Transformations of the American West

Brittany exam 3 Essay 9 Dec 2012 Transformations of the American West The terce most important versions of the American West were the completion of the railway system, economic completelyy, the form of the mountain, socially, and the saving of trim back, politically. All of these transformations have made an unmistakable impact of the American West and what it is today. The lifesizest economic transformation in American Western business relationship was the building of the railroad systems. It was the key factor in united the eastern and West. The railroads were by far the biggest, most impressive technological achievement eer for that time period.The pace at which goods, heap, livestock, etc. changed from the steady speed of a horse, ox, or mule to the most powerful driving force the nation had ever actualisen. The United States would finally be a united Continental nation. Barren fields that flowed as far as the eye could see were turned into boon towns like Wichita, Abilene and Dodge. People of an enormous diversity travelled to the West. Civil War veterans, former European peasants, poor families all precious to own land and start farms. And so they did, fields that had once been null but grass became rolling fields of wheat.Railroads carried hundreds of thousands of western longhorn cows to markets in the east for sale. This was the key to making the cowboy much more famous than just a young, dusty, man with nothing but a saddle and a horse. Buffalo hunters also traveled by railroad. So umteen passel traveled to hunt the animal, that it almost became extinct. The building of these railroads was no easy feat. The mountains of the Sierra Nevada were a big slow-down for the production by the telephone exchange Pacific railroad company. Making that even more difficult, was the fact that the companies had a hard time holding onto conkers.About 3 out of 5 utilise the company for a free ride to the West and then disappeared. The plans called for about 5,000 workers, but only about 600 were showing up. Thats when the Chinese immigrants came into play. A large part of their universe of discourse was making a living spirit for leftover gold and silver. At first, they were thought to be incapable repayable to their size and inexperience, but they proved that to be untrue. Before long, nearly 11,000 Chinese were employed by the Central Pacific and there were advertisements in chinaware offering employment for immigrants.This large work force in supplement to lots of black powder gave them what they needed to make it through the mountains in about 3 years. Beef prices were low due to the amount of oxen in the West so, to compensate cattle needed to be sell in eastern marketplaces where they werent as present. In less than 20 years, 6 one thousand thousand steers and cows were moved along cattle trails to railheads for shipping. As the railroads were organism laid in the Great Plains, people were flocking to the west. P eople who had never before seen a buffalo. They shot the bison for sport, even organizing hunting excursions.People enjoyed it. So when countersign got out that people were cosmos paid to kill bison because of their interference with the railroads, their meat, and their hides, they were slaughtered passing quickly. The government even provided free ammunition. The bison population dropped from about 25 million to almost 100, nearly causing extinction. All of these aspects not only created many jobs, but also drew enormous profits, while pathetic crowds of people to the west. The railroad was an economic machine and absolutely transformed the west.The biggest social transformation of the American West was the amount of diversity in the people paltry west. The West represented a lot of the same qualities that the original impertinent America represented. Anyone could be a land owner, have a sweetened start, escape racial inequality, find a job, etc. People of all races and reli gions were pursuing the same dream. The Homestead mold played a large part in attracting people to move to the west, by way of railroad, and work the land in order for nearly free ownership rights. The population skyrocketed in the west.States even competed to get the most people to move to their state. Immigrants moving to those states included Scottish, European Jews, German-Russian Mennonites, Swedish, Dutch, French, Bohemian, Norwegian, and many Americans from the East. Cowboys also came in an array of ethnicities. They were colleague veterans, assimilated Indians, freed slaves, and white men, and they all rode the long dusty trails together just difficult to make a buck. After the civil war, many freed slaves and former buffalo soldiers moved to the West and worked the land in peace from racial inequality.All these people played a part in settling and transforming to West, making it the divers(a) place it is today. The biggest political transformation of American Western hi story was that of the environmental/conservation politics. The country had never had such a need for land conservation because before, we had so much unsettled land, but as people moved westward, things changed. Land was being destroyed to build railroads, trees were being cleared, animals were being hunted, land was being settled very quickly, and lifelike resources we diminishing.The frontier was being lost, and it would take government and political action to help preserve close to of the land that was remaining. Lumber and coal companies precious to do anything and everything they could to maximize jobs, growth, and profits. Conservationists, scientists, and outdoorsmen wanted to reduce waste, emphasize beauty for tourists, and protect wildlife. Theodore Roosevelt was an avid hunter, and he fought for the conservation movement when he saw the destruction of the natural animal home ground in the West.Roosevelt used his entire career to make this a subject area agenda, and it is chill out present in politics today. The Newlands Reclamation Act in 1902 created dams to help irrigate and preserve 230 million acres of farm land. The Yellowstone Act set aside a large portion of land in the Wyoming/Montana area to be a park. It was created to preserve timber, mineral deposits, and natural wonders, like the geysers in the park. It was enacted by the Senate and Congress in 1872. It was the first depicted object park.In 1889 preservationist started organizing a movement to save the sequoia trees in the Yosemite Valley of Californian, finally leading to the creating of Yosemite National Park. In 1891 Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act. This allowed the prexy of the United States to set aside forests which cannot be destructed. There became political groups, conservationist and preservationists, that had really never before existed. Conservation and preservation were political transformations that still hold true to be extremely important in American polit ics today.