Explaining Success and Failure in Settlement of the Great Plains
Settlement of the Great Plains by homesteaders and ranchers succeeded in some ways and failed in others, so explaining it well means weighing both sides rather than assuming it was simply a success story.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Separate 'success' evidence from 'failure' evidence into two lists before writing: for example, the growth of homesteader numbers under the 1862 Homestead Act on one side, and the high rate of homesteaders who abandoned their claims within a few years on the other.
- Learn specific farming solutions as success evidence: dry farming techniques that conserved scarce soil moisture, windmills that pumped groundwater, and barbed wire, patented by Joseph Glidden in 1874, which let farmers fence land cheaply without timber.
- Learn specific farming problems as failure evidence: drought and unpredictable rainfall, plagues of insects such as grasshoppers, harsh winters, and farming methods brought from wetter eastern states that did not suit the drier Plains climate.
- Learn the collapse of the open range cattle industry as a case study of failure: profits during the boom years encouraged ranchers to overstock the open range, leaving cattle with too little grass and no shelter, so the exceptionally harsh winter of 1886-87 killed huge numbers of cattle and ended the open range system.
- For 'how far' or 'assess' questions on success and failure, always match a success to a named piece of evidence and a failure to a different named piece of evidence, so the answer is balanced rather than one-sided.
- Write a conclusion that gives a genuine judgement, e.g. that settlement succeeded in permanently populating the Plains but failed to give many individual homesteaders and ranchers the secure, prosperous life they had been promised.
Worked example
'Settlement of the Great Plains by homesteaders was mostly a failure.' Assess the extent to which you agree with this statement.
- Plan a point supporting the statement: many homesteaders failed to make a living from their 160 acres, since Plains rainfall was often too low and unpredictable for the farming methods migrants had used further east, and a large proportion abandoned their claims within a few years.
- Plan a counterpoint: however, other homesteaders succeeded by adapting, using dry farming techniques to conserve soil moisture, windmills to pump groundwater, and Joseph Glidden's barbed wire from 1874 to fence their land cheaply, which let many farms survive and expand.
- Plan a further point in favour of 'success': taken as a whole, the Homestead Act of 1862 and the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869 did permanently transform the Plains from an area with few white settlers into a densely farmed and ranched region within a few decades.
- Write a conclusion that weighs the evidence: settlement was a failure for many individual homesteaders who could not adapt in time and lost their claims, but a success in the wider sense that the Plains were permanently and rapidly settled, so 'mostly a failure' understates the significant, if uneven, success of the wider process.
Practice questions
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Q1Name one farming technique homesteaders used to cope with the dry Plains climate.Show answer
Answer: Dry farming, which conserved scarce soil moisture (or using a windmill to pump groundwater).
Q2In what year was barbed wire, associated with Joseph Glidden, first patented for mass production?Show answer
Answer: 1874.
Q3Give one reason why many homesteaders failed and abandoned their claims.Show answer
Answer: For example, drought and unpredictable rainfall, plagues of insects such as grasshoppers, or bringing unsuitable farming methods from wetter eastern states.
Q4What happened to the open range cattle industry during the winter of 1886-87?Show answer
Answer: An exceptionally harsh winter, following years of overstocking the range, killed huge numbers of cattle, which helped bring the open range system to an end.
Q5Give one way in which the Homestead Act of 1862 can be judged a success for settlement of the Plains.Show answer
Answer: It drew large numbers of homesteaders west and, combined with the transcontinental railroad, permanently and rapidly increased settlement of the Great Plains.
Q6What was one underlying cause of the collapse of the open range system, before the winter of 1886-87 itself?Show answer
Answer: Overstocking: ranchers grazed ever larger herds on the open range during the profitable boom years, leaving too little grass and no shelter for cattle when conditions turned harsh.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE History exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
'The main reason for the success of settlement on the Great Plains was new farming technology.' Assess the extent to which you agree with this statement.
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Explain two reasons why the open range cattle industry declined in the 1880s.
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See real GCSE History past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
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