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The influence of the westward movement on America
The influence of the westward movement on America
The impact of westward expansion on the United States
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The frontier theory created by Frederick Jackson Turner accurately summarizes not only the advances that were made within the American lifestyle, but points out how the American Identity and the future of the nation was forever changed through the events of Westward Expansion. This thesis successfully creates the image of the “Wild West”, utilizing imagery such as cowboys, robberies, Indians, and much more. What can be easily overlooked is that many of the myths and stereotypes associated with the “Wild West” were in fact true. The events that support this are the creation of the cowboy and the experiences they endured in the cattle herding business. The average cowboy was required to work about ten to fourteen hours a day, requiring that they …show more content…
be loyal to the herd and risk anything to ensure that their herd was protected. They also had to be expert horsemen, gunslinger, and roper. Transferring their herd of cattle across the country would last atleast three months, putting the cowboy in constant danger. On a daily basis, the average cowboy would have to deal unpredictable weather, bands of thieves, and groups of young rouge Indians. However, this industry was only able to last twenty years, due to the creation of barb wire and tensions between cowboys and farmers within the Great Plains.
As Westward Expansion continued, many pioneers became ranchers who built permanent settlements that got in the way of the Chisholm Trail, the most utilized cattle route at the time. These ranchers were getting tired of the cattle trespassing and destroying their property, so as a solution, Joseph Glidden invented the barb wire. Barb wire was not only used to mark the borders of the rancher’s property, but it officially closed off the open frontier to the West, bringing an end to the cowboy era. The concept of the “Wild West” as explained in the frontier thesis is the only remaining record and legacy from the cowboy era, reminding people that it was truly a job for rough, independent, men. Along with the sacrifices they took to transport highly demanded food, the cowboy directly caused everlasting changes that matches perfectly with what the frontier thesis states. Along with forever changing the American Identity to be seen as rough, independent, risk-takers; Westward Expansion had truly “created a society of men and women who were committed to self-improvement, who supported democracy, and who were socially mobile”
(Turner). Cowboys not only had the ability to adapt to new environments very quickly, but they were able to freely live their own lives in which they sacrificed to not only give themselves a purpose, but to help support the lives of many others throughout the nation. This exactly what democracy stands for, a governmental system that gives power to the people and has the responsibility to protect the people’s rights, freedom, and pursuit of happiness. Despite the accuracy and truth behind the Frontier Thesis, I do not completely agree with it. I feel that it is incomplete due to the fact that it only states the American perspective upon the events that occurred during Westward Expansion. It gives no mention or tribute to the Native American culture and way of life that was destroyed by the events of Westward Expansion. Even though the concept of the “Wild West” does include Indians, they are shown as rouge and dangerous tribes that were a threat to the pioneers. However, this is only partly true because it was the actions of the American pioneers that provoked the Native Americans to turn violent in the first place. Before Westward Expansion, these tribes were living peacefully on their own within the Great Plains. In their eyes, the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad and arrival of pioneers was unexpected, and they saw it as a hostile force attempting to take their home from them. In this perspective, it makes perfect sense why they would want to defy the American settler’s presence. In fact, the American people took the same actions back in the 1700’s when the United States was still colonies under British rule. When the crown began to take away the colonist’s freedom, rights, and way of life, they revolted. These series of revolts is what ultimately sparked the American Revolution, in which the colonists won independence from Great Britain. The Indian Wars is just simply a repeat of the American Revolution, except it is the Indians fighting against the American settlers in an attempt to keep their freedom, hunting grounds, and way of life. Unfortunately, the Indians were too primitive and did not stand a chance against the new guns and technology that the settlers had in their possession. It was because of this reason why many Indians were forced to either adopt the new American lifestyle, live on isolated reservations, or simply be killed off. Only a small percentage of Native Americans were spared, as many were killed by army soldiers. The battle that officially brought an end to the Native American presence and culture was the Battle of Wounded Knee. In the year of 1890, after the bloodshed committed at the Battle of Little Big Horn, the remaining free Sioux tribes were found to be setting camp at the Wounded Knee Creek. General Custard’s old cavalry surrounded them and ordered them to surrender. However, a shot was accidentally fired, which caused the soldier’s to open fire with a barrage of cannons. After just minutes of fighting, over three hundred Indians were killed, officially marking the end of the Indian Wars and the destruction of the Native American culture. No matter how many theories, documentaries, or books are produced to glorify the positive effects of Westward Expansion, the devastating effects that it had upon the Native Americans cannot be overlooked or ever forgotten.
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.
To many families the prospect of owning land was the central driving force that brought them to the land known today as the wild Wild West. Much propaganda wa...
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.
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.
When looking at the vast lands of Texas after the Civil War, many different people came to the lands in search for new opportunities and new wealth. Many were lured by the large area that Texas occupied for they wanted to become ranchers and cattle herders, of which there was great need for due to the large population of cows and horses. In this essay there are three different people with three different goals in the adventures on the frontier lands of Texas in its earliest days. Here we have a woman's story as she travels from Austin to Fort Davis as we see the first impressions of West Texas. Secondly, there is a very young African American who is trying his hand at being a horse rancher, which he learned from his father. Lastly we have a Mexican cowboy who tries to fight his way at being a ranch hand of a large ranching outfit.
The Taming of the West: Age of the Gunfighter: Men and Weapons of the Frontier 1840-1900.
On March 10, 1892 the Billings Gazette reported, “The opening of spring may be more red than green for the horse thieves and cattle thieves of Johnson County” (Brash, 143). The writer of the article could little have known how truthful their premonition would prove to be. The late 1800’s were turbulent times in the West. Large tracts of publicly held range ground would be at the center of Wyoming’s very own civil war. Gil Bollinger, author and western researcher, reports that by the 1870’s and 1880’s fencing of land to enclose both crops and water sources was common (Bollinger, 81). This practice, however, was still illegal according to the federal government. In 1877, the United States Government sued Swan Land and Cattle Company, in an effort to set an example that all fences on open range must come down (Bollinger, 81). The fencing of lands was a major problem, as agricultural producers needed open access to the limited resources, especially water. Johnson County, in northern Wyoming, was an agricultural nucleus for cattle and sheep producers who knew the lush grass and good water supply would greatly benefit their operations. Since fencing was illegal, these resources were available to everyone. Cattle operators, large and small alike, ran their livestock loose and participated in large roundups once a year where all the cattle were branded. Slick calves, called mavericks, were often unrightfully claimed. Lack of fencing made any free ranging livestock available to whoever was devious enough to take them (Smith, 25).
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
When one thinks of the United States of America, they probably consider our history, our culture, our media, our impressive cities and the extremely wide variety of beautiful wildernesses that we are lucky enough to still enjoy. We are lucky enough to have a melting pot of cultures in this country, and many different kinds of people. However, when thinking of an original, all-American figure, cowboys come to mind for many people. Our history and the settlement of the U.S. was unlike any other country, and the development of the country in the more western states came with the unique and fascinating time period referred to now as “The Old West”. The Old West was a crucial time in American history, and though it was a simpler time it also came with its share of excitement. Some of the most memorable details about the Old West were the characters that came with it, and some extremely interesting ones were the least conforming- the outlaws. Jesse Woodson James was one of the most notorious outlaws in American history. His name would go down in history as one belonging to a tough as nails and fearless bank robber who led a group of outlaws across the mid-west robbing banks and trains, and even murdering people. When we look at the big picture of what the U.S. has become today, The Old West certainly has had a large impact on our culture, and Jesse James certainly had a large impact on the Old West. Though most would argue that he was not a decent or moral person, one cannot argue that he was still a very interesting and unique icon of the west. So how did Jesse Woodson James change and leave his mark on the United St...
America was expanding at such a rapid pace that those who were in America before us had no time to anticipate what was happening. This change in lifestyle affected not only Americans but everyone who lived in the land. Changing traditions, the get rich quick idea and other things were the leading causes of westward expansion. But whatever happened to those who were caught in the middle, those who were here before us?
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.
The cowboys of the frontier have long captured the imagination of the American public. Americans, faced with the reality of an increasingly industrialized society, love the image of a man living out in the wilderness fending for himself against the dangers of the unknown. By the end of the 19th century there were few renegade Indians left in the country and the vast expanse of open land to the west of the Mississippi was rapidly filling with settlers.