American History 102: 1865-Present
Stanley K. Schultz and William P. Tishler
Topic 3
Which Old West and Whose?
Preamble

Identifications

  • John Wesley Harding
  • Wild Bill Hickock
  • Stephen H. Long
  • The Great American Desert
  • Charles Dana Wilber
  • Frederick Jackson Turner
  • Federal Census of 1890
  • Comanches
  • Nez Perce
  • Chief Joseph
  • Geronimo
  • George A. Custer
  • Crazy Horse
  • Sitting Bull
  • "Little Big Horn"
  • "Red River War"
  • "Battle of Wounded Knee"
  • Ghost Dance

The "Old West" was largely a post Civil War phenomenon from roughly 1865-1890. It included the large-scale settlement of 430 million acres of land. More land was settled during the "old west" than in the first 250 years of American history. In essence, the land area occupied by Americans doubled. During this time three "empires" rose and fell: Mining, especially gold and silver; Farming; and Cattle. Ten new states entered the United States, and by 1912 the lower 48 were complete. It was also during this time that White Americans defeated Native Americans in the so called Indian Wars.

INDEX

  1. Which Old West and Whose?
  2. "The Great American Desert"
  3. Images of the Old West
  4. Turner's "The Significance of the Frontier in American History"
  5. The Cowboy
  6. Victims of the Old West

 

 

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