Final answer:
Successful settlers in the 1800s had to be skilled in raising crops in difficult conditions and adapting to a new social and environmental landscape, including building suitable homes and interacting with Native Americans.
Step-by-step explanation:
To be successful as settlers in the 1800s, people had to face numerous challenges and execute certain crucial tasks. Two things they had to do were:
- Raise crops to have enough food, which meant they needed to become adept at farming in often harsh and inhospitable environments. This required learning how to cultivate the arid lands of the Great Plains using dry-farming techniques and, when possible, employing new technologies like windmill technology for irrigation, despite the accompanying financial burden.
- Adapt to a new social and environmental reality, which could include working alongside people from many different backgrounds and cultures, and living in proximity to Native Americans—engaging in trade, conflict resolution, and sometimes facing the dire consequences of such interactions. Settlers also adapted structurally, building homes out of available materials, such as constructing dugout homes on the treeless plains.