million acres of land
i. Louisiana is 33 million acres of land
d. Only way any other railroad would get built,
would be under similar conditions
i. Had to pass other bills to get other rails
built
ii. Eventually a whole network of railroads
built
iii. Overall, gave 130 million acres of land
(MORE land than given to California [104
million])
1. Only state larger than that, at the
time, was Texas
iv. Government is GIVING away land
c. Because they knew the companies would make a lot of money, (it was
a monopoly) the government wanted the profit made by companies to
be accessible to public
i. Companies had to sell shares of their companies
ii. Once they started making money, you got a return of
investment
iii. Not private companies, had to sell shares on open market
