The Wild West Facts

Dates

1865 - 1900

What is it?

• The idea of the ‘Wild West’ refers to cultural, geographical, historical and folkloric ideas associated with American expansion

• The Wild West as we know it appeared after the civil war when the South, unable to enslave people, targeted Native Americans and their land for conquest

Frontier Thesis

Turner 1893
idea that American democracy is based on the values gained from westward expansion such as determination, self-reliance and restless energy

Transcontinetal railroad

built 1863 - 1869

Land rushes

Government gave out lots of land that was once owned by the Native Americans

Where is it?

"All Angry Cowboys Climb High In Mountains, Noticing New Owls Under Windy Windows."

• Alaska

• Arizona

• California

• Colorado

• Hawaii

• Idaho

• Montana

• Nevada

• New Mexico

• Oregon

• Utah

• Washington

  • Wyoming

Manifest Destiny

• O’Sullivan (1845)

• divine right to conquer

• the west acted like the ruins of Old Europe

  • America the Beautiful

Homestead Act

1862 - granted Americans 160-acre plots of public land for the price of a small filing fee.

Agriculture

By 1900 farm commodities formed ¾ of exports

Native Americans

• forced to acquiesce in assimilation practices

• not granted citizenship till 1924

• tribes had no say in internal affairs

• history ignored

Loss of the frontier

in 1890 the U.S. Census Bureau declared there was no longer a frontier