expansion o the West wilderness

Transcription

1 THE FRONTIER WEST The expansion o the West was present in American life since the time of the colonies. Increased significantly after the Revolution, and the Louisiana Purchase of The colonists needed this land for the masses of European immigrants. Americans were faced with a wilderness and set up metaphors and frames of mind to deal with it.

2 The Lay of the Land. Kolodny Kolodny examines "the continued repetition of the land-as-woman symbolization in American life and letters" The reasons for the feminization of the land: was essential to its Colonization: The land is experienced as a nurturing, giving maternal breast perhaps because of the threatening, alien, and potentially emasculating terror of the unknown By construing the land as female, it was possible for the colonizing males to remove some of the terror and mystery from an unknown land. Instead, it became either a nurturing maternal figure, existing to provid sustenance, or as a passive virginal figure, existing only to be dominated, sexually or otherwise. With these metaphors firmly in sight, they had a framework through which to view the vast stretches of as less alien and terrifying.

3 The West

4 The West Daniel Boone leads settlers to Kentucky

5 Wagon train The West

6 Log Cabin The West

7 THE FRONTIER WEST -- Heroes of the West: Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Buffalo Bill, Kit Carson. -- Pioneers who made their name after confrontations with the Indians, opening new trails for settlers to follow. -- The trip West to the coast could take five to six months on a wagon or a wagon train. -- At night the wagons would form a wagon ring (called a night circle) for protection against Indians. -- Buffalo Soldiers

8 Buffalo Soldiers

9 MANIFEST DESTINY -- The frontier joined together with the biblical view of the promised land to create the illusion of Manifest Destiny. -- The white man s civilization was destined by God to overspread the continent allotted by divine providence. -- The move west and occupation and possessions of lands all the way to the Pacific coast seems to be divinely ordained. -- The western wilderness had to be tamed. -- The land was seen as feminine and virgin, a place for male protection, assault and possession (an image constantly repeated in Western movies).

10 The Railroad I -- From the 1830s the railroad had proved practical. -- Railroad companies had began setting railway lines on the east coast. -- The government would grant free public lands and extinguish Indian titles to their lands for the building of the railroad.

11 The railroad II -- In July 1862, President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Act authorizing the Central Pacific Railroad to build east from Sacramento and the Union Pacific Railroad to build west from Omaha, on the Missouri River. -- The act also incorporated the right to set the transcontinental telegraph. -- The Civil War unleashed a wave of industrialization and expansion that led the Census Bureau to declare in 1890 that "the frontier was closed."

12 Pacific Railroad Act 1862

13 The Transcontinental Train

14 The Chinese American Contribution

15 The Gold Rush of Gold discovered January 24, 1848 in California. -- Tens of thousands of men (and only a few women and families) started their journey west. Panning for gold

16 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo Mexico loses the war to the United States and cedes what is Contemporary South West US: Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and portions of Colorado. - The annexation is interpreted as part of the Manifest Destiny - The consequences: American citizens overnight

17 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo Mexico loses the war to the United States and cedes what is Contemporary South West US: Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and portions of Colorado. U.S. pays Mexico $15 million. - The annexation is interpreted as part of the Manifest Destiny - The consequences: American citizens overnight

18 Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

19 The Homestead Act and Manifest Destiny -- Capitalist ideology of ownership found its perfect manifestation in the frontier. -- Land was free, vacant, virgin, with strong connotations of the promised land. -- Homestead Act was approved on May 20, Land was parceled into 160-acre plots ($10 apiece) for every citizen 21 years of age or older, willing to work the land for at least 5 years.. -- Railroad companies and timber companies were awarded huge land grants Acre= 4000 square meters

20 The Homestead Act A homesteader had only to be the head of a household and at least 21 years of age to claim a 160 acre parcel of land. Settlers from all walks of life including newly arrived immigrants, farmers without land of their own from the East, single women and former slaves came to meet the challenge of "proving up" and keeping this "free land". Each homesteader had to live on the land, build a home, make improvements and farm for 5 years before they were eligible to "prove up". A total filing fee of $18 was the only money required, but sacrifice and hard work exacted a different price from the hopeful settlers.

21 The Dawes Act and the Indian Question -- Thomas Jefferson, third president of the country, thought that the Indians should all become farmers instead of hunters. -- That would free the large territory needed by a hunting culture to the new settlers. -- Dawes Act or General Allotment Act of The problem of the Indian possession of the land An act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians, and for other purposes.

22 Dawes Act --The practical results of the Act were that some sixty million acres of treaty land (almost half) were opened to settlement by non-native Americans. The plan proved disastrous for the Native Americans. --The act was used to illegally deprive Native Americans of their land righ --This Act broke up the reservation lands into privately owned parcels of property. That is how the legislators hoped to complete the assimilation process by forcing the deterioration of the communal life-style of the Native societies and imposing values of strengthening the nuclear family and values of economic dependency strictly within this small household unit.

23 - The chief of the Sioux nation Sitting Bull Notorious for the defeat of the Seventh Cavalry of General Custer at the battle of Little Bighorn in The Government was trying to occupy the Black Hills of Dakota (Gold had been found in the area), considered sacred by the Indians,and to reduce the Sioux to a reservation. Geronimo, head of the Apache, would also fight for similar reasons.

24 Tecumseh -- He noticed that though the constitution talked about We, the People, the We didn t include Natives. -- He wanted to benefit from internal confrontations between French, English and Americans to call together a massive Indian alliance.

25 F. J. Turner s thesis In 1889 Turner indicated: American history needs a connected and unified account of the progress of civilization across the continent. The notion of the frontier provided that account. -- "The Significance of the Frontier in American History," which he first delivered to a gathering of historians in 1893 at Chicago

26 Turner s Thesis II -- The frontier as the meeting point between savagery and civilization The frontier is the line of most rapid Americanization. -- Turner creates a cultural myth of the frontier based on: -- the advance of civilization against: -- vacant land, primitive Indians. -- Natives and the environment are joined together and become an obstacle that must be surpassed. -- Ideological presentation of the frontier: the advance of civilization and progress looks as natural as inevitable. -- No mention of Native cultures, Chicano cultures, Women.

27 Turner s thesis III -- The pioneers couldn t have done the job without the help of big companies, the army, railroad companies, etc. -- The land of democratic ideals is a mystification of very unequal power confrontations between big corporations.. -- The lone cowboy was no pioneer. Frequently he was a low-level employee of big cattle firms. -- For many women, Asians, Mexicans who suddenly found themselves residents of the United States, and, of course, Indians, the West was no promised land.