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The American West played an increasingly significant role in United States' history between 1865 and 1890. During this period, Anglo-Americans settled 430 million acres of land and overwhelmed Native Americans in the so-called Indian Wars. Furthermore, ten new states entered the Union, bringing the total number of states to forty-eight by 1912. Finally, over the course of just a few decades, three commercial "empires" rose and fell: mining, especially gold and silver; farming; and cattle.
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Where was the "Old West" between 1865 and 1890? Can you locate it on a map?
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Who was Frederick Jackson Turner and why was he significant?
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What about those people that were already there can it be called a frontier if it was already inhabited?
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Is the West still appealing today? Why or why not?
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Who was Frederick Jackson Turner
Frederick Jackson Turner was a farm boy from out west writes his thesis and later becomes a prof. at the University of Wisconsin and later sells out to Harvard.
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What Did Turner Conceive of the West
Turner conceived of the West not as a particular geographic place, but as a frontier process - as a series of West on a receding frontier line - the point where savagery meets civilization.
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What was American History to Turner and what did it explain
For Turner, American history was largely a tale of people leaving settled areas for the frontier, and their struggle to survive in new lands. According to Turner, this epic struggle explained American development.
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What does the frontier reproduce and requires Americans to do
The frontier reproduces American democracy and individualism - the frontier requires Americans to develop new institutions and "free land makes free men."
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What Ended the first stage of American Development and what did Turner Believe
Finally, Turner claimed that in 1890 the frontier had closed, ending the first stage of American development. Turner believed that the closing of the frontier created uncertainty, and he questioned how Americans could maintain their democratic traditions and institutions without access to free land.
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He is the fore father of American Exceptionalism.
Frederick Jackson Turner
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What was the American Dream and Why?
Land gave individuals mobility----Free land was the American Dream
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What Where egalitarian states
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Prior to the settling of the west the closest democratic states where
In the west democracy would prevail----Prior to the settling of the west the closest democratic states were Kentucky and Tennessee why because they were egalitarian states
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What did Turner say Civilization Was? And what happens as Complexity increases?
Thus in the west we would have egalitarian communities. In sum, Turner argued that civilization is a process in which society becomes ever more complex. As complexity increases, opportunities become more limited, and civilization inevitably subordinates individuals to society
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Other reasons why the west was so attractive
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What was the Myth created in the West and What "Scientific Evidence did Eden Wilber base his claim on?
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1. Space
A myth is created in the West of a garden of Eden Wilber described the trans-Mississippi West as a lush paradise. He based this claim on "scientific" evidence that purportedly proved that "rain follows the plow." The myth of the Garden undermined the idea that the West was the "Great American Desert" and convinced many American farmers that they could prosper on the Plains.
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What were The Images that arose from the western experience
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Americans continue to associate with the "Old West" became a breeding ground for a number of fictional characters who seem to embody rugged individualism and self-reliance,
1. Yeoman Farmer, the wealthy cattle baron, the lawless gunslinger, and the hardy cowboy.
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More fictional characters Americans continue to associate with the "Old West"
Wild Buffalo Bill Cody---Wild Bill Hickok---Wyatt Earp--Billy the Kid
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The emergence of the Trans-Continental railroad represented what?
Progress the rise of big business in the West.
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So how deals with the Indians the federal government, so in essence the government the railroads and big corporations settle the west.
So how deals with the Indians the federal government, so in essence the government the railroads and big corporations settle the west.
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