Stretching nearly 1,200 miles, the Santa Fe Trail was a monumental and influential trading route that spread from Franklin, Missouri, across the Great Plains to the mountainous town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. It opened up a gateway to the west for many traders who hoped to make a living by selling their goods to the previously isolated areas of the current American Southwest. Some of the most profound impacts that the Santa Fe Trail had on the history of New Mexico include the exposure of New Mexican’s to the goods and economy of the United States, the trail’s strategic military location, and the conflicts that arose due to a difference in ideals and culture between the travelers of the trail and Native Americans. When William Becknell, …show more content…
During the Mexican American War, the route was vital to the United State’s capture of New Mexico and the later capture of further west lands such as California. The route was used by U.S. General Stephen Kearny to lead his troops into New Mexico. It was a relatively quick and easy route (compared to others at the time) and allowed for his troops to quickly enter Santa Fe and peacefully capture New Mexico. The route itself even contributed to the capture of New Mexico without hostility. Since the route had already been in use for several years before war broke out, many New Mexicans relied on it for their everyday goods and felt like they were more a part of the United States rather than Mexico. Even after New Mexico had been taken under American control, the Santa Fe Trail still proved to be a vital trading route during the rest of the war and helped the Unites States become the victors. Since there was not a surplus of goods and food made by native New Mexicans, when soldiers were passing/stationed in New Mexico, many goods had to be imported over the trail from places such as Missouri. Even though it was not the easiest or safest way of transport by today’s standards, the trail’s military use helped commerce and the economy boom in towns and villages that were situated beside …show more content…
The idea of Manifest Destiny was fresh in the minds of many Americans and politicians, and they wanted the United States to continue its expansion westward. In the early days of the trail, only daring and courageous traders crossed the Great Plains to Santa Fe, and their Native American encounters remained fairly peaceful, but after several years of use, large shipping businesses started to set up trading operations along the trail. This meant an even larger amount of newcomers to New Mexico and the surrounding lands. For many Native Americans living beside the trail, the added amount of newcomers was seen as a threat to their very livelihoods. As traders crossed the Native Americans’ lands, they often hunted and killed bison and other game that the Indians depended on for their food source. Later, as traders started buying large amounts of mules and other draught animals and transporting them back east to the United States, many Indians attacked the wagon parties and stole their goods and animals. Sometimes, the Indians would even kill members of the wagon party in their surprise attacks. In retaliation, some traders killed presumably innocent Native Americans that they encountered. With tensions still rising, military troops started the escort wagons crossing
Farmers began to cultivate vast areas of needed crops such as wheat, cotton, and even corn. Document D shows a picture of The Wheat Harvest in 1880, with men on earlier tractors and over 20-30 horses pulling the tractor along the long and wide fields of wheat. As farmers started to accumilate their goods, they needed to be able to transfer the goods across states, maybe from Illinios to Kansas, or Cheyenne to Ohmaha. Some farmers chose to use cattle trails to transport their goods. Document B demonstrates a good mapping of the major railroads in 1870 and 1890. Although cattle trails weren't used in 1890, this document shows the existent of several cattle trails leading into Chyenne, San Antonio, Kansas City and other towns nearby the named ones in 1870. So, farmers began to transport their goods by railroads, which were publically used in Germany by 1550 and migrated to the United States with the help of Colonel John Stevens in 1826. In 1890, railroads expanded not only from California, Nebraska, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada, but up along to Washington, Montana, Michigan, down to New Mexico and Arizona as well. Eastern States such as New Jersey, Tennesse, Virginia and many others were filled with existing railroads prior to 1870, as Colonel John Stevens started out his railroad revolutionzing movement in New Jersey in 1815.
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
The transcontinental railroad was a 1,800 mile railroad linking Omaha, Missouri with Sacramento, California. This railroad was built through varying environmental conditions including grassy plains, desserts, and mountains such as the Sierra. The railroad revolutionized transportation in the nineteenth century (Galloway 4). The First Transcontinental Railroad was built in the 1860s in order to connect the Eastern and Western coasts of the United States. In the book The Railroads, statistical data describes that “In 1830, 23 miles of railroad track were being operated in the United States; by 1890 that figure had grown to 166,703 miles, as cities and villages were linked across the lan...
The continuing damage produced by the Apaches and the failure of the civil power to mount a determined response caused the leaving of many smaller, distant settlements. Population was determined in central communities such as Tucson and Nogales. Moreover, continued civil unrest in central Mexico and the failure of the central government to establish effective running in the region resulted in the isolation of the southern Arizona population. Finally, these issues caused a shift in the economic connections of people living on the border, and they united with the expanding interests of the United States. With the opening of the Santa Fe Trail by Americans in 1821, the southwestern region became closer to the overland and sea directions that supplied communities along the Mississippi River as well as the western area of the United States.
In the 1830's the Plains Indians were sent to the Great American Deserts in the west because the white men did not think they deserved the land. Afterwards, they were able to live peacefully, and to follow their traditions and customs, but when the white men found out the land they were on was still good for agricultural, or even for railroad land they took it back. Thus, the white man movement westward quickly began. This prospect to expand westward caused the government to become thoroughly involved in the lives of the Plains Indians. These intrusions by the white men had caused spoilage of the Plains Indians buffalo hunting styles, damaged their social and cultural lives, and hurt their overall lives.
Of the birds of Arizona, the cactus wren is likely to be the most well known, as it is the state bird. The cactus wren is a very vocal bird with the white eye stripes behind each of it’s eyes. Its breast is heavily flecked with dark brown and black, whilst its tail feathers alternate between black, brown and white. Its beak also has a faint curve to it. The cactus wren makes its home in a variety of desert environments, most commonly in the foothills with all manner of scrub such as yucca, mesquite, and its namesake, cactus. One of the most numerous birds of the city is quail who tend to live in washes and bushes as they are often too heavily weighted to fly far off the ground or for long distances. The Northern mockingbird also
"The Santa Fe Trail Lives On!" Welcome to SFTNet, the latest manifestation of the Santa Fe Trail saga. This service is designed for trail buffs, students, researchers, travelers on the trail--in short, anyone with an interest in historic or contemporary developments along the Santa Fe Trail. What Is The Santa Fe Trail? As many who read this introduction will know, the Santa Fe Trail is an ancient land route of communication between the desert Southwest of what is now the United States and the prairies and plains of central North America. In the Southwest it was also part of a longer route that ran down the Rio Grande into what is now northern Mexico. American Indian peoples used the route to trade the agricultural produce of the Rio Grande Valley and the bounty of the plains, such as jerked buffalo meat and buffalo hides. When the Spanish conquistador Onate came to New Mexico in 1598, he and his soldiers followed this ancient route as they explored the plains and traded with the peoples there. During the next two centuries the Spanish gained an intimate knowledge of the plains and the routes between the Mississippi-Missouri river systems and the Southwest. Then, in 1821, a trader from Missouri, William Becknell, came to Santa Fe along what was to become known as the historical route of the Santa Fe Trail. He opened the Santa Fe Trail as a commercial route between what was then ...
Railroads first appeared around the 1830’s, and helped the ideas of Manifest Destiny and Westward expansion; however, these were weak and didn’t connect as far as people needed, thus causing them to be forced to take more dangerous routes. On January 17th, 1848, a proposal was sent to Congress by Asa Whitney to approve and provide federal funding...
Before the Gold rush, the United States was at war with Mexico over territory. If it had not been for the Treaty of Guadalupe in 1848 the United States might have turned out differently than it currently is today. The Treaty of Guadalupe was signed on February 2, 1848 and ended the Mexican-American war. Mexico transferred nearly half of their land to the U.S. (Rohrbough 12). Some Americans felt it was part of Manifest Destiny, especially by believer President James Polk (Smith, Orsi, and Rawls 26). The Treaty of Guadalupe guaranteed that any Mexican citizen in California who did not want to continue their allegiance to Mexico would within a year be granted the automatic “title and rights of citizens...
The acquisition of these additional lands brought with it the difficulty of overland travel for trade and national defense. An efficient means of cross country transportation became more imperative, particularly if the U.S. wanted to hold on to the lands it had recentl...
Martinez, Oscar J. U.S.-Mexico Borderlands: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1996 (pp. 139-141).
The transcontinental railroad would eventually become a symbol of much-needed unity, repairing the sectionalism that had once divided the nation during the Civil War. The construction of the transcontinental railroad was also an extension of the transportation revolution. Once commodities such as gold were found in the western half of America, many individuals decided to move themselves and their families out west in search of opportunity. Not only did the railroad help to transport people, but it also it allowed for goods to be delivered from companies in the east. In the end, the American transcontinental railroad created a national market, enabling mass production, and stimulated industry, while greatly impacting American society through stimulated immigration and urbanization.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
The Transcontinental railroad could be defined as the most monumental change in America in the 19th century. The railroad played a significant role in westward expansion and on the growth and development of the American economy (Gillon p.653). However, the construction of the transcontinental railroad may not have occurred if not for the generous support of the federal government. The federal government provided land grants and financial subsidies to railroad companies to ensure the construction. The transcontinental railroad contributed to the formation of industry and the market economy in America and forever altered the American lifestyle.
Newly elected President James Polk, a strong advocate for American expansion, dispatched John Slidell to Mexico to negotiate a deal for the New Mexico and California territories and to seek Mexican recognition of the Rio Grande River as the new Mexican-American border. It was important for the United States to establish its border ...