the west: exploring an empire
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The West: Exploring an Empire
Chapter 17Chapter 17
Which “Old West” and Whose?
• Where was the “old west” between 1865 and 1890? Can you locate it on a map? Why or why not?
• Who was Frederick Jackson Turner and why was he significant?
• How did the US deal with American Indians in the west?
• Is the West still appealing today? Why or why not?
• The American West played an increasing significant role in US history between 1865 and 1980. 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 o states to 48 by 1912. Finally, over the course of just a few decades, three commercial “empires” rose and fell: mining, farming, and cattle.
Space
• 3 disctinc regions– Trans-Mississippi West– Far West– Great Basin
Great American Desert
• Stephen H Long, surveyed a portion of Louisiana Purchase in 1819
• Coined phrase “Great American Desert” to describe land between 98th parallel to Rockies– Described as “wholly unfit for cultivation and
uninhabitable for those dependant on agriculture.”
The Myth of the Garden
• Western boosters popularized the myth of the Garden to encourage settlement
• Claim based on “scientific” evidence• Credibility strengthened by unusually high
levels of rainfall recorded in 1870s and ‘80s.• “In God we trusted, in Kansas we busted.”
Images of the “West”
Frederick Jackson Turner
• “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893)– Turner’s thesis, which generated tremendous
interest in the fronter
Major Points
• Frontier process• Epic struggle explains American development• Fronteir reproduces American democracy and
individualism• By 1890 frontier had closed, ending the first
stage of American development• In sum, civilization is a process which becomes
ever more complex.
Cowboys
• Approximately 35,000 men between 1864 and 1884
• 25% black, 12% Mexican, 63% white
American Indians
• Population estimated to stand at 10 million in 1600
• By 1865 300,000 remained
1867 Peace Commission
• Effort to “civilize” and “pacify” western Indians by moving them to reservations
• Reservations established in present day South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Arizona
Indian Policy
• Destruction of buffalo to weaken tribes and attract tourists– 1865 roughly 12-15 million buffalo– 1885 roughly a few hundred
• This led to Indian rebellion and then open warfare– 1874 - Red River Way – defeat of Comanche– 1877 – defeat of Chief Joseph and Nez Perce– 1886 – defeat of Geronimo and Apache– 1876-1890 – Sioux battle government
BATTLE OF LITTLE BIG HORN
Custer’s Last Stand
• 1876• Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse flee federal
reservation• Custer and 7th Cav pursue• Indian forced overwhelm US troop and killed
Custer and his soldiers
Wounded Knee
“Ghost Dance”
• 1880s• Sioux• Belief that following this faith would drive
away white Americans and bring back Sioux society.
Final Battle
• In 1889, Sioux warriors, women, and children tried to flee to Canada
• Government troops surrounded at Wounded Knee in South Dakota
• Machine guns• Americans left wounded to die in the snow• Two views– Triumph over “Indian Problem”– Senseless slaughter of innocents
Dawes Severalty Act (1887)
• Shaped Indian policy until 1930s• Attempt to tranform Indians into independent
farmers• Pledged to privde Indian families with 160
acres of reservation land• If accept grant, Indians become full citizens• Government act as trustee to “protect”
Indians from “unscrupulous” whites.
• Good intentioned but impossible to enforce• 1880s-1930s, Indians sold or lost 2/3 of total
land (approx. 86 million acres)– Land that remained was not good for agricultural
development
End of the “Old West”
• “Old West” didn’t last long• Industrialized transformed economics,
politics, and society.• Politicians and leaders began looking for gold
in factories where Americans had once searched for gold in the frontier lands
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