SSUSH 12: THE STUDENT WILL ANALYZE IMPORTANT
CONSEQUENCES OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL GROWTH.
CONSEQUENCES OF AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL GROWTH.
A. DESCRIBE ELLIS ISLAND, THE CHANGE IN IMMIGRANTS’ ORIGINS TO SOUTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPE AND THE IMPACT OF THIS CHANGE ON URBAN AMERICA.
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B. IDENTIFY THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR
AND SAMUEL GOMPERS. |
C. DESCRIBE THE GROWTH OF THE WESTERN POPULATION AND ITS IMPACT ON NATIVE AMERICANS WITH REFERENCE TO SITTING BULL AND WOUNDED KNEE.
OLD CONFLICT
As eastern regions of the United States became more industrialized after the Civil War, people seeking rural livelihoods moved farther and farther west. In turn, Native Americans had to compete with these newcomers for land. For example, the Sioux signed a treaty with the U.S. government promising “no white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy” Sioux territory in the Dakotas but, when gold was discovered there, the government tried to buy the land from the Sioux, who refused to sell it. The Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, then fought U.S. Army troops, led his people to a brief exile in Canada, and finally agreed to settle on a reservation.
About 10 years later, Sitting Bull’s people became associated with a Sioux religious movement. The Native Americans believed their ceremonies would cleanse the world of evil, including the white man, and restore the Sioux’s lost greatness. Government officials ordered Sitting Bull’s arrest. He died in a brief gun battle.
After Sitting Bull died, several hundred of his people fled to an area of South Dakota called Wounded Knee. U.S. soldiers went there to confiscate weapons from the Sioux. A gun was fired––nobody knows by whom––and U.S soldiers then opened machine-gun fire, killing more than 300 Sioux. This ended the Native Americans’ long conflict against Americans settling Native American lands.
As eastern regions of the United States became more industrialized after the Civil War, people seeking rural livelihoods moved farther and farther west. In turn, Native Americans had to compete with these newcomers for land. For example, the Sioux signed a treaty with the U.S. government promising “no white person or persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy” Sioux territory in the Dakotas but, when gold was discovered there, the government tried to buy the land from the Sioux, who refused to sell it. The Sioux leader, Sitting Bull, then fought U.S. Army troops, led his people to a brief exile in Canada, and finally agreed to settle on a reservation.
About 10 years later, Sitting Bull’s people became associated with a Sioux religious movement. The Native Americans believed their ceremonies would cleanse the world of evil, including the white man, and restore the Sioux’s lost greatness. Government officials ordered Sitting Bull’s arrest. He died in a brief gun battle.
After Sitting Bull died, several hundred of his people fled to an area of South Dakota called Wounded Knee. U.S. soldiers went there to confiscate weapons from the Sioux. A gun was fired––nobody knows by whom––and U.S soldiers then opened machine-gun fire, killing more than 300 Sioux. This ended the Native Americans’ long conflict against Americans settling Native American lands.
D. DESCRIBE THE 1894 PULLMAN STRIKE AS AN EXAMPLE OF INDUSTRIAL UNREST.
PULLMAN STRIKE
During poor economic times in the 1870s and 1890s, violence erupted when employers sought to fire some workers and to lower the wages of those still employed. In 1894, when the Pullman railcar factory near Chicago fired almost half its workforce and cut wages by 25% to 50%, its workers went on strike. Other railway workers refused to switch Pullman cars on or off trains. Rail traffic west of Chicago came to a halt. The Pullman company responded by hiring new workers, but these workers were attacked by strikers when they attempted to go to work. Leaders of the railroad industry convinced the government to declare the situation illegal. President Grover Cleveland sent the U.S. Army to restore peace. Both big business and the U.S. government feared labor unions were a menace to America’s capitalist economy. |