During much of the 1800s, America grew in size and population, and Americans began to develop their own identity as a group of people and as a country. This Westward Expansion is known as a “romantic” time in American history, with larger-than-life figures, explorers, trappers, and others who traveled west and triumphed over both the elements of nature and the Native people. These explorers and travelers felt as though they were bringing “civilization” into an “untamed” land (Hollitz, 173). America provided many new experiences for the Europeans, including unfamiliar weather, new geographic features such as mountains and deserts, and the Native people. The further west into the United States territory that the settlers explored, the more …show more content…
experiences they had with the unknown, such as harsh winters, hot summers, and mountains.
President Hoover spoke about the west saying, “American individualism has received much of its character from our contacts with the forces of nature on a new continent” (Hollitz, 174). In the 1820s, more Americans started to move westward, despite the many hardships they would face along their journey and in their new environment. In his essay, “View of the Valley of the Mississippi,” part of a 1832 guidebook for western immigrants and travelers, Robert Baird declared that “the population of the West must have peculiarities of character created by the peculiar circumstances of the new world.” The three characteristics he mentioned were, specifically: A spirit of adventurous enterprise, independence of thought and action, and an apparent roughness (rudeness of manners). He felt that these traits were commonalities shared by the first explorers of the west, such as the fur trappers and others, including farmers, miners, and railroad workers (Hollitz, …show more content…
187-188). Thomas Jefferson’s 1803 Louisiana Purchase made the westward expansion possible for the colonists in America. When the War of 1812 concluded in 1815, the nation became free from serious foreign threats to its independence and way of life (Divine 290). Peace with Great Britain allowed the American colonists to focus on exploring and settling the vast lands of western North America (Divine 290). Later, treaties with the British were established, leaving all of Canada untouchable for the Americans north of the 49th parallel. John Quincy Adams believed that the United States had continental destiny, or manifest destiny, over the land, meaning it was destined to be developed full by the settlers. The Americans first focused their expansion in what is now Florida. In the Adams-Onis Treaty, signed on February 22, 1899, the United States gained the Florida territory from Spain. Adams’ manifest destiny argument was strengthened when Florida was ceded to the states by Spain, as well as Spanish claims to the Oregon Territory, and, in turn, the United States gave up the area that is now Texas to Spain. That opened a “path” for the future of Western Expansion for America, as the United States territory had grown from coast to coast. (Divine 291). The Trans-Appalachian west, where white settlement was scarce and much of the land belonged to the Native Americans, was an area that settlers were eager to develop. Americans used diplomacy, military action, force, and even fraud to “open” lands for settlement and westward migration, often displacing Native Americans and Spanish settlers. Some of the first Americans to travel west included fur trappers, who made the journey west along Native American trails in the early 1820s. John Jacob Astor was one of those trappers, who founded a fur-trading post at the mouth the Columbia River in the Oregon Country. His company, the American Fur Company, operated out of St. Louis in the 1820s and 1830s. The American Fur Company had fur traders who worked their way up the Missouri River to the northern Rockies and further. Trading companies limited to trading furs with Native Americans at first. Later, they began to rely on trappers often referred to as “mountain men,” individuals who hunted game and then sold their fur to agents of companies at a Rendezvous, or annual meeting, an event organized for the selling of fur (Divine 292). By 1830, more people lived west of the Appalachian Mountains than had lived in the originally settled states in 1790 (Hollitz, 173). In Robert Baird’s guidebook, a book of knowledge for pioneers and immigrants traveling westward, he wrote a piece called “View of Valley of the Mississippi,” where he explains the qualities of character an individual traveling west must have. Baird wrote this piece in 1832, when the expansion westward was at its peak. Baird explains the character traits define and distinguish this first population of the West. He then goes on to say that “(the population of the West) are all created by the peculiar circumstances in which the people have been placed in the new world.” (Robert Baird, View of the Valley of the Mississippi, 187) The three characteristics are: A spirit of adventurous enterprise, independence of thought and action, and an apparent roughness, or rudeness, of manners. Individuals traveling westward were seen to have had a strong sense of independence, be strong-willed, and ready to face any hardship or situation they encounter along their journey. Baird wrote that a spirit of adventurous enterprise was, “a willingness to go through any hardship or danger to accomplish an object” (Baird, 188). Baird went on to say that the explorers traveled along the long rivers of the west, which led them to the valleys to trade, which was particularly true for the fur trappers. The travelers, many of whom were fur trappers during the earlier part of the expansion, endured long journeys, fatigue, illness, loneliness, and other hardships. Independence of thought and action is a characteristic that Baird recalled from his own personal experiences and interactions. He wrote that an individual traveling must work well with others, but also have a strong sense of independence. He explained that this trait lasts a lifetime, and is not something that can be lost after the journey, or when they settled. It would take a lifetime of independence to survive in the relatively undeveloped west, after all.. Lastly, Baird states these people expanding westward have an apparent roughness, or to some a rudeness of manners. The people traveling the Native American trails west knew there was unknown danger ahead of them, and that they would need to act acquire them, usually by force, or in a rough or rude manner. Often times Americans banished the Native Indians and Mexicans from the land to claim as their own. Several wars were fought over land, but these American explorers prevailed because of their determination, resources, strong personalities, and perseverance to continue until they gained what they thought to be theirs already. Baird’s guidebook used as a tool by immigrants and travelers throughout the mid-1800s. Fur trappers in the west were viewed as heroic, being among the first explorers to make the journey into the new western territory. They faced harsh circumstances along the way. Fur trappers were colorful characters, who accomplished tremendous feats of survival under harsh natural conditions (Divine, 292). The more successful these men became within fur trapping trade, the more they were admired for their daring and for their bravery. The mountain men were portrayed in American literature “exemplars of a romantic ideal of lonely self-reliance in harmony with unspoiled nature” (Divine, 293). However, over time, this became less accurate, as more people settled the land, creating communities throughout the new land. Alfred Jacob Miller’s 1837 Sketch of Trappers painting displays two fur trappers. This painting portrays a roughness that is characteristic of the harsh conditions of the west, and does not seem to reference any European influence. In Turner’s “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” he wrote, “(the West) strips off the garments of civilization, and arrays him in the hunting shirt and the moccasin” (Hollitz 181). Miller’s image displays masculinity, as the two men are dressed in moccasins and rustic clothing. Their clothing is more similar to the Native American than it is to European style. The fur trappers, sitting beside a tree, personify the adventurous spirit they carried along their journey west. This painting also depicts the exhaustion of the fur trappers, showing how draining traveling west really was. The painting’s background is a vague and cloudy skyline of mountains, representing the vast lands of the west. Miller, who traveled through the West in 1837, once spoke about the hundreds of fur trappers he encountered, saying that they led “the van in the march of civilization” (Hollitz 182). These fur trappers also exemplified the traits that Baird wrote about, as they paved the way for other business enterprises in the west, including railroad, mining, and timber companies. That was how western explorers, such as the fur trappers, were envisioned in the East. However, N.J.
Wyeth’s “Instructions for Robert Evans at the Fort Hall Trading Post of 1834” described a more structured fur trapping industry. These instructions indicated that the eastern companies exerted control over the fur traders of the West. The Fort Hall Trading Post was given strict instructions to follow. The rules included specific details on trading and the Fort. However, how the trappers caught the animals and their journey it took them to get to the west was not detailed. Although the Fort was managed by company officials in the east, the trappers were not defined by the trading of the Post. The trappers exerted their independence, their adventurous enterprise, and their roughness through the hardships encountered by them on the difficult journey along Native American trails. The trappers endured weather conditions, starvation, conflict with Natives, and hunting on new and unknown land, in addition to having to follow company
rules. In conclusion, the Westward Expansion travelers and explorers, specifically fur trappers, endured harsh situations in their quest for adventure and profit. They survived and thrived in part because of them, and in part because of the unusual traits they seemed to need to possess, Baird’s “peculiarities of character:” An adventurous enterprise, and independence of thought and action, and an apparent roughness All of these characteristics aided them in being successful throughout the development and heyday of the fur trading practice.
The West is a very big part of American culture, and while the myth of the West is much more enticing than the reality of the west, it is no doubt a very big part of America. We’re constantly growing up playing games surrounded by the West such as cowboys and Indians and we’re watching movies that depict the cowboy to be a romanticized hero who constantly saves dames in saloons and rides off into the sunset. However, the characters of the West weren’t the only things that helped the development of America; many inventions were a part of the development of the West and helped it flourish into a thriving community. Barbed wire, the McCormick reaper and railroads—for example—were a large part of the development in the West—from helping to define claimed land boundaries, agricultural development and competition, and even growth of the West.
The Frontier Thesis has been very influential in people’s understanding of American values, government and culture until fairly recently. Frederick Jackson Turner outlines the frontier thesis in his essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”. He argues that expansion of society at the frontier is what explains America’s individuality and ruggedness. Furthermore, he argues that the communitarian values experienced on the frontier carry over to America’s unique perspective on democracy. This idea has been pervasive in studies of American History until fairly recently when it has come under scrutiny for numerous reasons. In his essay “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature”, William Cronon argues that many scholars, Turner included, fall victim to the false notion that a pristine, untouched wilderness existed before European intervention. Turner’s argument does indeed rely on the idea of pristine wilderness, especially because he fails to notice the serious impact that Native Americans had on the landscape of the Americas before Europeans set foot in America.
Because of westward expansion, America gained a significant amount of fertile land which contributed to the nation 's’ agrarian identity. The wilderness and landscape
There are many ways in which we can view the history of the American West. One view is the popular story of Cowboys and Indians. It is a grand story filled with adventure, excitement and gold. Another perspective is one of the Native Plains Indians and the rich histories that spanned thousands of years before white discovery and settlement. Elliot West’s book, Contested Plains: Indians, Goldseekers and the Rush to Colorado, offers a view into both of these worlds. West shows how the histories of both nations intertwine, relate and clash all while dealing with complex geological and environmental challenges. West argues that an understanding of the settling of the Great Plains must come from a deeper understanding, a more thorough knowledge of what came before the white settlers; “I came to believe that the dramatic, amusing, appalling, wondrous, despicable and heroic years of the mid-nineteenth century have to be seen to some degree in the context of the 120 centuries before them” .
According to the thesis of Fredrick Jackson Turner, the frontier changed America. Americans, from the earliest settlement, were always on the frontier, for they were always expanding to the west. It was Manifest Destiny; spreading American culture westward was so apparent and so powerful that it couldn’t be stopped. Turner’s Frontier Theory says that this continuous exposure to the frontier has shaped the American character. The frontier made the American settlers revert back to the primitive, stripping them from their European culture. They then created something brand new; it’s what we know today as the American character. Turner argues that we, as a culture, are a product of the frontier. The uniquely American personality includes such traits as individualism, futuristic, democratic, aggressiveness, inquisitiveness, materialistic, expedite, pragmatic, and optimistic. And perhaps what exemplifies this American personality the most is the story of the Donner Party.
...to Americans: if their prospects in the East were poor, then they could perhaps start over in the West as a farmer, rancher, or even miner. The frontier was also romanticized not only for its various opportunities but also for its greatly diverse landscape, seen in the work of different art schools, like the “Rocky Mountain School” and Hudson River School, and the literature of the Transcendentalists or those celebrating the cowboy. However, for all of this economic possibility and artistic growth, there was political turmoil that arose with the question of slavery in the West as seen with the Compromise of 1850 and Kansas-Nebraska Act. As Frederick Jackson Turner wrote in his paper “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” to the American Historical Association, “the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.”
"Chapter 2 Western Settlement and the Frontier." Major Problems in American History: Documents and Essays. Ed. Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, Edward J. Blum, and Jon Gjerde. 3rd ed. Vol. II: Since 1865. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. 37-68. Print.
In the early nineteenth century, most Northerners and Southerners agreed entirely that Americans should settle Western territories, and that it was God’s plan, or their “manifest destiny.” Northerners and Southerners who moved west were in search of a better life and personal economic gain; were they had failed before in the east, they believed they would do better in the west. The Panic of 1837 was a motivation to head
Westward movement is the populating of lands, by the Europeans, in what is now known as the United States. The chief resolution of the westward expansion is economic betterment. The United States story begins with westward expansion and even before the Revolutionary war, early settlers were migrating westward into what is now known as the states of Kentucky,Tennessee, parts of the Ohio Valley and the South. Westward Expansion was slowed down by the French and the Native Americans, however the Louisiana Purchase significantly improved the expansion efforts. Westward expansion was enabled because of wars, the displacement of Native American Indians, buying land, and treaties. This paper will discuss the effects of westward expansion on domestic politics and on American relations with other nations.
Railroads made a huge contribution to the growth of the United States, they led to many advances throughout American History. There were numerous matters the railroads effected in American development and the framework of the country. The railroad had positive and negative effects on America as a whole through the growth of the industry, such as; encouraged western expansion, enhanced the economy, recognized railroad monopolies, assisted the Union in Civil War, helped keep the country together, and created a high expense cost for the nation.
...Thesis in 1893, the process of the Frontier is still a predominant force in American culture. The Frontier Thesis is less about settling the West than it is about Americans adapting to their environment in order to capitalize on resources. Because of this, the new Frontier lies in cyberspace. In cyberspace, Americans are changing their skills and personality traits in order to capitalize and utilize available resources for personal benefit. This process not only defined how the Frontier became civilized, but it also explained the development of the characteristics of the ideal American. In a response to their savage environment, settlers developed certain characteristics that are distinctly American. Because of this, the process of the West can be seen as a social evolution which helped to advance traits that are uniquely American – even in contemporary America.
Kirk, Sylvia. Many tender ties: women in fur-trade society, 1670-1870. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 19831980.
While the US may have prided themselves in the fact that we didn’t practice imperialism or colonialism, and we weren’t an Empire country, the actions conquering land in our own country may seem to rebuff that claim. In the 19th century, the West was a synonym for the frontier, or edge of current settlement. Early on this was anything west of just about Mississippi, but beyond that is where the Indian tribes had been pushed to live, and promised land in Oklahoma after policies like Indian removal, and events like the Trail of Tears. Indian’s brief feeling of security and this promise were shattered when American’s believed it was their god given right, their Manifest Destiny, to conquer the West; they began to settle the land, and relatively quickly. And with this move, cam...
Any discussion of the American culture and its development has to include mythology, because that is where most of the information about early America is found. Mythology is a unique source in that it gives a shared understanding that people have with regard to some aspect of their world. The most important experience for American frontiersmen is the challenge to the “myth of the frontier” that they believed in – “the conception of America as a wide-open land of unlimited opportunity for the strong, ambitious, self-reliant individual to thrust his way to the top.” (Slotkin, 5) In particular, the challenge came from Indians and from the wilderness that they inhabited.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.