Why Were There Many Problems of Law and Order in the Mining Towns in the Far West in the 1850’s and 1860’s?

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There were many problems in the west of the USA in the 1850’s and 1860’s for many reasons which I shall go on to explain later in this essay, but first of all I’d like to give you a little bit of background of what the background of these ‘criminals’ in the West was. These were men, most with wives and children, who were trying to provide for not only themselves but for others for whom they care dearly, and because it was becoming so difficult for them to find these prosperous wonders they were promised it also became easier for them to want to forget the problems they’d left at home, for many these were financial problems. So is it really any wonder that the West become a lawless place to be in the 1850’s and 1860’s. What with the abandonment of the government and the desperation to drown out any problems they may have left their families to deal with, so prostitutes were turned to, and the influence of alcohol made the West a very dangerous place to be in the 1850’s and 60’s. The first point I shall expand on is the lack of government and the role this played in the lawlessness which was developing in the West. The first one which I shall talk about is the distance which they were at from the government. Until this point people had mostly inhabited the east coast of America so that was where the government were based. This meant that when miners started to inhabit the south west coast of America they were quite distanced from the American government, which in turn meant that the miners who were living in and around California thought that the national law didn’t apply to them. This led to the introduction of their own rules, many undocumented, which inevitably led to anarchy in the West where newcomers were finding it more difficult, as time went on, to adjust to this life in the West leaving gangs of miners who fought against each other on drunken nights,

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