How Barbed Wire Shaped the West and the World
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The History of Barbed Wire
As barbed wire was deployed across the American West, it radically changed the landscape. In 1885, as many as 75% of the cattle in the Great Plains died due to being unable to move around the long stretch of barbed wire fences. The Fence Cutting Wars were an attempt by smaller ranchers to keep an open range by destroying barbed wire fencing. Many historians actually considered the spread of barbedwire as being the end of the Old West. It prevented nomadic migrations that they had been used to for millennia.
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