0
Barbed wire was a way to stop other ranchers' livestock from getting mixed up with another rancher's livestock. It also was a way to stop squatters from making a homestead on land that wasn't theirs. There were a few free-range cattle drovers back then that didn't own land but grazed their cattle wherever necessary. Barbed wire prevented that as well, and created a kind of necessary ownership of the land.
Prior to rail roads being built ranchers would have to drive their cattle hundreds of miles to markets like Chicago, Il. The ranchers would allow their cattle to free graze as they traveled and as cattle barons bought up enormous tracts of land the free grazing way of life was slowly choked out.
They could no longer have their cattle on the open range. They had to confine their animals to their properties and find ways to keep them there and graze them there year after year without loosing the land to desertification.
It heralded an end to the open-range cattle industry, and created more friction between open-range ranchers and the sod busters, otherwise known as the farmers because the ranchers wanted the land that the farmers were turning over for crops for cattle grazing. Of course barbed wire wasn't the only thing that affected the cattle industry. Over-grazing, the near-extinction of the very cattle that were herded back east for their meat, the completion and expansion of the railroad and the ever-increasing population of farms, towns and cities in the West had an impact on the cattle industry.
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
What invention made it possible for ranchers to contain their herds?
Barbed Wire.
What problems did ranchers face in the west?
Barbed wire
When did ranchers begin to use barbed wire?
1887
What changed the relationship between ranchers and farmers?
barbed wire
What changed the relationship between cattle ranchers and farmers?
barbed wire
In the 1800s which of these inventions was known to cattle ranchers as thorny fence?
Barbed Wire
Why were ranchers unhappy about the use of barbed wire?
because their livestock would run into it and get hurt and sometimes die
The range war between the farmers and the ranchers were conflicts over use of barbed wire fences?
true
What 1870 invention helped ranchers control their cattle?
Barbed wire, it would kinda sting the cattle if they touched it
What effect do barbed wire have on American history?
Barbed wire caused many problems with the cattle industry in the late 1800's. Before barbed wire, ranchers could take their cattle to watering places freely without conflict. When ranchers decided to put up barbed wire and take away others' rights to the water, their were range wars.
How did barbed wire change the economy?
Barbed wire played an essential role in the territorial expansion. It reduced the cost of enclosing land, and kept cattle contained. Barbed wire led to conflicts between farmers and ranchers when cattlemen began cutting the fences to allow cattle to pass through to find better grazing lands.
What develpoment was the most responsible for eliminating the open range of the western frontier?
The invention of barbed wire and ranchers fencing off open range land.
