America at the Turn of the Century: A Look at the Historical
Context  The National Setting  By 1900 the American nation had
established itself as a world power. The West was won. The
frontier -- the great fact of 300 years of American history --
was no more. The continent was settled from coast to coast.
Apache war chief Geronimo had surrendered in 1886. Defeat of the
Sioux at the battle of Wounded Knee in 1891 had brought the
Indian Wars to a close. By 1900 the Indians were on reservations
and the buffalo were gone. Homesteading and the introduction of
barbed wire in 1874 had brought an end to the open range. The
McCormick reaper had made large-scale farming profitable and, in
1900, the U.S. was by far the world's largest agricultural
producer. The first transcontinental rail link had been
completed in 1869. Three decades later, in 1900, the nation had
193,000 miles of track, with five railroad systems spanning the
continent.  The world's first oil well had been drilled in
Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859.