History Notes

2.2

Mining towns

• mining fostered western expansion
• gold discoveries brought thousands of fortune seekers
• Most fortunes went to corporations that brought out smaller claims
• Although some mine communities....
• 1848--- sutter's mill Ca first gold sighting

1859-Nevada's comstock lode

• silver ore in the sierra nevada mountains range
• brought settlers in from california and the east
• boomtowns like virginia city and gold hill
• resulted in economic growth in nevada and san francisco
• reno NV

Pike's peak gold rush

• 1859-1861
• north of pike's peak
• over 100,000 people flocked to CO
• slogan pike's peak or bust
• brought first american settlers to CO
• mining camps like denver city and boulder city later became major Co cities.

Leadville Co

• 1876-1893
• brought wealth and increased pop to Co
• government purchase of silver increased demand, which increased prices
• high silver prices attract more to the mines
• ended in 1893 when gov stopped buying silver.

Black hills SD gold rush

• 1874-1877
• deadwood SD
• sioux indian lands
• many settlers flocked to the deadwood despite it was on indian lands
• led to conflicts with natives in SD

Hydraulic mining

• used to rapidly displace soil and rock to sluice for gold.
• resulted in increased production of gold
• negative sediments blocked waterways, raised riverbeds, and caused flooding in towns below.

race relations in california

• 1868 burlingame treaty gave chinese the right to immigrate
• came for mine stayed for railroad
• few african americans were in Ca racism directed toward chinese

Chinese in Ca cont

• Dennis Kearney formed the labor party
• slogan "the chinese must go!"
• influenced democrats and republicans
• 1879 new Ca state constitution contained anti-chinese provisions
• 1882 chinese exclusion act passed congress(10 year ban)

Mexican borderland communities

• Southwest saw clashes between anglos and mexicans over land
• Some mexican elites continued to maintain wealth and power.

Californios-spanish speaking residents of ca

Barrios concentrated neighborhoods of spanish californios

Western Labor

• The western labor movement emerged in this rough and often violent climate.

• Union refused membership to chinese, mexican, and indian workers.

• Unions were unable stop workers from closing down mines when ore ran out.

  3.1 Pre industrialization

• agrarian society-any society whose economy is based on maintaining crops and farmland

• markets had to be near water.

• transportation was slow

• 1st industrial revolution started simple factories

• steam engines on boats made up-river travel possible. Industrialization

• the rise of big business, and use of factories to mass produce goods for consumption. 6 factors facilitated industrialization

1. natural resources
2. inventions
3. labor supply
4. surplus capital
5. urbanization
6. transportation revolution.

Natural resources

• Timber wisconsin, minnesota
• MS, Al, Ga, Sc , Fl, Nc, Va, Md, De, NJ
• Petroleum
• Pa
• Coal
• Il, Pa, Wv, Ky
• Copper
• Az, Nm
• Iron
• MN, Wi(mesabi range)
• used for steel
• Land westward expansion

Inventions

• Alexander graham bell-1876-Invented the telephone which drastically transformed communication.
• Thomas Alva Edison-1879-invented the light bulb which made the possibility of a longer work day possible.
• transatlantic telegraph cable-Cyrus Field came up with a way to communicate with Europe from the US other than a mail ship.
• Refrigeration-allowed for longer life of food products
• Refrigerated rail cars-allowed for the transport of fresh food products over longer distances(increased markets)
• Skyscrapers(Louis Sullivan), elevator, trolley car,made urbanization possible
• Bessemer process-made steel production cheaper and more efficient
• typewriter, cash register, electric trolley cars.

Labor supply

• labor=workers
• Immigration(push/pull factors) many Europeans came to America because there was no room in Europe, nor was there much employment.

Anti-Immigrant sentiments

• nativism-anti-immigration movement that favored those who descended from immigrants Blamed immigrants for the degradation of the urban government
• Trade unionist hated them for their willingness to work for super low wages and for bringing in dangerous doctrines like socialism and communism

Surplus Capital

• Capital=money available for spending
• discovery of precious metals gold and silver
• availability of capital increased investment.

Urbanization

• process of people moving to largely populated cities. 1820 approz. 5% of the Us population lived in towns or cities. 1900 approx. 20%(1/5 ) of the Us lived in cities with a population of 100,000 or greater.
• concentrated labor
• ethnic distribution
• cities naturally segregated by class and ethnicity.