Which argument for expansion probably had the greatest appeal among Americans, and why

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• Which argument for expansion probably had the
  greatest appeal among Americans, and why?

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Colonial America How the West was Lost
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I. Visions of the West

• A. Turners Frontier
• "The Significance of the Frontier in American
  History," 1893
• "The existence of an area of free land, its
  continuous recession, and the advance of American
  settlement westward explain American
  development."
• Frontier? "that coarseness and strength combined
  with acuteness and acquisitiveness that
  practical inventive turn of mind, quick to find
  expedients that masterful grasp of material
  things... that restless, nervous energy that
  dominant individualism" Americanism

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Rugged Individualism

• Farm life on Plains is very difficult hard work,
  essentials (water, fuel) are scarce
• Weather is unpredictable (heat, storms,
  blizzards, floods, prairie fires), plus insects
• 98 Meridian

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• Democracy for women (compare early South Carolina
  slaves)
• Homestead Act (1862) disperses settlement and
  creates social isolation
• Also lonely because many were bachelors many
  abandon farms for cities (late 1800s)
• Isolation diminished by mail-order companies and
  extension of RFD post service

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B. Cowboys and Indians

• William Buffalo Bill Cody
• Buffalo Bills Wild West (1883)
• Buffalo hunt w/ real buffalos, Indian attack on
  the Deadwood stage with real Indians, Pony
  Express ride, and presentation of Custers Last
  Stand w/Lakota who had actually fought
• Toured Europe, great acclaim
• ½ circus, ½ history lesson
• Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull
• 1,700 dime novels
• ? violent, gunfighting, gambling, get-rich-quick,
  lawless hedonism Wild West

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II. Realities of the West

• A. Rugged Cooperation
• Massive govt assistance throughout (and today)
• Pacific Railway Acts (1862, 1864) US 180 million
  acres to rail companies States 50 million acres
• Morrill Land Grant Act (1862) land grant
  colleges
• Homestead Act (1862) 160 acres, small fee if 1)
  21 / head household, 2) citizen or imm. seeking,
  3) build house, 4) farm 5 years? 372,000 farms,
  80 million acres
• 50 years post-CW more land than since Jamestown
• Cheap land immigrants blacks (50,000
  Exodusters)

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• Expansion? tension w/ Indians? violence? cavalry?
  removal massacre Sand Creek (500), Wounded
  Knee (200)? Indian Emancipation Act
• Disappearing Indian
• Indian monopoly on land? stymie competition?
  break-up
• Dawes Act (General Allotment Act), 1887
• 1) 160 acres of land to head of each family
  single over 18 80 acres under 18 40 acres
• 2) same legal protection as whites
• 3) Federal government, for 25 years, would hold
  land in trust Indians could not sell land for 25
  years
• 4) Full citizenship rights
• 5) Fed sell all remaining land not allotted

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• Unsuitable for farming choose land for culture gt
  economics refuse farm not enough land? debt to
  whites (sharecropping / debt peonage)? lose 2/3
  land
• ? 1934 Indian Reorganization Act

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• Destruction of the Buffalo
• 1) Weather
• 2) Indians
• 3) Competition horses/cattle
• 4) Bill Cody

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• Mechanization agriculture need for irrigation
  (environment) boom/bust cycle? concentration in
  large, commercial farms
• Also true (diff. particulars) for ranching
  mining

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B. Mild West

• 1) Not as violent more died violently in RxR
  accidents than gun
• 1889 50 gunmen Wyoming Stock Growers Association
  vs. small ranchers farmers 3 days shooting, 1
  death (shot self) Feds save gunmen
• 2) Violence often socio-economic conflict
  competition for land, resources, power
• 3) Violence usually not personal conflicts but
  rather conflict between social groups (e.g. pan
  miners vs. capitalists goonssee Pale Rider)
• Cleaned up quickly as big biz moves in

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The Ranching Frontier

• Population growth RxR (bulk transportation)?
  cattle ranching mushrooms after 1860s
• Penny press claims 25-40 profit
• Drive cattle 1,000 miles from TX to rail link,
  but soon move to raising herds near rail link
  (long drives inefficient)
• Mexican black cowboys
• Profitable open-range ranching w/ massive use
  govt lands dominated large ranchers w/ backing
  (London, NYC)

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Grazing Wars

• Massive cattle ranching conflicts commercial
  farms sheep herds (wooly critters)
• West lacks materials for traditional fences who
  owns what?? Mass production barbed wire solves
  conflict
• Wire accelerates farming (protect) ranching
  moves toward big business, away from open-range
  (large-scale isolate)
• Winter 1887-88? Small ranchers out, most cowboys
  wage-earners