Manifest Destiny: The First American Empire Mormon Settlers moving west to Utah, 1847

Expansion US territorial growth was largely negotiated (treaty, war, purchase) with foreign nations, who claimed tracts of land across the continent Sovereignty over the land was a thornier issue: land was also occupied by Native American groups 1800s: expansion period in US coincides with period of intensive empire building by imperialist nations: France, UK, Russia, Germany John C.H. Grabill, “The Cowboy”, 1887

Timeline: The 50 States 1783: United States reaches Mississippi River 1803: Louisiana Purchase (from France) 1818: Midwest cession (from Britain) 1819-21: Purchase of Florida (from Spain) 1845: Republic of Texas (originally part of Mexico) 1846: Oregon Territory (from Britain) 1848: Mexican Cession (after war) 1853: Gadsden Purchase (from Mexico) 1867: Alaska Purchase (from Russia) 1893: Overthrow of Kingdom of Hawaii

The Frontier: the Defining Feature of America? Frederick Jackson Turner, 1893 “The Frontier thesis” “In a recent bulletin of the Superintendent of the Census for 1890 appear these significant words: ‘Up to and including 1880 the country had a frontier of settlement, but at present the unsettled area has been so broken into by isolated bodies of settlement that there can hardly be said to be a frontier line. In the discussion of its extent, its westward movement, etc., it can not, therefore, any longer have a place in the census reports.’ This brief official statement marks the closing of a great historic movement. 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.

John Gast, “American Progress” (1872)

Romanticizing the Frontier

The Homestead Act, 1862

The Homestead Act, 1862 Grants of up to 160 acres of land from federal holdings FOR FREE (mostly; $18 in filing fees, or $500 today) Requirements: aged 21, head of household (men or single women), no persons who fought against US; file application; improve land; live on land for at least five years; apply for a deed Numbers: 1.6 million homesteads granted by 1934 when laws begin to change; 270 million acres distributed (10% of the size of the US) 1976: program comes to end (continues to 1986 in Alaska)

Western Settlement Colonization of the west: Mexicans, Canadians, Germans, Scandinavians, Irish, “Exodusters” from South Farming difficulties: arid conditions across much of the west posed challenges – in fact inabilities to properly manage led to the Dust Bowl conditions of the 1930s

Alice Lamb on her Homestead land, 1906

Women in the West Any woman who was head of household could file as a homesteader, provided she met the requirements 12% of homesteaders in CO, WY, MT, ND, SD, UT were single women Louise Karlson: "When in 1908 I heard about the homestead land one could get, I thought, here is my chance.” Pauline Shoemaker: "I've done everything else, I might as well try homesteading." Mary Fields, Montana; Photo credit: Sr. Kathleen Padden of the Ursuline Convent Archives, Toledo, Ohio

Next Class Native American Experiences in the West Reaction Paper 2 Readings: Luther Standing Bear, “The Ghost Dance Troubles,” from My People the Sioux