HIST 2057 Lecture : Week 3 The West
Document Summary
This is when the map transforms into what we know today. In the expansion process, the native people are destroyed. New western history challenges the old view: history of inequalities, fundamentally undemocratic, focus on race, class, gender, environment, frontier as a term was problematic, borderland. Ignores the people already living in the west. Fails to acknowledge people moving from the west to the east and from the south to north (chinese and mexicans) Says that there are huge areas of land unpopulated not true. Central pacific san fransico: meet in utah. Joins the east and west for the first time. Brings more people to the west and over the continental divide. Accelerates the destruction of native americans and the occupation of the west. 1870-1890: 35,000 miles of track 200,000 miles of track, west of the mississippi and in the south. Subsidized by the us government: largest government subsidies in american hisotry, loans, land grants.
