Figure 22. Old Faithful Geyser is a natural wonder anchoring the world’s first National Park. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
1869 U.S. Transcontinental Railroad Completed Railroads possess an iconic status in American history and symbolize the inventiveness of capitalism. Their owners and workers met and conquered enormous challenges, vastly expanding national and international markets. Yet any depiction of the railroads’ contributions must be balanced against one that includes political corruption, financial exploitation, and huge government subsidies. The first transcontinental railroad, symbolic of the railroad age, was built between 1863 and 1869 by the Central Pacific Railroad of California and the Union Pacific Railroad, with headquarters in Nebraska. This huge endeavor, largely constructed by Chinese and Irish laborers, linked the existing railway networks of the East with the Pacific coast. Popularly referred to as “the Overland Route,” the project was generously supported by government bonds and land grants. Its completion was celebrated by the pounding of a golden spike at Promontory Point, Utah, in May 1869. SEE FIGURE 21A & B 1871 Germany Becomes a Nation State; France Becomes a Republic Until 1871 there was no “Germany.” There were, however, many German-speaking principalities within a decentralized central European empire and later within a customs union. During the 18th and 19th centuries Prussia and its rival Austria became the most powerful states within this area, and the eventual unification of Germany resulted from Prussian expansionism. Under Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, Prussia defeated Austria in 1866 and France in 1870, using these wars to nationalize and justify the formation of a German Empire in 1871. In France, meanwhile, the collapse of the imperial regime of Napoleon III in the Franco-Prussian War led the National Assembly to seek restoration of a constitutional monarchy. Yet, because of divisions among the monarchists, a “temporary” republic was established. The Third French Republic survived until Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940, making it the longest-lasting government in France since the collapse of the Ancien Regime in 1789.
1872 Yellowstone, the World’s First National Park
In the years following the Civil War, efforts to protect and conserve the nation’s scenic areas received a valuable boost from the widespread expansion of railroad networks and the invention of Pullman sleeping cars. In the early 1870s a University of Pennsylvania geologist, Ferdinand Hayden, founder of the United States Geological Survey, conducted a scientific study of the Yellowstone region’s natural geysers, hot springs and other wonders that generated substantial public interest. Soon Jay Cooke, owner of the Northern Pacific Railroad and mindful of the profits that could be generated from tourist traffic, proposed that Congress declare Yellowstone, located on federal territory in the Rocky Mountains, “a public park forever.” In March 1872 Congress designated more than two million acres, mostly in Wyoming, as Yellowstone National Park, and the bill was immediately signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant. It was the first area in the world designated as a
Figure 21A & B. The completion of the transcontinental railroad was commemorated when the last rail was secured by driving in a golden spike. Image courtesy of Andrew Joseph Russell.
national park. SEE FIGURE 22
1876 Irvine Ranch Created From Mexican Ranchos
The Spanish mission system in California came to an end during the decades following the birth of the Mexican Republic in 1821. This historic transition involved a process of “secularization” by which missions were converted into parish churches. It also witnessed the “emancipation” of Native American neophytes from close supervision by the mission’s friars. These two developments made possible the emergence of private ranchos which eventually covered most of southern California. After the United States
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