Book contents
- Purpose and Power
- Purpose and Power
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Abbreviations
- Thinking about Grand Strategy in Peace and War
- Part I From Backwater to Great Power
- 1 The Fight for Sovereignty, 1775–1801
- 2 Expansion, Sovereignty, and War, 1801–1817
- 3 Seeking a Continent: Expansion, Indian Removal, and the Mexican War, 1817–1849
- 4 Schism, Civil War, and Reconstruction, 1849–1877
- 5 Conquering a Continent: The Indian wars, 1865–1897
- 6 American Empire, 1897–1913
- Part II From Great Power to Superpower
- Part III The Post–Cold War World
- Part IV Retreat and Defeat
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Index
5 - Conquering a Continent: The Indian wars, 1865–1897
from Part I - From Backwater to Great Power
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 January 2024
- Purpose and Power
- Purpose and Power
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Abbreviations
- Thinking about Grand Strategy in Peace and War
- Part I From Backwater to Great Power
- 1 The Fight for Sovereignty, 1775–1801
- 2 Expansion, Sovereignty, and War, 1801–1817
- 3 Seeking a Continent: Expansion, Indian Removal, and the Mexican War, 1817–1849
- 4 Schism, Civil War, and Reconstruction, 1849–1877
- 5 Conquering a Continent: The Indian wars, 1865–1897
- 6 American Empire, 1897–1913
- Part II From Great Power to Superpower
- Part III The Post–Cold War World
- Part IV Retreat and Defeat
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Index
Summary
The US completed conquest of the West during a period of rapid industrial and population growth. William Henry Seward launched many peaceful failed expansionist efforts but secured “Seward’s Folly” – Alaska . During Grant’s administration, maintenance of tariffs became an underpinning of the Republican Party. The US fought numerous wars to secure Indian lands and forced them to government reservations. The Red Cloud War was one the US lost. The Indians were better individual soldiers but lacked numbers, organization, logistical support, and secure bases. The US fought Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Cochise, Chief Joseph, and others. And lost the Battle of Little Bighorn during the Great Sioux War, where George Armstrong Custer was killed. The US fought the Nez Perce, Comanche, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Apache, Mescalero, Navajo, Bannocks, Shoshone, Northern Paiutes, Arapaho, Crow, Modoc, Klamath, Utes, and others. By 1890, the conquest of the West was complete, and America dominated the continent. Meanwhile, the administrations of Rutherford B. Hayes, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison oversaw America’s rise to economic preeminence, the Gilded Age, construction of a modern navy, and increased American involvement abroad, particularly in Latin America. Alfred Thayer Mahan authored The Influence of Sea Power upon History.
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- Purpose and PowerUS Grand Strategy from the Revolutionary Era to the Present, pp. 156 - 190Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024