 | American History: A Survey 10/e Alan Brinkley | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online Learning Center |  | |||||
| American History: A Survey 10/e Alan Brinkley | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online Learning Center | | |||||
Summary
Far from being empty and unknown, significant parts of what would become the western United States were populated by Indians and Mexicans long before the post-Civil War boom in Anglo-European settlement. Even after the waves of white occupation and in the face of significant prejudice from those whites, large numbers of Mexicans and Asian Americans continued to live in the West and shape the region’s culture.
White settlement developed in initial boom-and-bust patterns in the three industries that would do much to shape the region in the long run: mining, ranching, and commercial agriculture. Asians, Mexicans, and African Americans provided much of the labor force for these industries.
In the late nineteenth century, the South and West were underdeveloped regions with an almost colonial relationship to the industrial, heavily populated Northeast and Midwest. Except for a few pockets in the Far West, by 1860 the frontier line of agricultural settlement stopped at the eastern edge of the Great Plains. Hostile Plains Indians and an unfamiliar environment combined to discourage advance. By the end of the century, the Indian barrier to white settlement had been removed, cattle ranchers and miners had spearheaded development, and railroads had brought farmers, who, despite nagging difficulties, had made significant adaptations to the Great Plains.
MHHE Home | About MHHE | Help Desk | Legal Policies and Info | Order Info | What's New | Get Involved
