The American frontier consists of geography, history, folklore, and cultural expression of life in a wave of advanced American expansion that began with British colonial settlements in the early 17th century and ended with the recognition of the last landmass of the region as a state in the year 1912. The "border" refers to the contrasting region on the edge of the European-American settlement line. American historians cover several borders but the folklore is focused primarily on the conquest and settlement of Native American lands west of the Mississippi River, where it is now the Midwest, Texas, Great Plains, Rocky Mountains, Southwest and West Coast..
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the enormous popular attention focused on the western United States in the second half of the nineteenth century, a period sometimes called "bb> Old West " or " Wild West ". Such media usually exaggerate the chaotic romance, anarchy, and violence of that period for a greater dramatic effect. This ultimately inspired the genre of Western movies, which were abundant into comic books, and toys, games, and costumes of children. This era of massive migration and settlement was primarily driven by the colonial government and the beginning of the United States following the Louisiana Purchase, and created a political term and philosophy known as "Manifest Destiny".
As defined by Hine and Faragher, "border history tells the story of the creation and defense of society, the use of land, the development of markets, and the establishment of the state." They explained, "This is a story of conquest, but also one of survival, perseverance, and the incorporation of society and culture that gave birth and continued life to America." Through agreements with foreign countries and indigenous tribes; political compromise; military conquest; the establishment of law and order; development of livestock, livestock, and towns; marking mine trails and digging; and attracted a great migration of foreigners, the United States flourished from coast to coast, fulfilling the dream of Manifest Destiny. The historian Frederick Jackson Turner in his book "Frontier Thesis" (1893) theorized that the border is a process that transforms the Europeans into new people, Americans whose values ​​focus on equality, democracy and optimism, and individualism, independence and even violence. Thus, Turner's Frontier Thesis proclaims the frontier to the west as a process of defining American history.
As American borders enter history, Western myths in fiction and film hold firmly to the imagination of Americans and strangers. In the view of David Murdoch, America is "extraordinary" in choosing an iconic image of self: "No other nation takes time and place from the past and produces the same imaginary construction as the creation of the West America."
Video American frontier
Istilah "Barat" dan "Garis Depan"
The front line is the outline of the European-American settlement. It moved westward from the 1630s to the 1880s (with occasional movements north to Maine and Vermont, south to Florida, and east from California to Nevada). Turner preferred the Census Bureau's definition of a "boundary" as a density of two people per square mile. "West" is a recently completed area near the border. Thus, parts of the Midwest and South America, although no longer considered "western", have a common border heritage along with modern western countries. However, in the 21st century, the term "West America" ​​is most commonly used for the western region of the Mississippi River.
Maps American frontier
Colonial limits
In the colonial era, before 1776, the west was a top priority for settlers and politicians. The American border began when Jamestown, Virginia was inhabited by the British in 1607. In the early days of European settlement on the Atlantic coast, descending to about 1680, the border was essentially part of the interior of the continent beyond the existing limits. settlements along the Atlantic coast. The pattern of expansion and settlement of England, France, Spain and the Netherlands is very different. Only a few thousand French people migrated to Canada; these residents settled in villages along the St. Lawrence, building a stable community for a long time; they are not just jumping west like the British did. Although French feather merchants range extensively through the Great Lakes and the midwestern region they rarely settle. French settlement is limited to very small villages such as Kaskaskia, Illinois and larger settlements around New Orleans. Similarly, the Dutch established a feather trade post in the Hudson River valley, followed by a large grant of land for patrols of rich landowners who brought in tenant farmers who created compact and permanent villages. They created dense rural settlements in northern New York, but they did not push westward.
Areas in the north that are at the border stage in 1700 generally have poor transport facilities, so opportunities for commercial farming are low. These areas remained major in subsistence agriculture, and as a result in the 1760s this society was extremely egalitarian, as historian Jackson Turner Main explained:
- Typical border society is therefore one where class differences are minimized. Rich speculators, if anyone is involved, usually stay at home, so there is usually no rich people who become residents. The landless poor class is small. Most are landowners, most of whom are also poor because they start with little possessions and have not cleared much of the land and also they do not get the equipment and farm animals that will make them prosper. Few craftsmen settle on the border except for those who trade to supplement their main job in farming. There may be shopkeepers, ministers, and perhaps doctors; and there are a number of landless workers. The rest are farmers.
In the South, the transport-poor frontier, like the Appalachian Mountains region, remains based on subsistence farming and resembles the egalitarianism of their northern counterparts, though they have a larger upper class than slave owners. North Carolina represents. But the 1700 border area that has good river connections is increasingly turning into a plantation farm. Rich people come, buy good land, and work with slaves. The area is no longer "border". It has a multilevel community of strong white upper class, a small middle class, a landless farmer group or a fairly large tenant, and a growing slave population at the bottom of the social pyramid. Unlike the North, where small towns and even cities are common, the South is very rural.
From English farmers to American farmers
Colonial settlements in coastal areas prioritize land ownership for individual farmers, and as populations grow they push westward for fresh farmland. Unlike the UK, where a small number of landlords have the most of good land, ownership in America is cheap, easy and widespread. Land tenure brings the level of independence and voice to local and provincial offices. The typical New England settlement is quite compact and small - under a square mile. Conflict with Native Americans arises from political issues, who is to govern. The eastern border area of ​​the Appalachian Mountains includes the Connecticut River valley, and northern New England (which moves north, not west).
War with France and with Natives
Most of the frontiers underwent a Native war, The "French and Indian Wars" were imperial wars between Britain and France, with France fabricating for their small colonial population base by registering Indian war parties as allies. A series of great wars spilled out of the European war ended in full victory for England in the Seven Years War across the world. In the peace treaty of 1763, France lost almost everything, because the land west of the Mississippi River, alongside Florida and New Orleans, went to Spain. If it does not land on the east of the Mississippi River and what is now Canada goes to England.
Stable migration to border area
Regardless of war, Americans moved across the Appalachians to western Pennsylvania, which is now West Virginia, and areas in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. In the southern settlement via the Cumberland Gap, their most famous leader was Daniel Boone, Young George Washington promoting settlements in West Virginia on the land granted to him and his soldiers by the Royal Government in payment for their war services in the Virginia militia. To the west of the mountains, the settlement was briefly constrained by a decree by the Royal Proclamation of 1763. However, the Fort Stanwix Treaty (1768) reopened most of the western area for immigrants to complete.
New Nation
The first major movement west of the Appalachian mountains originated in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina as soon as the Revolutionary War ended in 1781. The pioneers placed themselves in a rough hut or at most a one-room log cabin. The main food supply originally came from deer hunting, turkey, and other abundant games.
- Stylish typical outfit, leather pants, moccasins, fur hats, and hunting shirts, and girded by belts hanging hunting knives and gunshot pockets - all homemade - pioneers present a unique look. In a short time he opens in a patch of wood, or cleans, where he grows corn, wheat, hemp, tobacco, and other products, even fruits.
In recent years pioneers added pigs, sheep and cattle, and probably acquired a horse. Woven fabrics themselves replace animal skins. The more restless pioneers grew dissatisfied with civilized life, and pulled themselves again to move 50 or a hundred miles (80 or 160 km) further west.
Land policy
The land policy of the new state is conservative, paying particular attention to the needs of the settled East. The aim sought by both sides in the era of 1790-1820 was to grow the economy; avoid draining the skilled labor needed in the East; distribute the land wisely; sell it at a fair price for settlers not yet high enough to pay off the national debt; clear legal title; and create a diversified West economy that will be closely intertwined with settled areas with minimal risk of a breakaway movement. In the 1830s, however, the West was filled with squatters who did not have a legal deed, although they may have paid the money to previous settlers. The Jacksonian Democratic Party supports the squatters by promising quick access to cheap land. On the other hand, Henry Clay is concerned about the "lawless and ordinary people" who head to the West undermining the utopian concept of a stable and law-abiding, middle-class republican community. The wealthy southerners, meanwhile, are looking for opportunities to buy high-quality land to build slave farms. The Free Land Movement of the 1840s called for low-cost land for free white farmers, a position promulgated into law by the new Republican Party in 1862, offering 160 hectares of land free for all adults, men and women, black and white, native or immigrant births.
After winning the Revolutionary War (1783), American settlers in large numbers flowed to the west. In 1788, American pioneers into the Northwest Territory established Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory.
In 1775, Daniel Boone paved the way for the Transylvania Company from Virginia via the Cumberland Gap to central Kentucky. It was then extended to reach Falls of the Ohio in Louisville. The Wilderness Road is steep and rugged, and it can only be traveled by foot or horseback, but it is the best route for thousands of settlers who moved to Kentucky. In some areas they have to face Indian attacks. In 1784 alone, Indians killed over 100 travelers on Wilderness Road. No Indians live permanently in Kentucky but they send invaders to stop newcomers. One of those intercepted was Abraham Lincoln's grandfather, who was skinned in 1784 near Louisville.
Acquisition of Indian land
The war of 1812 marked the final confrontation between the main Indian troops who tried to stop progress, with the help of the British. The goals of the British war include the establishment of an independent Indian state (under the auspices of the United Kingdom) in the Midwest. American frontline militia under General Andrew Jackson defeated the tributaries and opened Southwest, while militia under Governor William Henry Harrison defeated the Indian-British alliance at the Thames River Battle in Canada in 1813. Deaths in the battle of Indian leader Tecumseh dissolved a tribal coalition Hostile Indians. Meanwhile, General Andrew Jackson ended the Indian military threat in the Southeast at Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814 in Alabama. In general the frontiersmen fought against the Indians with little help from the US Army or the federal government.
To end the War of 1812, American diplomats negotiated the Treaty of Ghent, signed in 1815, with England. They rejected the British plan to establish an Indian state in the US territory south of the Great Lakes. They explain America's policy towards India's land acquisition:
New regions and territories
When the settlers streamed in, the border district first became territorial, with an elected legislature and a governor appointed by the president. Then when the population reaches 100,000 territories applied for statehood. Frontiersmen usually drop the legalistic formalities and restrictive franchises favored by the eastern upper classes, and adopt more democracy and more egalitarianism.
By 1800 the western border had reached the Mississippi River. St. Louis, Missouri is the largest city on the border, a gateway for westward travel, and a major trade center for Mississippi River traffic and inland trade but remains under Spanish control until 1803.
Louisiana purchase of 1803
Thomas Jefferson considers himself a border man and very interested in expanding and exploring the West. The purchase of Louisiana Jefferson in 1803 doubled the number of countries at a cost of $ 15 million, or about $ 0.04 per acre ($ 245 million in 2017 dollars, less than 42 cents per acre). The Federalists opposed the expansion, but the Jefferson people praised the opportunity to create millions of new farmland to expand the domain of landowners; ownership will strengthen the ideal republican society, based on agriculture (not trade), lightly governed, and promote independence and virtue, and form a political basis for Jeffersonian Democracy.
$ 15 million paid France for its sovereignty over the territory in terms of international law. Because of inflation, $ 15 million is equivalent to about $ 294 million in 2012 dollars. Between 1803 and 1870s, the federal government bought the real land of the Indian tribes who later owned it. Accountants and courts of the 20th century have calculated the value of payments made to Indians, which include future cash, food, horses, cattle, supplies, building, school, and medical payments in the future. In cash terms, the total paid to the tribes in the Louisiana Purchase area amounts to about $ 2.6 billion in current dollars, or $ 8.5 billion in 2012 dollars (nearly $ 9 billion in 2016 dollars). Additional amounts were paid to Indians living east of Mississippi for their land, as well as payments to Indians living in the western part outside of the Louisiana Purchase.
Even before the purchase, Jefferson planned an expedition to explore and map the land. He accused Lewis and Clark for "exploring the Missouri River, and such mainstream, because, through its tracks and communications with the waters of the Pacific Ocean, whether Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or other rivers can offer the most direct and practical communication across the continent for the purpose trade ". Jefferson also instructed expeditions to study indigenous peoples (including their morals, languages, and cultures), weather, land, rivers, commercial trade, animals and plants.
Entrepreneurs, notably John Jacob Astor quickly took advantage of that opportunity and expanded feather trading operations to the Pacific Northwest. Astor's "Fort Astoria" (later Fort George), at the mouth of the Columbia River, became the first permanent white settlement in the area, though it was unfavorable to Astor. He founded the American Fur Company in an attempt to decide that the Hudson Bay Company monopoly exists in the region. By 1820, Astor had taken over independent traders to create a profitable monopoly; he left the business as a multi-millionaire in 1834.
Trading fur
As the border moves west, hunters and hunters move ahead of the settlers, searching for new supplies of beavers and other skins to be shipped to Europe. The hunters were the first Europeans in most of the Old West and they formed the first working relationship with Native Americans in the West. They added extensive knowledge about the Northwest area, including an important South Pass through the central Rocky Mountains. Discovered around 1812, it became the main route for settlers to Oregon and Washington. However, in 1820, the new "brigade-rendezvous" system sent company people in cross-country "brigades" on long expeditions, passing many tribes. It also encourages "free trappers" to explore new areas by themselves. At the end of the collection season, the trappers will "meet" and hand over their goods to pay at river ports along the Green River, Upper Missouri, and Upper Mississippi. St. Louis is the largest of the rendezvous cities. In 1830, however, the fashion changed and the beaver caps were replaced by silk hats, ending the demand for expensive American feathers. Thus ending the era of mountain men, trappers and scouts like Jedediah Smith, Hugh Glass, Davy Crockett, Jack Omohundro and others. The trade of feather beavers almost stopped in 1845.
Federal and Western governments
There is broad agreement on the need to resolve new territories quickly, but polarized debates about the price the government should bill. The conservatives and Whigs, characterized by president John Quincy Adams, want a moderate move that accuses new arrivals of paying the federal government's fees. Democrats, however, tolerate wild seizures for land at very low prices. The final resolution came in the Homestead Act of 1862, with a moderate pace that gave settlers 160 free acres after they worked for five years.
The personal profit motive dominates the westward movement, but the Federal Government plays a supporting role in securing the land through agreements and arrangements of the territorial government, with the governor appointed by the President. The federal government first acquires the western territory through agreements with other nations or indigenous peoples. Then send the surveyor to map and document the land. In the twentieth century, the Washington bureaucracy managed federal lands such as the Public Land Office in the department of the Interior, and after 1891 the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. After 1900 dam construction and flood control became the main concern.
Transportation is a major problem and the Army (especially the Army Engineer Corps) is given full responsibility to facilitate navigation on the river. Steamboat, first used on the Ohio River in 1811, allows for inexpensive trips using river systems, especially the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. An army expedition to the Missouri River in 1818-25 allowed engineers to improve technology. For example, the Steamboat Army "Western Engineer" of 1819 incorporated a very shallow draft with one of the earliest hard wheels. In 1819-25, Colonel Henry Atkinson developed a ship of elegance with a hand-held oar wheel.
The federal postal system plays an important role in national expansion. This facilitates expansion into the West by creating a cheap, fast, and convenient communication system. Letters from early settlers provided information and boosterism to encourage increased migration to the West, helping disseminated families stay in touch and provide neutral assistance, assisted entrepreneurs to find business opportunities, and allow regular trade relations between traders and the West as well as wholesalers and factories back east. The postal service also helped the Army in expanding its control over the vast western region. The widespread circulation of newspaper newspapers, such as the New York Weekly Tribune, facilitates coordination among politicians in different states. Postal services help integrate established areas with borders, create a spirit of nationalism and provide the necessary infrastructure.
Scientists, artists, and explorers
Government and private companies send many explorers to the West. In 1805-6, Army lieutenant Zebulon Pike (1779-1813) led a party of 20 soldiers to find water on the head of Mississippi. He then explored the Red River and Arkansas in Spanish territory, eventually reaching the Rio Grande. Upon his return, Pike saw a peak in Colorado named after him. Major Stephen Harriman Long (1784-1864) led the Yellowstone and Missouri expeditions of 1819-1820, but his categorization in 1823 from the Great Plains as barren and useless led to a region that earned a bad reputation as the "Great American Desert", a dispute of despair in the area for decades.
In 1811, the naturalist Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) and John Bradbury (1768-1823) traveled to the Missouri River documenting and drawing the life of plants and animals. Artist George Catlin (1796-1872) painted an accurate portrayal of Native American culture. Swiss artist Karl Bodmer has created an enticing landscape and portrait. John James Audubon (1785-1851) is famous for grouping and painting in the small details of 500 bird species, published in Birds of America.
The most famous of the explorers was John Charles Frà © mont (1813-1890), an Army officer in the Topographical Engineer Corps. He presented his talents for exploration and a genius on self-promotion that gave him the nickname "Pathmarker of the West" and brought him to the nomination of the new Republican president in 1856. He led a series of expeditions in the 1840s that answered many remarkable geographical questions about a lesser known area. He crossed the Rocky Mountains with five different routes, and charted parts of Oregon and California. In 1846-7, he played a role in conquering California. In 1848-49, FrÃÆ'  © mont was assigned to search for a central route through mountains for proposed transcontinental railways, but his expeditions ended in a near catastrophe when lost and trapped by heavy snow. His reports mix a narrative of exciting adventures with scientific data, and detailed, detailed information for travelers. It captures the public imagination and inspires many people to head west. Goetzman says it's "monumental in its width - a classic exploring of literature".
While colleges are popping up in the Northeast, there is little competition on the western frontier for Transylvania University, which was founded in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1780. The school boasts a law school in addition to undergraduate and medical programs. Transylvania draws ambitious political youth from across the Southwest, including 50 US senators, 101 congressmen, 36 governors and 34 ambassadors, and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederation.
The Antebellum West
Religion
The Eastern Churches were slow to meet the needs of the border. Presbyterians and Congregationalists, as they rely on educated ministers, lack the energy to evangelize the borders. They established the Plan of Union of 1801 to combine resources at the border. Most frontiersmen show little commitment to religion until the traveling evangelists begin to emerge and produce "revivals". Local pioneers responded enthusiastically to these events and, in essence, developed their own populist religions, especially during the Second Awakening (1790-1840), featuring an outdoor camp meeting lasting a week or more and introducing many people to organized religion for the first time. One of the largest and most famous camp meetings took place in Cane Ridge, Kentucky in 1801.
The local Baptists established small independent churches - Baptists overruled centralized authority; every local church is founded on the principle of local church independence. On the other hand, well-organized and well-organized Centralized bishops assign circuit riders to certain areas for several years at a time, then move them to new territory. Several new denominations are formed, the greatest being the Disciples of Christ.
Democracy in the Midwest
Historian Mark Wyman calls Wisconsin "palimpsest" layer upon layer of society and strength, each instilling a permanent influence. He identified these layers as several "borders" for three centuries: the Native American borders, the French border, the British border, the trade-feather border, the mining frontier, and the logging frontier. Finally comes the train carrying the edge of the border.
Frederick Jackson Turner grew up in Wisconsin during his final frontier, and in his travels around the country he could see a layer of social and political development. One of Turner's last pupils, Merle Curti used an in-depth analysis of local Wisconsin history to test Turner's thesis on democracy. Turner's view is that American democracy, "involves broad participation in decision-making that affects collective life, initiative development and independence, and equality of economic and cultural opportunities." It also involves the Americanization of immigrants. " Curti found that from 1840 to 1860 in Wisconsin the poorest groups gained rapidly in land ownership, and often rose to political leadership at the local level. He found that young farm workers who did not have land soon got their own fields. Free land on the border therefore creates opportunities and democracy, both for European immigrants as well as the old stock Yankees.
Southwest
From the 1770s to the 1830s, the pioneers moved to a new land that stretched from Kentucky to Alabama to Texas. Most were farmers who moved into family groups.
Historian Louis Hacker shows how extravagant the first generation of pioneers is; they are too stupid to cultivate the land properly and when the natural fertility of virgin soil is exhausted, they are sold out and move west to try again. Hacker explains that in Kentucky around 1812:
Hacker added that the second wave of settlers reclaimed the land, repaired the damage, and practiced more sustainable agriculture. Historian Frederick Jackson Turner explores the views and values ​​of the individualistic world of the first generation:
What they objected to was arbitrary barriers, artificial restrictions on the freedom of each member of this border community to work outside of his own career without fear or support. What they instinctively oppose is the crystallization of differences, the monopoly of opportunity and the determination of monopoly by government or by social customs. Road should be open. The game must be played according to the rules. There can be no artificial narrowing of equality of opportunity, no closed doors for the capable, not stopping the free game before it is played to the end. Moreover, there is an unformulated, perhaps, but very real feeling that only success in the game, whereby people who are able to achieve pre-mineness give successful people no right to look down on their neighbors, none vested titles to assert superiority as a matter of pride and reduction of equal rights and less successful dignity.
Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny is the belief that the United States has been destined to expand from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. This concept was expressed in the colonial period, but the term was coined in the 1840s by an editorial editorial magazine, "the fulfillment of our real destiny... to propagate the continent given by Providence for the free development of our millions of annual multipliers." As the nation grew, "Manifest destiny" became a call for expansionists in the Democratic Party. In the 1840s the administration of Tyler and Polk (1841-49) succeeded in promoting this nationalist doctrine. But the Whig Party, which represents business and financial interests, stands against Manifest Destiny. Whig leaders like Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln are calling for deepening society through modernization and urbanization rather than simple horizontal expansion. Starting with Texas annexation, the expansionists are on the wind. John Quincy Adams, a Whig anti-slavery, felt Texas annexation in 1845 to be "the greatest disaster ever to happen to me and my country".
Helping settlers move westward is an 1840s emigrant "handbook" featuring route information provided by feather merchants and Fremont expeditions, and promising lush farmland beyond the Rocky Mountains.
Mexico and Texas
Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, and took over ownership of northern Spain stretching from Texas to California. The caravan began delivering goods to Mexico Santa Fe along the Santa Fe Trail, during the 870 mile (1,400 km) 48-day journey from Kansas City, Missouri (then known as Westport). Santa Fe also spearheads for "El Camino Real", a trade route that brings American manufactured goods south to Mexico and returns silver, feathers, and mules to the north (not to be confused with others "Camino Real "The linking mission in California). A branch also leads to the east near the Gulf (also called Old San Antonio Road). Santa Fe is connected to California via the Old Spanish Trail.
The Spanish and Mexican governments are attracting American settlers to Texas on generous terms. Stephen F. Austin became an "empresario", receiving contracts from Mexican officials to bring immigrants. Thus, he also became the de facto political and military commander in the area. Tensions escalated, however, after the failed attempt to establish the independent state of Fredonia in 1826. William Travis, led "party wars", advocated independence from Mexico, while Austin's "peace party" sought to gain more autonomy in the current relationship. When Mexican president Santa Anna changed the alliance and joined a conservative centralist party, she declared herself a dictator and ordered troops to Texas to reduce new immigration and unrest. However, immigration continued and 30,000 Anglo with 3,000 slaves settled in Texas in 1835. In 1836, the Texas Revolution erupted. Following losses in the Alamo and Goliad, the Texans won the decisive San Jacinto Battle to gain independence. In San Jacinto, Sam Houston, commander of the Texian Army and President of the Republic of Texas in the future with a famous shout "Remember Alamo! Remember Goliad". The US Congress refused to annex Texas, deadlocked by arguments over debate over slavery and regional power. Thus, the Republic of Texas remained an independent force for nearly a decade before it was annexed as the 28th state in 1845. The Mexican government, however, views Texas as a runaway province and asserts its ownership.
Mexican-American War
Mexico refused to recognize the independence of Texas in 1836, but US and European powers did so. Mexico threatens war if Texas joins the US, which took place in 1845. American negotiator was rejected by the Mexican government in chaos. When the Mexican army killed 16 American troops in the war the disputed territory was imminent. Whigs, like Congressman Abraham Lincoln, denounced the war, but it was quite popular outside New England.
Mexico's strategy is defensive; American strategy is a three-prong attack, using a large number of volunteer soldiers. The land forces seized New Mexico with little resistance and headed for California, which quickly fell to American soil and maritime forces. From the main US base in New Orleans, General Zachary Taylor led troops to northern Mexico, winning a series of battles that took place. The US Navy sent General Winfield Scott to Veracruz. He then drove 12,000 troops westward to Mexico City, winning the final battle at Chapultepec. Speaking of getting all Mexico down when soldiers find Mexico's political and cultural values ​​so foreign to America. As the Cincinnati Herald asked, what would the United States do with eight million Mexicans "with their idolatry, superstitious paganism, and degraded seals race?"
The 1848 Guadalupe Hidalgo Agreement ceded California and New Mexico territories to the United States for $ 18.5 million (including the assumption of claims against Mexico by settlers). The Gadsden Purchase in 1853 added southern Arizona, which was necessary for rail routes to California. In all Mexico are handing out half a million square miles (1.3 million km 2 ) and include the state-to-be California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming, in addition to Texas. Managing new areas and tackling slavery causes a strong controversy, especially over Wilmot Proviso, which will ban slavery in new territories. Congress never passed it, but temporarily solved the problem of slavery in the West with the Compromise of 1850. California entered the Union in 1850 as a free state; other areas have remained territory for years.
Texas Growth
The new country grew rapidly as migrants poured into fertile cotton soil in eastern Texas. German immigrants began arriving in the early 1840s due to negative economic, social and political pressures in Germany. With their investment in land and cotton slaves, the planters established cotton plantations in the eastern district. The central region of the country was developed more by subsistence farmers who rarely had slaves.
Texas in the days of the Wild West attracts people who can shoot straight and have a passion for adventure, "for masculine fame, patriotic service, martial arts, and meaningful death".
The California Gold Rush
In 1846 about 10,000 Californios (Hispanics) lived in California, primarily in cattle ranches in what is now called Los Angeles. Several hundred foreigners are scattered in the northern district, including some Americans. With the outbreak of war with Mexico in 1846, the United States sent it to Frà © mont and the US Army units, as well as maritime troops, and quickly took control. When the war ended, gold was found in the north, and it soon spread throughout the world.
Thousands of "Forty-Niners" reached California, by sailing around South America (or taking a shortcut through the disease-infested Panama), or walking the California trail. The population jumped to more than 200,000 in 1852, mostly in the gold district that stretches into the mountains east of San Francisco.
Housing in San Francisco is at a premium, and abandoned vessels whose crew has been heading to mines are often converted to temporary lodgings. In the gold fields themselves living conditions are primitive, although mild climate proves to be attractive. Expensive supplies and bad food, typical diets consist mostly of pork, peanuts, and whiskey. These very male and temporary communities that do not have established institutions are vulnerable to high levels of violence, drunkenness, indecency, and greedy behavior. Without courts or law enforcement in the mining community to uphold claims and justice, miners developed their own ad hoc legal system, based on "mining codes" used in other mining communities abroad. Each camp has its own rules and is often given justice by popular voices, sometimes acting fairly and occasionally running vigilantism - with Indians, Mexicans and Chinese generally receiving the harshest sentence.
Gold rushes radically changed the California economy and brought in a number of professionals, including precious metal specialists, traders, doctors, and lawyers, who added to the miner population, guard sedans, gamblers, and prostitutes. A San Francisco newspaper declared, "The whole country... rumbles on a dirty call of gold! Gold! Gold while the field is left half planted, the house half wakes up, and all is neglected but the making of shovels and picking axes. "More than 250,000 miners found a total of more than $ 200 million of gold in five years from California Gold Rush. When thousands of people arrive, fewer miners reach their luck, and most end up tired and breaking up.
Violent bandits often prey on miners, such as the murder of Jonathan R. Davis of eleven bandits alone. Camps are scattered north and south of the American River and east to the Sierra. Within a few years, almost all independent miners were displaced when mines were bought and run by mining companies, which then hired low-paying miners. As gold becomes increasingly difficult to find and harder to extract, individual miners give way to paid work gangs, special skills, and mining machinery. Larger mines, however, cause greater environmental damage. In the mountains, shaft mining is dominated, generating large amounts of waste. Beginning in 1852, at the end of the '49 gold rush, until 1883, hydraulic mining was used. Although large profits are made, it falls into the hands of some capitalists, removes many miners, large amounts of sewage enters the river system, and undertakes severe ecological damage to the environment. Hydraulic mining ended when public protests over the destruction of agricultural land led to the prohibition of this practice.
The triangular mountainous regions of New Mexico to California to South Dakota contain hundreds of hard stone mining sites, where gold seekers find gold, silver, copper, and other minerals (as well as some soft coal). Temporary mining camps emerged overnight; most became ghost towns when ore runs out. Candidates spread and hunted gold and silver along the Rockies and in the southwest. Soon gold was found in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota (by 1864).
The discovery of Lode Comstock, which contains large amounts of silver, produced boomtown Nevada in Virginia City, Carson City, and Silver City. The wealth of silver, more than gold, fueled the maturation of San Francisco in the 1860s and helped the emergence of some of the richest families, such as George Hearst.
The Oregon Trail
To get to the rich new land on the West Coast, there are two options: some sail around the southern tip of South America for six months of voyage, but 400,000 others walk there by overland routes of more than 2,000 miles (3,000 km); Their wagon train usually departs from Missouri. They moved in large groups under an experienced wagonmaster, carrying their clothes, farm equipment, weapons, and animals. This wagon train follows a great river, across grasslands and mountains, and usually ends up in Oregon and California. Pioneers generally try to finish the journey for one warm season, usually for six months. In 1836, when the first migrant wagon train was organized in Independence, Missouri, a trail of carts had been emptied into Fort Hall, Idaho. The paths are traced further and further west, eventually reaching to the Willamette Valley in Oregon. The network of railways that led to the Pacific Northwest was later called the Oregon Trail. The eastern part of the route was also used by travelers on the California Trail (from 1843), the Mormon Trail (from 1847), and the Bozeman Trail (from 1863) before they went to their separate destinations.
In the "Wagon Train of 1843", about 700 to 1,000 emigrants headed to Oregon; missionary Marcus Whitman led the carriage on the last leg. In 1846, Barlow Road finished around Mt. Hood, providing a rugged but passable railroad from the Missouri River to the Willamette Valley: about 2,000 miles (3,000 km). Although the main direction of travel on the early train line is to the west, people also use the Oregon Trail to travel eastwards. Some do so because they are discouraged and defeated. Some returned carrying bags of gold and silver. Most returned to pick up their families and move them all to the west. These "gobacks" are the main source of information and excitement about the miracles and promises - and the dangers and disappointments - of the Far West.
Not all emigrants achieve their goals. Many land-hazards: snake bites, train accidents, violence from other travelers, suicide, malnutrition, capedes, Indian attacks, various diseases (dysentery, typhoid, and cholera are the most common), exposure, avalanche, etc. One of the most notable examples of the traitorous nature of this journey is the story of the ill-fated Donner Party, trapped in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter of 1846-1847 in which nearly half of the 90 people traveling with the group died from starvation and exposure , and some forced cannibalism to survive. Another story about cannibalism featured Alfred Packer and his journey to Colorado in 1874. There were also frequent attacks of bandits and robbers, such as the famous Harpe brothers who patrolled the border routes and targeted migrant groups.
Mormon and Utah
In Missouri and Illinois, hostilities between Mormon settlers and locals grew, which would reflect them in other countries such as Utah years later. The violence finally erupted on 24 October 1838 when militia from both sides clashed and mass murder against the Mormons in Livingston County occurred 6 days later. An executive order was filed during these conflicts, and Mormons were forced to spread. Brigham Young, who tried to leave American jurisdiction to avoid religious persecution in Illinois and Missouri, led the Mormons to the Great Salt Lake valley, which was owned at that time by Mexico but not controlled by them. A hundred rural Mormon settlements sprang up in what Young called "Deseret", which he decided as a theocracy. It later became the Utah Territory. The Salt Lake City Young settlement serves as the center of their network, which reaches out to neighboring areas as well. Communalism and advanced agricultural practices from Mormon enable them to succeed. They sell goods to passing wagon trains and come to terms with local Indian tribes because Young decides to cheaper to feed the Indians rather than fight them. Education is a top priority for protecting the beleaguered group, reducing the heresy and maintaining group solidarity.
The great threat to the Mormons in Utah was the US government, which took possession of Utah in 1848, and was encouraged by Protestant churches, rejecting theocracy and polygamy. Republicans vow to destroy polygamy, which is seen as an affront to the religious, cultural and moral values ​​of modern civilization. The confrontation appeared in an open war in the late 1850s when President Buchanan sent troops. Although no military fighting is fought, and negotiations lead to retreat, violence is still rising and there are some casualties. After the Civil War, the federal government systematically took over Utah from Mormon, and encouraged church leadership underground. Meanwhile, aggressive missionary work in the US and Europe brought the flood of Mormons who moved to Utah. Finally in 1890 Church leaders announced polygamy was no longer a central principle, and a compromise was reached, with Utah being a state and Mormon dividing the Republican and Democratic Party.
The Pony Express and telegraph
The federal government provided subsidies for the development of postal and freight shipments, and in 1856, Congress made official roadworks and landline services to California. New commercial carts train services especially transported transport. In 1858 John Butterfield (1801-69) set up a stage service that went from Saint Louis to San Francisco in 24 days along the southern route. The route was abandoned in 1861 after Texas joined the Confederation, supporting the stroller service established through Fort Laramie and Salt Lake City, a 24-day trip, with Wells Fargo & Co as a leading provider (originally using the old "Butterfield" name).
William Russell, hoping to get a government contract for a faster mail delivery service, started Pony Express in 1860, reducing the delivery time to ten days. He established more than 150 stations about 15 miles (24 km) apart.
In 1861 Congress passed the Land-Grant Telegraph Law which financed the construction of the Western Union telegraph line. Hiram Sibley, head of Western Union, negotiated an exclusive agreement with railroads to run a telegraph line along their right path. Eight years before the transcontinental railroads opened, the First Transcontinental Telegraph linked Omaha, Nebraska and San Francisco (and point in between) on October 24, 1861. The Pony Express expired in just 18 months because it could not compete with the telegraph.
Bleeding Kansas
Constitutionally, Congress can not handle slavery in the states but has jurisdiction in the western region. California unanimously resisted slavery in 1850 and became a free country. New Mexico permits slavery, but is rarely seen there. Kansas was forbidden to slavery by the Compromise of 1820. Elements of Free Land feared that slavery allowed rich growers to buy the best lands and tackle them with slave gangs, leaving little chance for white people free to own fields. Some South growers are actually interested in Kansas, but the idea that slavery is illegal there implies that they have second-class status that is not tolerated by their sense of honor, and seems to violate the principle of state rights. With the passage of the highly controversial Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, Congress passed the decision to voters on land in Kansas. In the North, a new big party was formed to fight slavery: the Republicans, with many Westerners in leadership positions, especially Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. To influence territorial decisions, anti-slavery elements (also called "Jayhawkers" or "Free-soilers") fund the migration of politically determined settlers. But pro-slavery supporters are fighting back with pro-slavery settlers from Missouri. Violence on both sides is the result; in all 56 people were killed when the violence subsided in 1859. In 1860 the pro-slavery forces reigned - but Kansas only had two slaves. The antislavery forces took over in 1861, when Kansas became a free country. This episode shows that a democratic compromise between North and South over slavery is impossible and serves to accelerate the Civil War.
Civil War in the West
Regardless of its vast territory, West trans-Mississippi has a small population and its wartime history has largely been underestimated in American Civil War historiography.
Theater Trans-Mississippi
Confederations are involved in several important campaigns in the West. However, Kansas, the main conflicting region that built the war, is the scene of only one battle, at Mine Creek. But its proximity to the Confederate line allows pro-Confederate guerrillas, such as the Quantrill Raiders, to attack the Union camp and slaughter the population.
In Texas, citizens chose to join the Confederacy; German anti-war hung. Local troops took over the federal arsenal in San Antonio, with plans to seize northern New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado areas, and possibly California. The Arizona Confederation was created by the citizens of Arizona who wanted protection against the Apache attack after the United States Army unit was moved. The Confederacy then set his eyesight to control the New Mexico Territory. General Henry Hopkins Sibley was assigned to the campaign, and along with his New Mexico Army, marched directly to the Rio Grande in an effort to take on the mineral wealth of Colorado as well as California. The First Regiment of the Volunteers found the rebels, and they immediately warned and joined the Yankees at Fort Union. The Battle of Glorieta Pass immediately erupted, and the Union ended the Confederation campaign and the western Texas area remained in Union hands.
Missouri, a Union state where slavery is legal, became a battleground when pro-secession governors, defying the legislative vote, led troops to the federal arsenal in St. Louis. Louis; he was assisted by Confederate forces from Arkansas and Louisiana. However, Union General Samuel Curtis regains St. Louis and all of Missouri for the Union. The state is where various attacks and guerrilla warfare in the west.
Peacekeeping
The US Army after 1850 formed a series of military posts on the border, designed to stop wars between Indian tribes or between Indian tribes and settlers. Throughout the 19th century, Army officers were usually tasked with building their careers in peacekeeping roles moving from castle to fortress to retirement. The actual combat experience rarely happens to one soldier.
The most dramatic conflict was the Sioux war in Minnesota in 1862, when Dakota tribes systematically attacked German agriculture in an attempt to expel the settlers. For several days, the Dakota attack on the Lower Sioux Agency, New Ulm and Hutchinson, massacred 300 to 400 white settlers. State militias fight and Lincoln sends federal troops. The ensuing battles at Fort Ridgely, Birch Coulee, Fort Abercrombie, and Wood Lake marked a six-week war, which ended in an American victory. The federal government tried 425 Indians to be killed, and 303 people were sentenced and sentenced to death. Lincoln forgave the majority, but 38 leaders were hanged.
The presence of the declining Union forces in the West left an untrained militia group; the hostile tribes used the opportunity to attack the settlers. The militia struck back violently, especially by attacking the winter heads of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, filled with women and children, at the Sand Creek massacre in eastern Colorado in late 1864.
Kit Carson and the US Army in 1864 trapped all the Navajo tribes in New Mexico, where they robbed the settlers, and placed them in reservations. In the Territory of India, now Oklahoma, the conflict arose between the Five Civilized Tribes, most of whom sided with the South as their own slaves.
In 1862, Congress passed two major laws to facilitate the settlement of the West: the Homestead Act and the Pacific Railroad Act. The result in 1890 was millions of new farmland in the state of Plains, many operated by new immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia.
The Postbellum West
Territorial governance after the Civil War
With the end of war and slavery removed, the federal government focuses on improving regional governance. It divided up some territories, preparing them for the state, following precedents set by the Northwest Law of 1787. This standard procedure and territorial government oversight, took some local power, and imposed a lot of "red tape", fed a significant federal bureaucracy..
The federal involvement in the region is considerable. In addition to direct subsidies, the federal government maintains military posts, provides security from Indian attacks, agrees obligations financed, conducts surveys and sales of land, builds roads, assigns land offices, makes port improvements, and subsidizes landing mail by land. Territorial citizens are coming to federal power and local corruption, and at the same time, lamenting that more federal money is not being sent to them.
Territorial governors are politically appointed and are bound by Washington so they are usually organized with light hands, allowing legislators to deal with local issues. In addition to his role as a civilian governor, a territorial governor is also a militia commander, a local supervisor of Indian affairs, and a state liaison with federal agencies. The legislature, on the other hand, speaks for the locals and they are given enough allowance by the federal government to make local laws.
The improvement of governance still leaves plenty of room for profit. As Mark Twain writes while working for his brother, Nevada's secretary, "My country's government rejects honest simplicity, but loves artistic criminals, and I think I may have developed into a very capable pickpocket if I remain in one or two public services "The Territorial Ring, the corrupt local politician association and business owner sustained by federal patronage, has been embezzled by Indians and locals, especially in the Dakota and New Mexico region.
Federal land system
In obtaining, preparing and distributing public lands for private property, the federal government generally follows the system established by the Land Law of 1785. The federal team's exploration and scientific will conduct land surveillance and determine the abode of Native Americans. Through the agreement, the right to land will be handed over by the tribes of the population. Then the surveyor will create a detailed map that marks the land into a 6-mile (10 km) long box on each side, divided first into one square mile block, then 160 acres (0.65 km 2 ) a lot. Cities will be formed from many and sold at public auctions. Unsold land can be purchased from the land office for a minimum price of $ 1.25 per acre.
As part of public policy, the government will grant public land to certain groups such as veterans, through the use of "land script". These scripts are traded on financial markets, often below the minimum price of $ 1.25 per acre set by law, which gives speculators, investors, and developers another way to acquire large, low-cost land. The land policy becomes politicized by competing factions and interests, and the question of slavery in new lands is debated. As a counter to land speculators, farmers form a "claim club" to allow them to buy tracts greater than the 160 acre ration (0.65 km 2 ) by trading among themselves at a controlled price.
In 1862, Congress issued three important bills that changed the land system. The Homestead Act provides free 160 acres (0.65Ã, km 2 ) for every settler fixing the land for five years; citizens and non-citizens including squatters and women, all of whom are eligible. The only cost is the cost of a simple submission. The law is especially important in the settlement of the Lowland countries. Many are taking free homestays and others are buying their land from low-priced railways.
The Pacific Railway Acts of 1862 is reserved for the land needed to build a transcontinental railway. The land given by the railways alternates with government-owned channels that are kept for free distribution to the inhabitants of the house. In an attempt to be fair, the federal government reduces each channel to 80 acres (320,000 m 2 ) because of the perceived higher value given its proximity to the railroad. Railways have up to five years to sell or mortgage their land, once a rail is established, after which unsold land can be bought by anyone. Often railroads sell part of their government-purchased land to the inmates immediately to encourage settlements and market growth which can then be served by trains. The Nebraska railway in the 1870s was a powerful amplifier of land along their route. They send agents to Germany and Scandinavia with package deals that include cheap transportation for families as well as furniture and agricultural equipment, and they offer long-term credit at low rates. Boosterism has succeeded in attracting American and European adventurers to Nebraska, helping them to buy a land grant package well. The selling price depends on factors such as soil quality, water, and distance from the railroad.
The Morrill Act of 1862 provides land grants to countries to start agricultural colleges and mechanical arts (engineering). The black college became eligible for this land grant in 1890. The Act succeeded in its goal of opening a new university and making agriculture more scientific and profitable.
Transcontinental cross train
In a government sponsored survey of the 1850s to map the remaining unexplored regions of the West, and u
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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