...RAILROADS KEY IN WESTERN EXPANSION BETWEEN 1860 AND 1890 HIST 102: American History since 1877 May 21, 2016 Professor HIST 102 19 May 2016 Railroads Key in Western Expansion between 1860 and 1890 The time period between 1860 and 1890 in American history were critical times for westward expansion in the nation. During this period the nation went through sweeping changes as many territories and unorganized territories became states, major cities nearly tripled in number and agriculture saw a dramatic increase in improved agricultural land. This expansion from east to west was most definitely facilitated by the significant increase in the railroad networks. In the early 1860’s the farthest west the railroads touched were the eastern border of Texas. By the end of the 1890’s the railroads had expanded as far as the most western border of California, northern tip of Washington and the Southern border of Texas. In the early 1860’s approximately two thirds of the United States domestic lands were actually States, while four were still considered unorganized territories and the remaining were territories. At this time there were two prominent railroads in the United States, these two lines were the Central and the Pacific Railways. Contracts were awarded to these two companies to bring westward expansion and connect the east and west coasts. The growth and expansion of the nation’s railroads also brought millions of immigrant workers to the nation compromised...
Words: 1105 - Pages: 5
...June Tozzi US History 1302 Robert Kennedy 2-14-14 The Wild West? The Old West frontier represents a land filled with opportunity, growth and new beginnings. Although new beginnings seemed like a blessing the opportunity came with harsh vices such as climate change, little resources, and little government influence. The West has been portrayed as frontier filled with violence and anarchy, but many young historians have come to challenge the glamorization of the Wild West stating that it was not as violent as the rest of the country as previously depicted. Though Robert Dykstra clarifies how low body count could skew homicide rates that illustrate high levels of violence in Dodge City, one city alone cannot discard the ferocity created between young transient males, crimes erupted between gangs, conflict and atrocities amongst Native Americans Professor David T. Courtright preserves the idea that the frontier was indeed very violent. Professor Courtright helps define the vague use of the West with the distinctions illustrated by Walter Nugent who defines two forms of frontiers. Type one was a frontier of farming and had a core of nuclear families, and the second focused on the industrial industries, such as mining, with a population almost entirely of young males. He agrees that type one frontiers had little violence due to the fact that they were family-based and elderly community. However, the counterpart type two frontiers where exponentially...
Words: 1646 - Pages: 7
...Reconstruction and the West Reconstruction of the South According to Eric Foner (2008), “even though reconstruction failed to meet the goals of Radical Republicans, painlessly rebuild the South, and give the freed blacks complete rights.” Reconstruction did give African Americans some new chances and a brief taste of a free society. Public schools were instituted; blacks became citizens, and some whites even offered support with the civil rights movement. However, every opportunity that was given to the free blacks was met with much opposition. As a result, more could have been done. The late 19th century was a troubling time, and although freed slaves were negatively impacted, Whites, and Indians were also affected by the economic hardships. Several events occurred which gave me cause to agree with Eric Foner’s description of the Reconstruction as a “splendid failure”. Blacks did not receive all their rights until 100 years after the war. Furthermore, Northern-born white men who moved south after the Confederacy defeat were called carpetbaggers by Southerners, and Southern-born white Republicans were given the name scalawag; Blacks held fewer governmental positions and was smaller than their proportion in the population; Indians suffered from the white Americans’ racism, paternalism, and belief that the U.S. had a “manifest destiny” to control all the land between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans (Schultz 2012). However, out of all of the ethnic groups mentioned, former slaves...
Words: 830 - Pages: 4
...purchased, the American territory doubled leaving the early pioneers a vastly unexplored county. Although most people agree that American legends, such as Davy Crockett, Mike Fink and James Bowie embodied the the spirit of western expansion, there is disagreement on whether their stories had a significant impact on western expansion. While some argue that these tales had no impact, because they seemed outlandish. it is most reasonable to believe that the tales of American heros played a key role in western expansion; by prompting patriotic exploration, providing a common enemy, and promoting a political agenda. Stories inspire us and give us something to aspire to. Tell about Lions of the West Often newspapers and plays would tell the stories of American Heroes such as Davy Crockett, Mike Fink, and James Bowie. Although they were generally Frot with danger, those stories of frontier legends were spectacular and usually ended well for the hero. This showed people/them that the...
Words: 425 - Pages: 2
...The landscape in this photo is divided by different light variations. The right edge of the painting is bright while the left edge is ominous. As the angel flies towards towards the West, she is holding a schoolbook and a cable. A river is in the background with ships. These features are interesting because it signifies Western United States to be saved or recovered. These features depict technological advancement towards the wild west. The angel provides protection over the explorers as they venture towards further indigenous land. Miller writes in The Fate of Wilderness in American Landscape Art, “The problems of the wilderness were displaced to the frontier West” (Miller 105). The dominating angel in the middle of the painting illuminates the way in which the settlers travel. With wagons, horses, and stagecoaches moving west, the heavenly angel is a symbol representing uplifting exploration for America to advance as a country. The West “...appealed to those bored or disgusted with man and his works. It not only offered an escape from society but also was an ideal stage for the Romantic individual to exercise the cult that he frequently made of his own soul” (Nash 47). “American Progress” depicts territorial growth westward which modernized...
Words: 775 - Pages: 4
...Westward Expansion Cowboys ` Between 1870 and 1890, probably 10 million semiwild longhorn cattle traveled from Texas to Kansas and other northern markets. A group of cowboys rode with each herd of from 2,000 to 5,000 cattle to push them up the trail by day and to night-herd them after dark. Any unusual noise after the cattle were asleep might send them into a wild and destructive stampede. To drown those disturbing noises, the cowboys came to croon or yodel to the cattle. From these cattle calls grew some of the trail songs descriptive of cowboy life. So long as the cattle could hear a familiar voice crooning some cattle lullaby, they had no fear of the howl of a wolf, the scream of a panther, or any of the other sudden noises of the night....
Words: 561 - Pages: 3
...School is generally regarded as the first theoretical contribution of American Studies to scholarly interpretations of the past. Richard Slotkin is part of a group called “Old West” historians who ascribe to the Myth-and-Symbol School when interpreting American history. This thought-process stresses a collection of popular sentiments of the Frontier era in order to create an environment that has some structure. A result of this approach is that it allows continuity to the reader when studying the frontier. For instance, Slotkin notices in his analysis of “The Adventures of Col, Daniel Boone that: “Filson creates a character who becomes the archetypal hero of the American frontier, copied by imitators and plagiarists and appearing innumerable times under other names and in other guises -- in literature, the popular arts, and folklore -- as the man who made the wilderness safe for democracy” (Slotkin 268-69) This shows how his character became an archetype to himself and all other frontiersmen. Because of this, the circumstances may change in the frontier, but its actors do not. As Slotkin describes the character of he furthers this argument and identifies “the most distinctive trait of Boone’s character was his love for the wild land” (Slotkin 298). While this approach is valuable due to minimal historical documentation, its methodology is intrinsically too simple to be taken seriously. Additionally, “Old West” perspectives usually only interpret the traces of the “white imperialist”...
Words: 1120 - Pages: 5
...Essay The Frontier Myth ------------------------------------------------- “Up to our own day American history has been in a large degree the history of the colonization of the Great West. The existence of an area of free land, its continuous recession, and the advance of American settlement westward explain American development. (…)American social development has been continually beginning over again on the frontier. This perennial rebirth, this fluidity of American life, this expansion westward with its new opportunities, its continuous touch with the simplicity of primitive society, furnish the forces dominating American character.” Source: http://www.learner.org/workshops/primarysources/corporations/docs/turner.html Frederick Jackson Turner The Frontier is a prominent symbol of American culture. Although it intimidated the colonists and later Americans, it did not prevent them from spreading. What drove them was “the idea of unlimited free land, a sense of unlimited opportunity and optimism”1. The idea of the frontier was significant in American culture between 1860 and 1893 because it was considered by many to be “the last frontier.” “Since the beginning of the European settlements, westward expansion had always served as an inspiration to those dreaming to start a new life.”1 With the last of the frontier being absorbed into civilization, its importance to the American people rose more than ever. Frederick Jackson Turner said that this closing of the frontier “marks...
Words: 855 - Pages: 4
...Reconstruction and the West Anthony Webb College of Humanities His/120 Version 5 U.S. History 1865 to 1945 Resolution/Sociology 110 February 16, 2013 Elizabeth Jewell Reconstruction of the South According to Eric Foner (2008), “even though Reconstruction failed to meet the goals of Radical Republicans, painlessly rebuild the South, and give the freed blacks complete rights, Reconstruction did give African Americans some new chances and a brief taste of a free society ("Was Reconstruction a," 2008). Public schools were instituted; blacks became citizens, and some whites even offered support with the civil rights movement. However, every opportunity that was given to the free blacks was met with much opposition. As a result, more could have been done. The late 19th century was a troubling time, and although freed slaves were negatively impacted, Whites, and Indians were also affected by the economical hardships. Several events occurred which gave me cause to agree with Eric Foner’s description of the Reconstruction as a “splendid failure”. Blacks did not receive all their rights until 100 years after the war. Furthermore, Northern-born white men who moved south after the Confederacy defeat were called carpetbaggers by Southerners, and Southern-born white Republicans were given the name scalawag; Blacks held fewer governmental positions and was smaller than their proportion in the population; Indians suffered from the white Americans’ racism, paternalism...
Words: 878 - Pages: 4
...In 1893, Frederick Turner published his “Frontier Thesis” in a paper - “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”. Within his publication, he asserted that the wilderness masters the colonist. As man traveled over from Europe, nature “strips off the garments of civilization and arrays him in the hunting shirt and the moccasin.” At first, the frontier environment is “too strong for the man … little by little he transforms the wilderness”. Once the individual is stripped of the old and thrown into the wilderness, an American is born. Thus, America began to advance away from the influence of Europe and towards a bright future. As Turner transcribes on, one can only understand that Frederick Jackson Turner’s Frontier Thesis is valid because nature is one of the greatest equalizers and cannot be underestimated. As the frontier grew, American democracy expanded as the West expanded....
Words: 868 - Pages: 4
...My father’s favorite shows consist of every Western imaginable: Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Bonanza, Maverick, Wagon Train, and Rawhide so when I began reading this chapter I thought that I had a basic knowledge of what the West was like but I soon realized I was very wrong. There were many things that were included in this chapter that I never realized played a part in western expansion including the development of railroads. Andrew J Russell, a 19th century Civil War photographer, nicknamed the transcontinental railroad the greatest work of the age. This sentiment was true to an extent because it single handedly developed the West into what it was but also proved to have some negative impacts also. “The transcontinental and subsequent railroads...
Words: 251 - Pages: 2
...His works led to the use of social history as the underlying grounds for all socio-economic and political progress in the history of America. When Turner died, history departments were teaching frontier history based on his approach. For a long time, the history of America has been largely tied to the colonization history of the Great west. The presence of free land and the settlement of Americans to the west explain the progress of America. American institutions have been required to change with the increase of the diversity and population of people and facilitate the transformation from backward political and economic ways to civilization. Development in some nations has only taken place in some areas, but in America, development has been widespread. However, there is a frontier line still facing primitive conditions along the western part. Nevertheless, the history of America is not based on the western coast but the great west. Some primitive conditions such as slavery were related to the western frontier expansion. The frontier as Frederick Jackson Turner, according to, was the transformation from primitivism to civilization. The American frontier is the birth of Americanization. This was the start of liberation from Europe to the independence of the nation. In the seventeenth century, the...
Words: 1116 - Pages: 5
...The South and the West Ramiro Headges University of Phoenix Hist/120 Patricia Cox November 06, 2013 The post-Civil War South has been called the “New South.” In what ways did it succeed in reinventing itself? In what ways did it fail? Shortly after the war, the Southern part of the country was distressed, in order for the south to be self-reliant all over again it would need a large amount of money along with a considerably amount of rebuilding. Economically and architecturally they could succeed in reinventing itself. Almost 35 years since the war, it was noticed that the growth of iron, steel, and textile manufactories in the South became apparent. Primarily, railroads lead the Southern industrial growth. Even with the Southern growth and prosperity they, could not relatively compete with the North in regard to improvements or gross. With nearly four millions freed slaves who resided in the Southern part of the country and a large number of white people who lived in poverty, business owners benefited of the fact that it was plenty of cheap labor. The South deprived itself from a strong industrial growth simply because the white man inability to work together with freed slaves. The white man feelings against the freed slaves was still view as inferior and were increasingly getting worse. It got to the point that Blacks...
Words: 915 - Pages: 4
...many Mormons choosing to move West in the face of increasing violence. The increasing population had made land hard to come by. This combined with the desperation and increasing crime in the East forced people to consider moving West. The Crisis became a big PUSH factor in encouraging people to migrate westward. 1844 Joseph Smith Died As the Prophet and founder of the Mormon Church he was the leader of many thousands of believers. He led them in a desperate search for a safe haven for the community to settle. Smith would not lead his Mormons West as he thought it unfit to build the Zion for the coming of Jesus. Smith was shot dead in 1844 as he tried to escape from jail. Brigham Young was the new leader of the Mormons and chose to lead them West, to Great Salt Lake where they settled successfully. This was an important turning point for the Mormons. 1848 Gold Rush 1848!! Before Gold was discovered in 1848 by James Marshall, around 5,000 people per year were drifting west across the Great Plains. However with the discovery this increased tenfold by the following year.The 50,000 miners were hunting for their fortunes in California –many found one. The first miners – the ‘49ers – proved that large numbers of settlers could travel and live in the west. The paths and routes they used were easily found by later families who travelled west. By 1850 California was a US state. The 1848 Goldrush speeded up the settling of the west by Americans. 1851 First Fort Laramie Treaty ...
Words: 1164 - Pages: 5
... Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature The West captivates people. The West both as a direction of navigation and as an idea occupies a magical realm where boundaries become blurred and what is light becomes twilight and dark. Just as the East represents the arrival of sun with its light and rationality—of darkness dispelled— so too does the West embody the loss of that sun’s light and logic and the commencement of night. However, there are more boundaries between East and West than merely the presence or absence of light. After the time of Columbus, the people who looked toward the West, and particularly the North American continent, saw more than just land. The West was a sacred place where magic, hallowed, and even treacherous experiences were possible. This idea that possibilities existed in the West that did not exist elsewhere motivated millions to leave the Old World for the new and redefine themselves in a Western landscape of unlimited possibilities. What is the West? These early settlers, religionists, and explorers to the West came to the shores of the Atlantic seaboard unsure of what to expect from the new landscape they encountered. By leaving their homes and coming to a new land to make a new life, these immigrants breached a frontier. Frontiers are not solidified lines of demarcation; instead, they are indistinct and shifting perceptions that divide what is “us” from what is not yet “us.” As immigrants traveled west they increased the distance from their old...
Words: 4300 - Pages: 18
