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American West
The western United States includes 13 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada ,New Mexico, Oregon, Wyoming Washington and Utah.
The American West, its context and its connections, continues to be a challenging and exciting theme in American Studies in twenty-first century .
There are two approaches toward American west: some historians and observers like Frederick Jackson Turner emphasized on abundance of free land and prosperity which led to a rapidly developing nation. Others have alterative propositions about the west and are not that much positive. Revisiting the west involves a journey into historiography of the frontier and the west.
The western United States includes 13 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada ,New Mexico, Oregon, Wyoming Washington and Utah.
The American West, its context and its connections, continues to be a challenging and exciting theme in American Studies in twenty-first century .
There are two approaches toward American west: some historians and observers like Frederick Jackson Turner emphasized on abundance of free land and prosperity which led to a rapidly developing nation. Others have alterative propositions about the west and are not that much positive. Revisiting the west involves a journey into historiography of the frontier and the west.
• From American frontier to American West
Turner’s thesis is based on the idea of existence of an area of what he called "Free Land". This land provided material foundation which enabled millions of people to build United States into wealthy and democratic nation visible at the end of 19 century.
Such frontier trait became American trait and frontier experience was transmitted both geographically across space and historically through time. Though he faced much criticism but he was persistence in his efforts and he made a Turnerian school of history.
Another reaction toward the west emerged in 1930s when serious economical difficulties produced criticism based on scarcity and misuse of resources. The critics believed too much had been attributed to west.
The New West became a colonial area exploited by outside capitalist this west was distinctive for its disappointment and failure. Too many people of color suffered from white invasion. The west was no longer considered to be democratic but distinctly inegaliterian.
Turner’s thesis is based on the idea of existence of an area of what he called "Free Land". This land provided material foundation which enabled millions of people to build United States into wealthy and democratic nation visible at the end of 19 century.
Such frontier trait became American trait and frontier experience was transmitted both geographically across space and historically through time. Though he faced much criticism but he was persistence in his efforts and he made a Turnerian school of history.
Another reaction toward the west emerged in 1930s when serious economical difficulties produced criticism based on scarcity and misuse of resources. The critics believed too much had been attributed to west.
The New West became a colonial area exploited by outside capitalist this west was distinctive for its disappointment and failure. Too many people of color suffered from white invasion. The west was no longer considered to be democratic but distinctly inegaliterian.
• The Land and its Ownership
Traditionally Native Americans were considered to use resources inefficiently, and farming irregularly with primitive tools. Newcomers though that they had the right to take the land and use it more productively for the benefit of themselves. They deemed native people to be incompetent.
Leading Americans agreed that the ex-colonist, now states, should form a national entity and they successfully negotiated that the 7 of the original 13 states claiming lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains should yield the title to the federal government.
President Jefferson, intellectual father of expansionism, bought Louisiana from French thereby securing the navigation rights to the Mississippi River and preventing western rebellion.
The purchase of Alaska in 1867 and occupation of Hawaii in 1898 expanded the territories of the United States. Academics discussed that whether this process should be called "Manifest Destiny" or continental imperialism.
The way that western lands were governed was established by Northwest Ordinance of 1787 which was a three-stage political process, enabling settlers to move from subordinate territories to full statehood.
There were major inequities in land disposal policies
• Developing Western Resources
Improvement in transport technology and agricultural machinery accelerated production.
Land usage in west was rapid and productive.
Trade and earning were the mechanisms that drove most of the farmers into commercial production and encouraged rapid agricultural development of United States.
Western residents also misused other resources namely forests, fish, animals and minerals.
This process of changing western land into an agrarian empire has been perceived as either as a success or as a danger and disaster for both human and environment.
Native Americans used these resources but either because they respected the lives of others ad the nature or limited access to the weapons, their impact on nature was negligible.
Mining of precious metals such as gold and silver mobilized thousands newcomers.
• Peoples and Communities of the American West
American west is a cosmopolitan region with diverse communities and cultures.
Native Americans were the lawful inhabitants of the west whose rights have been exploited by invaders.
New trading patterns and contact with Europeans resulted in ethnic diversity, armed instability and increasing dependency of native people on trade goods.
For many Americans removing natives from western lands became a national agenda and in 1830s it became an official removal policy.
Of other antecedent resident, mestizo, Métis and mulattos are little known. They were mixed native groups, who lived in Northern Province of an independent nation. Most of them were mostly farm workers.
African Americans added a further ethno-racial component. The relatively modest number of African Americans in the west suggests that racism was prevalent in the west.
East Asian immigrants, mostly Chinese were another ethnic group who had no opportunity to integrate into western life.
Another group of residents were whites who were generally labeled as Anglo-Americans, but there was a significant economic, social and cultural difference among them.
The American West comprises the history, myth, legends, stories and beliefs and cultural meanings that collected around the.
Historians approach toward the west and the knowledge about it was based on either myth or reality. For them myth consisted of emotional hazy ideas or beliefs while the history or the real past was a rational enactment of facts. Western United States in 19 century.
So it was essential it "deconstruct" narratives earlier, which were considered to be factual to uncover assumptions within which they were created and to reveal the more complicated truth about their costume written or pictorial information was brought by explorers and travelers which provided a range of stories that encouraged immigration to these places.
The portrayals of the west continued to twentieth century, both popular and intellectually respectable. Holly Wood Westerns contributed most in creating a romantic vision of the west.
Though the attraction declined during the Vietnam war, but it came back with introduction of documentaries. Literature again played an important role, with writers such as Zane Grey and Max Brand.
One's perception about the west is not free from emphasize selectivity and cultural filtering and depends on his or her own state of mind.
