Expansion vs. Preservation
William Sonntag was acclaimed in the 1850s as a painter of the dramatic landscape. In his painting “Garden of the Gods,” Sonntag portrays a family in the time of the westward expansion. The very subtle painting, expressed by its loose brushwork, captures the shifting atmospheric contrasts of light and dark. Apparent in the painting is a family struggling to survive in nature. In the bottom left corner of the painting is a weather beaten shack, the home of the struggling family. This painting brings out the “live of the land” mentality, but it also incorporates the idea of expansion. When you think about life today, do we really need to expand? Does all this technology really make our lives better? Certainly, Ted Kazinski (aka “The Unabomber”) doesn’t think so. The well known advocate for a revolution against the Industrial system, the Unabomber believes the technological era will be a disaster to the human race. William Sonntag’s “Garden of the Gods” symbolizes expansion, as opposed to the Unabomber’s belief of preserving ones current way of life .
The Unabomber’s ideal society would be that of life in the nineteenth century. It would be characteristic of life without TV’s to brainwash us with, no scientists and engineers to try to simplify our lives, and no cars to pollute our mother earth with. It all comes together in what we see in the “Garden of the Gods,” hunting for food to feed your loving family, living in a shack made by ones own god given hands, and entertaining each other by storytelling in front of a campfire. Depicted in this painting is a luminous reflection of the sun on what seems to be rock formation in the background. This symbolizes gods intervention into human life, and the spiritual livelihood that is inherent in all of us. It is the heavens that helps us to overcome our everyday obstacles. Conquering new ground wasn’t an easy task for many expansionists, confiding in god is what brought many of these settlers to overcome their fears and hindrances.
Even though there are similarities between these two pieces, they still have one monumental difference.
Expansion is what brings us to new levels. For many of these settlers, land wasn’t a necessity; they believed they were destined for more land.
Expansion of a nation was nothing new in terms of history. The fighting, buying and selling of land in North America was a common event during the 1800s. The United States had started expanding in 1803 with President Thomas Jefferson’s purchase of the Louisiana Territory whose borders where not clearly defined. After the War of 1812 with the British, the northern border of this territory was defined at the 49th parallel. Then in 1819, Spain sold its claim to Florida to the United States. The United States wanted to continue to expand itself westward to the Pacific Ocean, a territory then owned by Mexico. The acquirement of this territory occurred after the Mexican War. How the territory was acquired by the United States is the topic in question.
The availability of inexpensive land in the American West provided opportunity for many Americans to fulfill the American dream of individualism, economic opportunity and personal freedom. Immigrants, former slaves and other settlers moved across the country to become western farmers and ranchers to make a new life. One of the reasons why the west was a land of opportunity for the farmers and ranchers was the large quantity of cheap available land. This allowed for many Americans, both rich and poor, to buy land for farming and raising cattle. The Homestead Act of 1862 aided the process. The Homestead Act gave title to 160 acres of federal land to farmers who staked a claim and lived on the land for five years. Alternatively, a farmer could buy the land after six months for $1.25 an acre. Many blacks and immigrants joined the westward expansion, looking for a better life. Immigrants saw the land as opportunity because many could not own land in the countries where they were born. For example, in Nebraska, a fourth of the population was foreign born. These immigrants transformed...
“Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge.”
Natural resourses was the main reason why there was a westward expansion in the first place.
The colonists who first arrived in America came to this land because they saw an opportunity to regenerate their religion and to live according to it without subjugation. The immense size of the land sugge...
There were many obstacles that the Americans faced when expanding westward. The first and foremost among those was the fact that they had to somehow obtain the land from the people already living there. This involved dealing, or fighting, with several different groups of people. We had to fight against Spanish Mexico in the Mexican-American War, which involved the deaths of 13,000 American...
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami took place on December 26th, 2004 and had a magnitude of 9.15. The cause of the Sumatra Tsunami was due to the sliding of two tectonic plates. Sumatra, an island in Indonesia, is situated on the boundary of the two plates; part of Sumatra is situated on the India/Australian plate and the other part is on the Eurasian plate. The Indian/Australian plate and Eurasian plate connect on the ocean floor at the boundary, a little over 100 miles off the short of Sumatra. Sumatra was one among the many countries that was impacted by these natural disasters. To fully understand the Sumatra Tsunami one must examine the events that led up to it, what a tsunami is, and the damage caused.
The major American aspiration during the 1790s through the 1860s was westward expansion. Americans looked to the western lands as an opportunity for large amounts of free land, for growth of industry, and manifest destiny. This hunger for more wealth and property, led Americans conquer lands that were rightfully someone else's. Manifest destiny and westward expansion brought many problematic issues to the Unites States verses the Indians that took the Americans to the Civil War.
Out of all the natural disasters that we talk about in class, the most deadly would have to be a Tsunami. Compared to earthquakes, Tsunamis have cause more deaths since 1945. A Tsunami is likely to strike anywhere on the west coast, including Santa Cruz in California – United States – North America – 36:58:24N 122:02:09W. A Tsunami is a giant “wave” of water that is caused by a sudden shift in the sea floor. The wave is a result of the water attempting to regain its equilibrium, which is driven by gravity. The size of the wave is determined by how much the sea floor is moved vertically, and how quickly it shifts. A greater water depth helps as well. They can travel up to five hundred miles an hour and have wave heights of one hundred feet. Earthquakes are the leading cause of Tsunamis. People who live in California are well aware of earthquakes that are frequently caused by the San Andreas Fault. However, not many are aware of the results of earthquakes that occur out in the Pacific Ocean. Tsunamis have also been referred to in the past as seismic sea waves, but Earthquakes aren’t the only cause of this phenomenon. Landslides, nuclear explosions, volcanic eruptions, and extra terrestrial impacts also have great water displacement results.
Throughout history, the United States had come off as a stubborn nation that would take what they wanted at any cost. This was prevalent in both cases of expansion as the Americans risked war and national safety for the sake of gaining land, or even merely for proving a point. During the early years of expansion, the Americans had pushed aside the Native Americans and whoever else inhabited the land they wanted. They believed that the land was rightfully theirs and that everyone else was merely squatting on their territory. This idea continued into the early twentieth century as the Americans looked to the oceans for new territories to their kingdom.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky, follows a socially awkward 15 year old boy named Charlie as he breaks from his cocoon and soars higher than could have ever been anticipated. The coming of age novel became Stephen Chbosky’s gem, selling seven hundred thousand copies early on in the books journey. Wallflower may be his only novel written to date, but Stephen has contributed to film as well, with works such as the screenplay for his own novel and creator of the television series Jericho. The story surrounds protagonist Charlie through his letters written to only who is described as “friend”. Patrick, a happy go lucky guy with an eternal smile. One of Charlie’s best and only friends, the pair find themselves in situations even an adult might find challenging. Lastly, there is Sam. Wonderful, sweet, caring Sam. Charlie was smitten from the moment he laid eyes on her. Sam is a huge supporter in breaking Charlie free of his shyness and encourages him to really live life without being worrisome. The novel follows Charlie as he faces new experiences, good and bad. Experiences along the lines of first love, drugs and alcohol, suicide and facing difficulties of adulthood and coming of age. Charlie is a Wallflower, but eventually will fully bloom.
As the United States grew in power, so did her ideas of expansion. The foreign powers were beginning to move out of their continents and seek land in other countries. The United States soon followed. They followed in their founder’s footsteps and tried to occupy lands in the far seas. However, in the beginning, this need for more land was called Manifest Destiny. This idea claimed that God was forcing them to occupy the new western lands. The expansionism that occurred in the late 1800’s was not a result of Manifest Destiny, and thus this "new" idea of expansionism was different from the expansionism ideas of early America. For the most part, the United States’ need for more land was primarily to keep other nations (mainly European powers) out of the western hemisphere. However the United States began to see reason behind change towards the "new" expansionistic ideas.
This Grievance is stated, “He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.” (Jefferson,1776). Expansion was a big deal especially later on in the American history through the idea of Manifest Destiny. Just a few years after America became a country the government started encouraging the expansion westward through land lotteries, home steading and the idea of manifest destiny which is the idea that God wants the country to expand.
When the shape of America first started to grow from just land to the 13 colonies to the westward expansion of our country in less than a century, it sure feels like hopes and dreams came true. Though it might have seemed like an easier task, it took luck, labor, and intense warfare. The long process of American territorial expansion was justified by a mid-century ideology known as Manifest Destiny (pg 1). The one people we seem to forget about when we discuss the growing settlement of our country are the Native Americans. They had inhabited the country long before Columbus had discovered America, and still play an important part in today’s society. Manifest Destiny justified the displacement and domestication of Native Americans all while
into the flow of settlers, and it was considered a wise move to have the