H1: Kaiser Wilhelm and Germany

📋 Key Concepts

Origins: longhorns worth $4 in Texas, $40 in the North; Joseph McCoy’s Abilene (1867) = railhead + stockyards; the Chisholm Trail (1,500–3,000 head, 8–12 cowboys, ~15 miles/day). Cowboys: ~25% black or Mexican; ~$25–30/month; romanticised by dime novels. End: overstocking, the Terrible Winter 1886–87 (Big Die-Up), barbed wire closing trails, railroads reaching Texas — open range dead by 1890 (Johnson County War 1892 as the violent aftermath).

🧮 Worked Examples — Exam Style

❓ Practice Questions

✅ Answers

1. McCoy’s Abilene 1867 · Chisholm Trail · drives 1866–85.
2. Cowboys: 8–12 per drive, ~$25–30/month, ~25% black or Mexican.
3. Big Die-Up: winter 1886–87 (up to 90% losses on some ranges).
4. Barbed wire 1874 → fenced ranges → fence-cutting wars (Johnson County War 1892).

📌 Key Facts to Memorise

• Homestead Act 1862: 160 acres, 5 years; railroad 1869; barbed wire 1874.
• Exodusters 1879; locust plagues 1874-75; Panic of 1873.
• Solutions: windmills, dry farming, Turkey Red wheat, sod houses.

🗺️ In the Exam

Cowboy questions: contrast MYTH (dime novels, independence) with REALITY (wage labour, bilingual crews, short careers). The 1886–87 winter is your natural factor — most candidates forget non-human causes.

⚡ Targeted Drills

• McCoy 1867 Abilene; $4 Texas / $40 northern head.
• Drive: 3–4 months, 10–15 miles/day, ~1,500–3,000 head, 8–12 crew.
• Dodge City 1872–85; Bat Masterson/Wyatt Earp as marshals.
• Big Die-Up 1886–87: up to 90% losses; overstocking + drought + blizzard.
• After 1890: fenced ranches, hay, purebreds — and the Johnson County War (1892).

📖 Detailed Notes: The Drive, Season by Season

• Spring round-up: cowboys from neighbouring ranches swept the range, branding calves; herds assembled at trailheads (Seymour, Texas). The drive: 3–4 months to Abilene/Dodge; two men per 250 head; night shifts singing to calm stampedes; rivers (Red, Arkansas) the danger points; storm and stampede losses ~3–5%. Sale and return: paid off at the railhead; gambling, whiskey, the legendary (short) visit to town; back to Texas with wages.
• Cow towns: Abilene (1867–71), Ellsworth, Wichita, Dodge City (1872–85) — mayors and marshals (Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp) imposed ordinance zones (gun-free north side). Ranching move north: open-range empires (the XIT, the Swan) with line camps and romantic-sounding brands.
• The collapse: overstocking (2m head on the range by 1885), the drought of 1886 and the Big Die-Up (1886–87) — cattle frozen/starved in blizzards; absentee investors ruined (the Edinburgh-backed Swan lost everything). Aftermath: hay farms, fenced pastures, winter feed, purebred breeding — the rancher replaced the drover.

⚠️ Common Errors

• Wrong: All cowboys were white and heroic Correct: ~25% were black or Mexican; the work was dirty, seasonal wage labour
• Wrong: Barbed wire was invented for ranchers Correct: It was a farm tool ranchers adopted — then fought trail drivers over

🧭 Board Focus — AQA

✍️ Extended Answer Plan — "The open range ended because of natural causes, not human ones." How far do you agree? (16 + 4)

NATURAL: the Big Die-Up (1886–87) killed up to 90% of some herds; the 1886 drought starved overstocked ranges.

HUMAN: overstocking itself (2m head); barbed wire (1874) cut trails; homesteaders ploughed the range; railroads reached Texas making drives pointless; Johnson County War (1892) = ranchers’ last stand against homesteaders.

Judgement: the winter was the TRIGGER, but human overstocking (greed) made herds fragile and fences made the range unnatural. Conclude: nature rang the bell on a system humans had already broken.

🔬 Case Study Focus — Dodge City: Law, Order and the Myth Machine

Dodge City (1872–85) was the Queen of the Cow Towns: 5,000 people at peak, the Santa Fe Railroad, 15 saloons and 19 licensed brothels in its heyday. Marshals Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp enforced an ordinance DISARMING visitors north of the railroad tracks — the famous OK-Corral-style violence was rare: Dodge recorded ~15 killings in 15 years, mostly in the south-side brothel district. The myth (dime novels, later Hollywood) outgrew the reality; exam use: Dodge answers "law and order" questions with the paradox that the frontier’s wildest town was tamed by ORDINANCES, not gunfights — and the cattle trade funded the civilisation that ended it.

🎯 Exam Tips

• Abilene 1867 + Big Die-Up 1886–87 = the industry’s bookends.
• Use 'open range' vs 'fenced ranch' as your change-over-time frame.

🧠 Flashcards (Spaced Repetition)

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🎯 Target Tests (Auto-Graded)

🎓 Smart Lesson (Guided)