Westward Expansion Myths

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The myth of the American West has been told many different ways throughout history. Perhaps, the most common way it has been told is, as a romantic story about Indians and Cowboys, a legacy that has imbedded its roots into the American culture and society. Frederick Jackson Turner has a naturalistic view of the West; he believes that westward expansion brings amazing and endless opportunity. He believed that the frontier was the defining element of American culture because it reinforced the sense of individualism and self-reliance on Americans while creating the resources that accompanied the frontier's settlement that led to the beginning of our economic success. However, Turner’s view was challenged by Historians that are seeking to expose …show more content…

The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward, explain American development” (Turner chp. 1). Turner wrote that frontiers settlers continued their trek West, during the late nineteenth century and homesteaders wanted to establish themselves and make a new life in the West. He believed that the frontier is the line of most effective Americanization and he acknowledged that “ the most important effect of the frontier has been in the promotion of democracy here and in Europe. As has been indicated, the frontier is productive of individualism” (Turner chp. 1). He moves on to say, “The peculiarity of American institutions is, the fact that they have been compelled to adapt themselves to the changes of an expanding people--to the changes involved in crossing a continent, in winning a wilderness, and in developing at each area of this progress out of the primitive economic and political conditions of the frontier into the complexity of city life” (Turner chp. …show more content…

This was established as a “return to primitive conditions” because of how the lands were so undeveloped and populated with Natives. Therefore, Turner asserts that, “American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier” (Turner chp. 1). However this observation and argument is inconsistent because he assumed that the Natives were understood to be cruel and have no value in civilization. Turner’s view examines the industries that inhabit the West. The industries that relocated West in order to follow Turner’s view were the miners, farmers, fur-traders, and cattle raisers because in his theory it had indicated the idea of involving the cycle of redevelopment for new eras. He wrote that for every new area of land that is settled, the land is won at the cost of the natives and because of this the civilized required and forced the natives to adjust from their lands in favor of Americans. Then, the United States brought railroads, towns, the telegraph, and resource extraction, the herding of cattle, and agribusiness to the West. The frontier was fluid and the edge of civilization as defined in the period. The idea of taming the Wild West was widespread and the westward expansion and Manifest Destiny shaped American ideas and policies

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