Westward Expansion: Crash Course US History #24

In which John Green teaches you about the Wild, Wild, West, which as it turns out, wasn't as wild as it seemed in the movies. When we think of the western expansion of the United States in the 19th century, we're conditioned to imagine the loner. The self-reliant, unattached cowpoke roaming the prairie in search of wandering calves, or the half-addled prospector who has broken from reality thanks to the solitude of his single-minded quest for gold dust. While there may be a grain of truth to these classic Hollywood stereotypes, it isn't a very big grain of truth. Many of the pioneers who settled the west were family groups. Many were immigrants. Many were major corporations. The big losers in the westward migration were Native Americans, who were killed or moved onto reservations. Not cool, American pioneers.

Chapters:
Introduction: The Wild, Wild West 00:00
The Western Frontier 0:52
Who Settled in the West? 1:43
Railroads Facilitated Westward Expansion 2:20
Forced Removal of Native Americans 3:22
Indigenous Resistance & The Ghost Dance Movement 4:20
The Dawes Act 5:01
Mystery Document 5:50
American Indian Boarding Schools 7:01
Cowboys 8:04
Ranches Became Family-Run Farms 8:52
Irrigation Projects in the Great Plains 9:51
The Legacy of the Westward Expansion Era 10:49
Credits 12:09

Want to find Crash Course elsewhere on the internet?

[sigbaconater]

Online clases, exam due tonight at 11:59 PM, time is 10:21 PM I have to write two 750 essays about this. Wish me luck!

[hannahl.]

"And it was a lot of beef, if you know what I'm talking about. I'm actually talking about beef." I almost spit out my soup. 

[thNite]

The best US history teacher I had in high school did not shy away from the sadness, moral degradation and mortal consequences of the westward expansion, but neither she nor I nor any history teacher I have yet met were able to drive home the correlations, causes and momenta that related industrialization to westward expansion. Kudos.

[SebastianMuriel]

I would like to thank Crash Course for being helping me get an A in APUSH this semester. I have my final tomorrow and I'm so ready! You guys are awesome!

[aydeflor]

I feel like people completely blow past the channel name "Crash Course." He's not going to discuss every single thing in US History. People are mad because he leaves out important bits of American history that they themselves declare more important than others. I would think it important for him to expand on the Mexicans turned Americans who lived in the West a long time before the country's expansion and their assimilation to the change -- but that's only an opinion! not something turned to true importance to the country's history just because I deem it important. It's also not something that should be brushed aside as unimportant, however understandable why it wouldn't be included in a (what?) crash course! Just enjoy whats given to you for free as a subscriber and stop criticizing. If it bothers you that much, do the work yourself -- make you're own crash course (and I mean that seriously, not as a form of insult).  

[ajk]

"Books for putting on your shelf and pretending to have read..."
Yup, we've all done that XD

[madisonsappia]

I have been watching Crash Course for about 3 years now, and I just realized that this John Green is the same one that wrote Paper Towns, Fault in our Stars, Looking for Alaska etc. I love this man!!!!

[iheartamerica]

I am so glad these crash courses exist. My teacher doesn't help me at all. These help a lot.

[leahb]

"kill the indian, save the man" my apush teacher would constantly quote a "paraphrase" of that when we got on her nerves and instead say "kill the teenager, save the man" 

[kennedygreen-hawkins]

"What’s that? It’s going dry. MY GOD THIS IS A DEPRESSING EPISODE"

[KellyNaylor]

As depressing as this is, I've studied so much about the history of the Indigenous People of North America that I can say it's not really as depressing as the reality... but mostly because it only scratches the surface of the topic.  But thank you, John, for at least shedding more light on the topic than any of the history classes I had from grade school through college.

[crashcourse]

I think it varies depending on the school, the state, etc. There are a lot of teachers out thee doing a great job. Sometimes they run up against problematic textbooks or mandated curricula, and there are all sorts of other issues. -stan

[crashcourse]

Well, I don't think use of Crash Course should be the metric for good teaching. But I'm glad the show is appearing in classrooms! -stan

[Cherry-huxm]

I’m here because the quarantine means no history lessons and I need to pass my exams 😬

[AironExTv]

Good episode.

Makes we want to learn more about that period.

Btw, when I was in school (here in Berlin, Germany), it wasn't up until 12th grade that we learned about the charming horrors of 1933 - 1945 in this country. We were kinda surrounded by history with the Berlin Wall all around us and several divisions of soldiers occupying the city, but the actual history of the first to second world wars was was not taught to us. I learned that from TV documentaries and later books. All pre-web.

[bobdull]

Hey John Green, I know that AP scores have been posted for over a month but I would just like to take a minute to thank you for helping me get a four on my AP US History test. You rock!!

[maceym.]

For those of you who have read the little house books by laura ingalls wilder, I'm pretty sure the ghost dance was the Indian dance in little house on the praire, as it was in the same state as laura was, and is the same time period if i'm not mistaken.

[frodoswaggins]

This was my second correct guessing of the mystery document author.
I highly recommend reading about Hinmatóowyalaht’quit (Chief Joseph) and the Nez Perce war.

[dodgev]

If you use closed captioning/subtitles it says SUCK IT STAN SUCK IT after the mystery document even though he didn't actually say that.

[JohnMark-wh]

“OH GOD. THIS IS A DEPRESSING EPISODE” got me laughing