Migration

• Push factors for people using the Oregon trail

  (1) There was a wave of immigration from Germany and Ireland ——> causing land in the east to be scarce

  (2) Panic of 1837 caused banks to collapse and people moved
• Pull factors for people using the Oregon trail

  (1) Manifest destiny ideology

  (2) The Great migration ——> 100 wagons departed from Missouri to Oregon

  (3) 1841 Fremont expedition mapped the route ——> people began to trust it more

  (4) California gold rush 1849 ——> 400,000 people migrated
• Descriptors of the Oregon trail

  (1) 2000 miles and took about 6 months

  (2) disease was the biggest factor
• consequences for the migration to Oregon

  (1) Provided main routes for migrants to follow ——> From 1836-69 400,000 people used it, due to the California Gold Rush

  (2) Journey was extremely dangerous ——> diseases like cholera and dysentery and weather was dangerous [for example the Donner party in 1846 meant only 48/80 survived]
• Story of the Donner Party

  They set off late with little resources

  They added some more members and began infighting

  They took Hastings cutoff and added 125 miles to the route

  They got trapped in the Sierra Nevada in winter and began to eat each other
• How many of the Donner Party survived

  48 out of 80
• First Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851) story

  (1) In the california gold rush migrants began to kill all the buffalo causing the plains Indians to starve (increased intertribal conflict)

  (2) Treaty was made to stop all the tribes fighting (some tribes such as Pawnee didn’t attend as they thought they’d be killed) ——> 10,000 did attend

  (3) Government offered $50,000 worth of supplies for 50 years ——> increased Indian dependence on Gov

  (4) Plains Indians had to allow forts to be built

  
  

  Conquering Bear led the Sioux
• What caused the first fort Laramie treaty to be dissolved

  The Grattan Affair
• What was the Grattan Affair

  1854 a calf strayed from the path, native Americans shot the calf thinking it was wild, led to conflict between U.S army
• Consequences of the fort Laramie treaty

  1. Increased intertribal conflict ——> treaty divided up the land, including the black hills, some tribes didn’t show
  2. Increased dependence on the gov ——> $50,000 per year for 50 years, after Grattan affair they removed the yearly allowance, plains Indians struggled
• When was the homestead act

  1862
• Requirements for a homestead

  21 years of age

  Us citizen

  not an enemy during civil war

  $10 fee

  ’prove’ the claim (farm for 5 years with results)
• How many acres per homestead

  160, 10% of all America given away
• New inventions due to the homestead

  Barbed wire and water mills
• percentage of people who had successful homesteads

  40%
• Consequences of the homestead act

  (1) Growth of the plains was encouraged ——> it was easy to get a homestead, with over 2 million doing so successfully, wasn’t limited to race = exodusters

  (2) Development of the land ——> new equipment was used, such as water mills and farming tools. E.g. Nebraska’s population quadrupled and became a state in 1867
• When did the Donner Party leave

  May 1846
• When was the first treaty of fort Laramie

  1851
• When was Little Crows War

  1862