Geog 366 - Historical Geography of North America

Chapter 11: Settling the Great Plains, 1850-1930

Chapter 12: Far West, 1840-1920

1. Doubling the National Territory: Louisiana Purchase
1. 1800: map of the Nation
2. Uncertain boundaries
3. Two grand parts: old (coastal) and new (interior)
4. Background of the Purchase

a. Need for unrestricted access to Mississippi River

b. Jefferson's range of alternatives (1790s --à)

(1) Natchez - develop as a rival port

(2) New American entrepot

(3) Purchase of West Florida

(4) Purchase to Isle of New Orleans

c. Ambassador proposed purchase of all land north of Arkansas river

d. Twin Cities idea

e. The Whole Enchilada

(1) Doubled the size of the Nation

(2) Enhances national security

e.g., Floridas

5. Extent of the new territory unclear

a. disputes over boundaries

b. no map of the region

c. Jefferson report to Congress

d. John Logan Allen's description (see Cary map of 1806)

e. Ridge of Better Knowledge

(1) higher latitudes

(2) Pacific margin

(3) Eastern edges/rivers.

2. Public Land Policy: Disposing of the Public Domain (1800-1862)
1. Expansion with treaties and conquest (Gadsden Purchase of 1853)
2. Political significance of public domain

a. conflict between states, and between state and federal

b. revenue for the federal government

3. First phase

a. Land Ordinance of 1785 (NW Ordinance of 1787)

(1) survey prior to sale

(2) sale at public auction

(3) minimum price per acre

(4) money to federal government

(5) occupied the land

(6) satisfied veteran claims

b. Sale was slow until after 1812

c. 1812 - 1819: Boom in sales

(1) British/Indian threat reduced

(2) Credit system enacted

(3) Minimum purchase reduced to 320 acres (rather than 640)

(4) Military Bounty Acts - eventually disposed of >5 million acres

(5) Panic of 1819!!

4. Land Act of 1820

a. Abolished the credit system - cash only

b. Lowered minimum price to $1.25 acre

- later purchase at lower prices

c. Minimum reduced to 80 acres

d. Aid to those who had purchased on credit

e. Squatters - important issue

(1) Pre-emption: the privilege of "buying before"

(2) Periodic enactment of pre-emption measures

(3) 1841 Pre-emption Act

- big surge in land disposal

- divided income with the states

- gradually extended to unsurveyed lands

5. Homestead Acts (1850s -à)

a. Inalienable right to 160 acres

b. Supported by west and east -- opposed by South

c. Need for transcontinental RR - California and Oregon

d. 1862 Homestead Act passed

(1) 160 acres (quarter section)

(2) nominal filing fee

(3) work in for 5 years - obtain free title

(4) not repealed until BLM Organic Act of early 1970s

6. Graphic history of the Public Domain

a. Peaks show times of economic prosperity

(1) after War of 1812

(2) Jackson Presidency

(3) mid 1850s

b. Valleys show times of economic depression - Congress then liberalized land laws: "priming the pump"

c. After the Homestead Acts

(1) Railroad grants

40 million acres in 1800s

131 million acres by mid 20^th century

(2) Timber Culture Act of 1873

160 acres to plant trees on 40 "rain follows the plow"

(3) Desert Land Act of 1877

Reclamation by irrigation of 80 acres of dry land

Most led to fraud - 95% claimed by corporations

d. Social and Environmental Con sequences

(1) American Indians

(2) Forests - Great Lakes

C. Shoving the Indians out of the Way

4. The Reach Westward
1. Physiography of the West
2. Western Fur Trade
3. Great Plains/Cattlemen

5. Spanning the Continent

6. Continentalism: Objectives, Modes and Visions

7. Filling in the Ground -- Migration Westward

8. Morphology - The Shape of the United States prior to the Civil War