9781422285978

Native American Wars on the Western Frontier, 1866-1890

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An 1800 census showed the U.S. population to be 5.3 million people. The census of 1850 recorded 23.2 million people, a substantial surge in population. These people needed places to live, and because many Americans made their living as farmers during the nineteenth century, they needed large areas of land where they could tend crops and livestock. Such land was not available in the eastern states, which had been settled during the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries. But in the West, there were large tracts of land that were only inhabited by a few people—the Native Americans. During the first half of the nineteenth century, the United States acquired territory from foreign powers. The 1803 Louisiana Purchase added 530

James K. Polk wanted to expand the United States across the North American continent.

million acres (210 million ha) to the United States. The U.S. acquired the right to Florida and the Gulf coast from Spain in 1819. The independent country of Texas was annexed by the United States in 1845. After the Mexican War in 1846–1848, the United States secured additional territo- ry in the southwest, including all or part of the present-day states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. President James K. Polk, who waged the Mexican War, believed in the idea of “manifest destiny,” which was shared by many Americans at the time. This was a belief that Americans were destined to control all the

WORDS TO UNDERSTAND IN THIS CHAPTER

homestead— a place where someone lives. In the West, a white settler who claimed an area of land, built a home, and farmed it for five years was given the land at no charge by the federal government.

ratify— to give formal consent to a treaty or agreement. treaty— an agreement between two or more parties.