THE WESTWARD MOVEMENT, THE FRONTIER SPIRIT
AND AMERICAN WESTERN MOVIES
by
Feng Xing
A Thesis
Submitted to the Graduate School and College of English
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of Master of Arts
Under the Supervision of Professor Lin Ling
Shanghai International Studies University
May 2013
Acknowledgements
On the completion of this paper, I fully understand that one could never accomplish such a "mission"
without the help from others, either spiritually or materially. Here I would like to express my sincere
gratitude toward those who have kindly offered me their help during the hard course of my thesis
writing.
First of all, I feel greatly indebted to Professor Lin Ling, my supervisor, who has given me valuable
guidance and assistance in the process, and who has devoted his precious time to reading through each
draft and making critical comments. Without this immense patience and inspiring suggestions, the
completion of this thesis would have been impossible.
My heartfelt gratitude also goes to my family members including my mother, my brother, his wife and
my wife, whose supports and encouragements throughout the whole process had been a great source of
inspirations and brought me unlimited joys of family reunion during the 2013 Chinese New Year
holiday when my thesis writing went on.
Last but not least, 1 would like to extend my thanks to all of the others who have shown concern for this
thesis, or have rendered me their help in every stage of this undertaking. It is with their generous
supports and warm encouragements that 1 was able to finish this paper.
Abstract
Ever since its advent in the late 1890s, movies have been playing an integral part in the formation and
evolvement of the American culture which, among cultures of all countries in the world, is exerting the
most powerful influences across the globe. Western movies, as a separate and unique genre in the art of
motion picture has a history dating back as early as when the filming industry itself came into being, as
a result, western movies can be utilized by scholars, researchers, teachers and students as a good
medium for the study of the American culture and society . Owing to the fact that most western movies
are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the Old West, alternatively the Wild West in the latter half
of the 19th century when the westward expansion from the original colonial settlements was in full
swing, quintessential elements can be drawn from the tales of conquest and survival of those American
frontier pioneers to understand what contributes to making who American people are and what America
is - the American spirit. According to an online survey conducted by sparxoo.com involving American
elite citizens from all walks of life, five traits rose above all else as the core attributes as an ideal
America - Independence, Opportunity, Innovation, Diversity and Generosity. All of these
aforementioned traits as well as the other characters summarized by other critiques and scholars such as
Adventurousness, Egoism, Openness and Freedom can be boiled down to the frontier spirit of America
that plays an essential role in constructing the American culture. The subject that this thesis intends to
deal with is to peer through various typical American western movies in order to shed some light on
how the American frontier spirit is reflected in these movies by the film makers including directors,
screenwriters, actors and actresses.
Keywords: westward movement, frontier spirit, western movies
摘要
电影，自从其 17 世纪 90 年代末诞生起，就在美国文化的形成和演变过程中扮演着至关重要的角
色。西部片，作为诞生于美国的独特的电影类型片，因其几乎与电影本身一样长久的历史，是被
学者用来研究美国社会和文化的一种重要媒介。大多数的西部影片讲述的是发生在 19 世纪后半
叶的美国老西部(西大荒)的故事，此时，美国的西进运动正进行得如火如荼。西部片作为好莱坞
电影特殊的类型片，其深层的符号和象征：是关于美国人开发西部的史诗般的神化，影片多取材
于西部文学和民间传说，并将文学语言的想象幅度与电影画面的幻觉幅度结合起来。西部片的神
化，并不是再现历史的真实写照，而是创造着一种理想的道德规范，去反映美国人的民族性格和
精神倾向。根据一项网上调查，大多数的美国精英阶层和未来领袖都认为构建美国精神的民族特
性主要有五个方面，它们分别是：独立自主、抓住机会、勇于创新、求同存异以及乐善好施。除
此之外，其他学者和评论家还归纳出了另外几个美国的民族特性，例如，敢于冒险、自我主义、
心态开放、崇尚自由等。本文试图通过分析多部美国西部影片里面的背景、故事、角色、情节等，
来探讨这些电影所折射出来的上文所提及的在西进运动中通过开疆拓土所培育出来的美国民族
特性，即美国精神。
关键词: 西部电影、西部运动、西部精神
Contents
Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 1
Chapter 1 American Spirit Cultivated in the Frontier Trek ............................................................... 5
1.1.
The Westward Expansion: A Historical Overview ................................................................ 5
1.2.
The Rise and the fall of Cowboys, Chivalries in the Wilderness ........................................... 9
1.3.
Cowboys and Frontier Spirit ................................................................................................ 13
1.3.1.
Independence, Self-Reliance and Individualism .............................................................. 13
1.3.2.
Adventurousness, Persistence and Dauntlessness ............................................................ 15
1.3.3.
Entrepreneurism and Realism .......................................................................................... 17
Chapter 2 American Western Movies: An Overview ...................................................................... 19
2.1
Chronology: A Time-honored History ................................................................................. 19
2.2
Themes and Characteristics: Legendries Set in the West Movement .................................. 25
2.3
Influence and Impact of Western Films ............................................................................... 29
Chapter 3 Western Movies: A Symbol of the Frontier Spirit .......................................................... 33
3.1
Stagecoach: Advocacy for Compassion, Generosity and Equality ...................................... 33
3.2
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Spirit of Adventurousness and Sportsmanship........ 35
3.3
High Noon: Hooray for Bravery and Responsibility ............................................................ 39
3.4
Once Upon a Time in the West: Chivalry and Justice Exerted in the Wild West................. 41
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 44
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................... 48
Notes ................................................................................................................................................ 48
Introduction
If we cluster together all of the significant events -- War of Independence, Civil War, Westward
Movement, World War One, World War Two, Great Depression, New Deal, Vietnam War, Cold War and
911 Attack etc. -- that influenced or determined the history and the fate of the United States of America,
no one would deny the importance of the Westward Movement in terms of nurturing and developing the
national spirit of America. Westward Movement, a period replete with courage, adventures, hardships,
persistence, legends, tears and blood, is for America and American people roughly what the reform and
opening up policy execution for China and Chinese people.
In the World Showcase pavilion of Walt Disney World's Epcot Center located in Florida state stands a
Colonial Soldier statue standing firmly on the ground and watching vigorously forward with the feet
spread, head high, butt back and chest out whilst one hand grasping his rifle and the other holding
tightly onto his bullet bag. This is a personification of a trait American people are proud of - the spirit of
independence. It is a right endowed to every American citizen by the United States Constitution; It is a
result achieved by the fearless American ancestors shedding their blood and giving up their lives for
from 1775 through 1784 in defiance of the forceful suppressions from the British colonists .Ever since
the issue of The Declaration of Independence in 1776, the sense of liberty had taken root in the depth of
every American heart, poor or rich, ordinary or elite, low or high.
Right after the War of Independence was won by American people, a peace treaty was signed between
the newly revolutionized America and Britain which officially and legally opened the mass land of the
untapped west between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River1. This marked the coming
of a magnificent feat lasting for more than a century by, of and for the people of the United States - the
Westward Movement. In the wake of this treaty, hundreds of thousands of people of various classes -capitalists, speculators, farmers and craftsmen --, fascinated about the mysteries of the virgin land,
embarked on the journey to the west in search of fortune, later telling their descendants and others
ignorant of the west numerous soul-stirring stories regarding their adventures. Their deed was also
encouraged, supported and even sponsored the newly-founded American federal government.
No sooner the independence was acquired than the ambitious new America accelerated its pace in
expanding its frontier even further west for the movement underway, having merged vast stretches of
land beyond the Mississippi River by virtue of purchase and war. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson,
at incredibly low cost, purchased the territory of Louisiana covering a land of 2,140,000 square
kilometers which is about one third of the current American territory from the hand of French while
their emperor Napoleon was busying himself with multiple wars in the European continent2. This
territory acquisition enormously agitated the aspiration of those were still clinging to the east and
motivated them to join the Westward Movement.
Just less than one year after the Louisiana Purchase, another incident also conducted by Thomas
Jefferson stirred up the morale of the people going through unprecedented hardships in the Westward
Movement. In 1804, the Corps of Discovery shepherded by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, two
Virginia-born veterans of Indian wars in the Ohio Valley, set their feet onto a glorious expedition. It was
the first transcontinental expedition to the Pacific coast from the east coast undertaken by the United
States and this deed was commissioned by no one other than President Thomas Jefferson, a scientist
1 / 55
himself, whose objective was, through this expedition, to find the most direct and practicable water
communication across this continent for the purposes of commerce. This expedition was meant to
explore the Louisiana Purchase, establish trade and U.S. sovereignty over the native peoples along the
River Missouri. Jefferson also wanted to establish a U.S. claim of "Discovery" to the Pacific Northwest
and Oregon territory by documenting an American presence there before Europeans could claim the
land. The journals of this expedition which concluded in 1806 served as an invaluable guidebook for the
pathfinders in the Westward Movement on how the frontier could be exploited economically. The
Expedition of the Corps of Discovery shaped a crude route to the waters of the Pacific and marked an
initial pathway for the newly founded nation to spread westward from ocean to ocean, fulfilling what
would become to many Americans a manifest destiny. Over the next two centuries the new Americans
and many immigrants had washed across the central and western portions of what eventually became
the contiguous States. This wave of development significantly transformed virgin forests and grasslands
into a landscape of cities, farms, and harvested forests, displacing fauna such as the buffalo and driving
the Indians onto their ‘trails of tears’.
While historians in recent time have placed their research and study emphasis on the multicultural
nature of the frontier, tremendous public attention in the mass media ranging from newspaper and music
to literature and movies concentrates on the "Wild West" or the "Old West" of the latter half of the 19th
century when the Westward Movement was in full swing, which gives rise to the Western films.
Western films telling stories in this setting are devoted to portraying how desolate and hard life for
frontier families and depicting the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of mother nature in
the name of civilization or the confiscation of the territorial rights of the frontier’s native inhabitants –
the Indians. As defined by Hine and Forgather, "frontier history tells the story of the creation and
defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of markets, and the formation of states".
They explain, "It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, and the merging of peoples
and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America."3 Western films do not necessarily reflect
the actual life and stories in the course of the Westward Movement, instead, they, as a unique genre in
the realm of motion pictures and an outstanding representative of American culture, are imaginations
and incarnations of these frontier pioneers and this epic-like feat. In spite of that, American people’s
spirit -- independence, persistence, bravery, adventurousness, entrepreneurism, individualism,
generosity and optimism -- nurtured in the undertaking of frontier trek is partially or fully embodied in
Western films.
Through waging wars and making treaties, establishing laws and maintaining order, building ranches
and forming towns, and marking trails and digging mines, the United States expanded its territory from
coast to coast fulfilling the dreams of Manifest Destiny. As the American frontier vanished into the long
river of history, the myths of the west in fiction and film took firm hold in the imagination of Americans
and people in the rest of the world alike. America is exceptional in choosing its iconic self-image. "No
other nation", says David Hamilton Murdoch, "has taken a time and place from its past and produced a
construct of the imagination equal to America’s creation of the West"4.
The American frontier history has long been an appeal to historians and researchers, with the studies
around it having undergone drastic changes in the past one hundred and fifty years or so.
2 / 55
Before the 1890s, the American civilization and culture were regarded by most historians as a derivative
of the European civilization. Too little attention was paid to the West Movement which was simply
treated as the extension and continuance of the European civilization whereas too much importance was
attached to the European impact on the social and economic development of America. This condition
had remained like this until 1893 when Frederick Jackson Turner made a splash in the academic circle
with his influential thesis - The Significance of the Frontier in American History, which remarkably
altered people’s views on American frontier and its significance. The thesis presents Turner’s views on
how the frontier shaped the American being and characteristics. He writes how the frontier drove
American history and why America is what it is today. Turner reflects on the past to illustrate his point
by noting human fascination with the frontier and how expansion to the American West changed
people's views on their culture. It is a thesis that has been respected in the historical circle for many
years.
Although Turner has a great number of supporters who are called “Turnerians”, his views are not
echoed by all scholars. The western history has witnessed pitched battles among “Turnerians” and
“anti-Turnerians”, however no one denies his enormous impact on historical scholarship and the
American mind.
Professor George Wilson in his The Frontier and American Institutions: A Criticism of the Turner
Theory published in 1942 questioned the validity of Turner’s Frontier Thesis. He argues that the
American culture was influenced by many other factors apart from the looming frontier. With all due
respect for Turner, Pierson strongly recommends that we should look beyond the frontier and
acknowledge other factors in American development.
Patricia Nelson Limerick in her 1987 book, The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the
American West brings up the notion of a "New Western History" where the American West is treated as
a place rather than a process of limited expansion. Limerick appeals to scholars continue with the study
within the historical and social atmosphere of the American West, which she believes did not end in
1890, but rather continues on to this very day.
Turner’s Frontier Thesis was also challenged by urban historian Richard C. Wade who, in his first asset,
The Urban Frontier (1959), asserts that western cities such as Pittsburgh, Louisville, and Cincinnati, not
the farmer pioneers, were the catalysts for western expansion.
Henry Mash Smith is regarded by many as one of the first scholars to refute Turner’s proposition. In his
influential Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth, Smith shows the falseness and lies
invented by Turner. To him, the American West is not a Garden of Eden where people long to come and
lead a serene and affluent agrarian life. It is neither poetical nor romantic as Turner has once imagined.
In fact, the American West was never freed from poverty, conflicts, diseases, etc.
The frontier history has also attracted a great deal of attention in China. Professor Yang Shenmao, in his
American Historian Turner and His School, points out the significance of the American frontier to the
development of American capitalism. His Professor He Shunguo’s insightful papers such as America’s
Westward Movement: an Initial Study, The Evolution of the Pioneering Farmers in American West, and
3 / 55
The Significance of Westward Movement in America’s Economic Development all shed new light in this
regard.
Nowadays studies on American frontier history are still ongoing. Whatever changes the current studies
may bring, frontier and frontier spirit are undoubtedly of great importance in the history of America.
The research on the Western movies did not begin until the birth of The Great Train Robbery, a silent
film shot in 1903. In general, the studies on Westerns fall into two categories. The first concentrates on
the films themselves including landscape, photography, cinematography, lighting, music, acting,
storyline and other common techniques etc. in this genre. Andre Bazin’s Evolution of the Western (1955)
and Jim Kitses’ Horizons West (1969) are the typical contributions in this dimension. More recent
analysis on Westerns, which dominates the second category, has given rise to their cultural implication
and impact upon economy, politics, and lifestyles. The historicity, the preoccupation of time and space,
the aesthetic presentation in the Western are the greatly concerned facets within this category, for
instance, Westerns in a Changing America:1955-2000 (2000) by R. Philip Loy, The Cowboy Way: The
Western Leader in Film, 1945-1995 (1999) by Ralph Lamar Turner and Westerns: Films through
History (2001) by Janet Walker. In China, though thousands of books have been written about
Hollywood movies, most of them are just introductory guides for the Chinese audience to have a
general understanding on American movies, the Western genre occupying only a few pages, not to
mention its significance in the inheritance of the frontier spirit.
This thesis, divided into three chapters, explores through the Western films the frontier spirit of America
that was distilled from the Westward Movement and their inter-relationships. The first chapter presents
the history of the Westward Movement consisting of its history, background and the legacies it has left
behind. A separate section is dedicated to depicting the cowboy whose characters were most
representative of those pioneers in that frontier expansion and who has already become an iconic image
in the American culture. The last section of this chapter concentrates on the Cowboy Spirit and Frontier
Spirit that make who the American people are – the spirit of independence, self-reliance and
individualism, the spirit of adventurousness, persistence and dauntlessness, and last but not least, the
spirit of entrepreneurism and realism.
The second chapter gives an overview of Western films which are considered to be the degenderized
epitome of the movement and the people involved in it. The Western film enjoys a history as long as the
film industry itself, so the first section is about the history of the Western film. The second section
details in full length the themes and characteristics while the last section focuses on the influences
brought to the society by Western films.
The last chapter revolves around the frontier spirit that is symbolized by several classic Western films,
namely Stagecoach (1939), High Noon (1952), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1967) and Once Upon
a Time in the West (1968), with each representing a different theme but all boiled down to the spirit of
America formed and developed in the process of the Westward Movement, one of the most magnificent
feats performed by American people in the history of the United States.
4 / 55
Chapter 1 American Spirit Cultivated in the Frontier Trek
1.1. The Westward Expansion: A Historical Overview
1.1.1. Background and History
On the west bank of the Mississippi River in St. Louis city, Missouri state stands a giant arch named
Gateway Arch, or Gateway to the West which is 192 meters in height and, as the tallest man-made
monument in the United States, is also the most prominent landmark building of this city. This arch
made of stainless steel, simple in its form but smooth in its linearity, will emit dazzling copper light
under the sunset. It was built in memory of the Westward Movement in the year of 1964 that marked the
200th anniversary of the movement. The reason why the arch was chosen to be built there is that both
the Mississippi River and St. Louis city bore a great deal of significance in the Westward Movement,
with the former served as the border between the east and the west, and the latter functioned as the only
gateway to the west for the people undertaking the westward journey. Right under the Gateway Arch
lies the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial5 where numerous items and tools – javelins, arrows,
bows and darts as well as wagons, axes, saws, knives and firearms etc. -- utilized by people including
the native Americans in the Westward Movement are exhibited to the museum visitors whose interest
will be invariably aroused and guided into the glorious Westward Movement times.
The Westward Movement refers to the American great mass movement that began in the late 18th
century and concluded in the late 19th century or the early 20th century, spanning a period of
approximately one hundred years. It was a long-lasting and continuously evolving process that had
witnessed hundreds of thousands of residents in the east coast pulling up stakes of their original homes
and moving to the west area of the country. As a matter of fact, American people started their westward
expansion journey as early as well before the United States acquired its independence from the British.
Slave owners in the south as well as the land speculators, industrial capitalists, usurers and ordinary
citizens had long been yearning for the untapped western land, but restricted by various decrees enacted
by the British colonists who intended to confine its colony with the people to a narrow and long territory
along the east coast facing the Atlantic Ocean, few of them, under the deter of those laws, managed or
had the guts to cross the Appalachia Mountains, the original boundary of the east and the west. The
Appalachia chain itself is also a barrier to east-west travel as it forms a series of alternating ridgelines
and valleys oriented in opposition to any road running east-west.
It was not until the year of 1783 marking the conclusion of War of Independence that the Westward
Movement became much more organized, active and systemized under the support and guidance from
the federal government. The War of Independence had all of the most-hated decrees forbidding
Americans to cross Appalachian repealed. Hardly had the war finished when the American people made
the British colonial government abolish all of the aforementioned decrees. The mass land reaching from
the Appalachia Mountains to the Mississippi River was now opened to every American citizen, which
doubled the territorial size of the United States of America.
No sooner the independence was acquired than the ambitious young America accelerated its pace in
5 / 55
expanding its frontier even further west for the movement underway, having merged vast stretches of
land beyond the Mississippi River by virtue of purchases and wars. In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson,
at incredibly low cost, purchased the territory of Louisiana covering a land of 2,140,000 square
kilometers which is about one third of the current American territory from the hand of French while
their emperor Napoleon was busying himself with multiple wars in the European continent. After the
War of 1812, a military conflict between the forces of the United States and those of the British Empire,
much of America's attention turned to exploration and settlement of its territory to the West, which had
been greatly enlarged by the Louisiana Purchase. Families of pioneers swept westward and founded new
communities throughout what is now the Midwest, and between 1816 and 1821, six new states, namely
Indiana, Illinois, Maine, Mississippi, Alabama and Missouri were established and admitted to the Union.
The land boom was fed by encouragement from the federal government and the actions of land
speculators, who bought up large tracts of land in order to sell it in parcels to farmers at exorbitant
prices. These farmers did not mind high prices and high interest on loans due to the growing success of
American agricultural products. Most western farmers became cash croppers who sometimes neglected
subsistence farming in order to focus on marketable commodities. Soon the farmers' dependence on
distant markets caught up with them, however, as the state bank system that had sprung up to support
speculation collapsed, dragging agricultural prices and land values down with it. Many western settlers
suffered greatly during the Panic of 18196, but most survived and continued the conquest of the West.
A major aspect of the conquest of the West was the removal of the Indians who dwelled there. Forty
seven years after the War of Independence, on May 28, 1830, the congress of the United States of
America endorsed the notorious Indian Removal Act proposed by President Andrew Jackson which
stipulated that the Indians could use the land within the American territory but the ownership of the land
would never be theirs. Between 1830 and 1850, about 100,000 American Indians living in states such as
Michigan, Louisiana, and Florida moved west over the Mississippi River after the U.S. government
coerced treaties or used the U.S. Army against those resisting. Under the leadership of President Andrew
Jackson, the Indians who remained east of the Mississippi were cruelly and violently driven from their
homes and concentrated in reservations in what is now Oklahoma. The US Army crushed any resistance
to removal. With the West cleared of this obstacle, westerners focused on developing new methods of
transporting their goods to market. The canal and railroad systems, which grew up in the North,
facilitated a much larger volume of trade and manufacturing while reducing costs a great deal. Great
cities sprang up throughout the North and Northwest, bolstered by the improvement in transportation.
As late as the 1820s, when Americans talked about the West, they referred to the area between the
Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River, and perhaps a slight bit beyond. The areas of Texas,
New Mexico, California, and Oregon, known together as the Far West, were regarded as a vast,
unknown, and shadowy region, even in the eyes of the nations with claims there. Spain, and after 1821,
Mexico, claimed Texas, New Mexico, and California, and Oregon was jointly occupied by the United
States and Great Britain. These areas had, for the most part, remained devoid of settlers throughout the
expansion boom of the 1820s and the 1830s. Americans’ vague idea about the Far West remained
unchanged until years later a brave man named Jedediah Strong Smith broadened their view. Jedediah
Smith was the first United States citizen to explore and eastwardly cross the Sierra Nevada and the
treacherous Great Basin. Smith also was the first American to make a trip to California coast and later
travel up to reach the Oregon Country. Not only was he the first to do this, but he and Robert Stuart
6 / 55
discovered the South Pass which became the main route used by pioneers to travel to the Oregon
Country. Surviving three massacres and one bear mauling, Jedediah Smith's explorations and
documented discoveries were highly significant in opening the American West to expansion by white
settlers and cattlemen. Jedediah Smith's explorations were the main basis for accurate Pacific-West
maps; all the travels and discoveries by the trappers and fur traders went into the map of the western
United States he prepared in the winter of 1830–31, which has been called “a landmark in mapping of
the American West”.
After the Midwest had been substantially developed, the national focus turned toward the Far West. The
territory of Texas, controlled by the Spanish, was settled by Americans, who eventually undertook the
Texas Rebellion in efforts to win independence. When the United States admitted Texas to the Union in
1845, the Mexican government was outraged, and from 1846 to 1848, the two nations squared off in the
Mexican War. With a resounding victory, the United States gained control of Texas, New Mexico, and
California. The Oregon territory was annexed in 1846 as well, and the US controlled the land all the
way to the Pacific Ocean. The economic boom brought by the immigration fever later on had been
occupying an important stance in the development of the United States.
In 1848, a carpenter and sawmill operator at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California made a discovery that
he had never imagined would attract so many people to this barely inhabited region. His name is James
W. Marshall and his discovery is one of the most-wanted treasures in all times by the human being – the
gold. Upon hearing the news, the first people flocking to California were those in Oregon, and then it
rapidly spread to other states across the country like wild fire. The gold-seekers, called "forty-niners"
(as a reference to 1849), often faced substantial hardships on their trips to California. While most of the
newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe,
Australia, and China as well. At first, the gold nuggets could be picked up off the ground. Later, gold
was recovered from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, such as panning. More sophisticated
methods were developed and later adopted elsewhere. At its peak, technological advances reached a
point where significant financing was required, increasing the proportion of gold companies to
individual miners. Gold worth tens of billions of today's dollars was recovered, which led to great
wealth for a few. However, the vast majority returned home with barely more than they had started with.
As a result of the Gold Rush, San Francisco grew from a small settlement of about only 200 residents in
1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, factories, churches, schools and communities
were built throughout California which had achieved its prosperity in all aspects within a period of just
a few years became a state of the United States in the year of 1850.
The enthusiasm of the United States about the territory expansion continued until in 1867, Alaska, the
largest state in the United States by area, was purchased from the hand of Russia, for $7.2 million at
approximately two cents per acre and in 1898, Hawaii was merged by the US after the Hawaiian
Kingdom had controversially been overthrown by Americans.
The year of 1890 marked the official conclusion of the Westward Movement which not only more than
tripled the size of America’s original territory, but also posed a great impact on the development of the
capitalism in America and the formation of the national characters of America as well as expanded the
necessary elements such as lands, mines, workforces and railways etc. for the development of the
industrialization that followed later on.
7 / 55
1.1.2. Significance
The significances of the Westward Movement were apparently enormous. First and foremost, three
rounds of immigration boom were generated in the movement, supplying plentiful workforces for the
development of the Wild West. The first boom of immigration emerged in the late 18th century and early
19th century when, encouraged by the Louisiana Purchase as well as various land decrees issued by the
government, swarms of easterners flocked to the western areas such as Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee
and settled there, which laid a solid foundation for the formation of the breadbasket areas in the
Midwest for America. The second boom came around 1815 and was divided into two major
immigration currents. One current was formed by the inhabitants from the coastal regions and those
from Germany who converged and traveled up to north Ohio which was later built by those people into
the bases of corn production and animal husbandry for America. The other immigration current was
forged by people from the south-eastern area. These people moved down to the plain area that sits
between Louisiana and South Georgia and ploughed it into plantations for cotton production and sale,
which significantly boosted the slavery-based economy in the South. The third immigration boom was
accompanied by a chain of territory expansion activities in the mid-19th century when Texas was merged
as part of America in 1845, Oregon was included in America map in 1846 after years of negotiations
with the Great Britain, and California was taken away by America from Mexico after the Mexican War
concluded in 1848. In addition, myriads of settlers were brought to the west by the California Gold
Rush.
In essence, the Westward Movement is deemed by most historians and economists as an economy
booming process which saw the balanced and coordinated developments of both industry and
agriculture for America. The abundances of mine, water and forest, the long coast line as well as the
excellent harbors in the west, all together not only facilitated America’s industrialization with superb
resources and giant markets, but also drastically broadened the horizon for America’s agriculture
flourishing. By 1860s, the northern areas of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River had grown into
the ‘wheat kingdom’ of the United States whilst the lower ranges of the Mississippi River was turned
into the “cotton kingdom” by people who moved and then settled there. The booming of agriculture
fueled the economy prosperity by feeding the eastern industrial areas with abundant raw materials as
well as ample food.
Without question, the Westward Movement was also a long-lasting process in which American people
had gone through unimaginable hardships to build their settlements and establish their businesses. In
confrontation with tough situations during this process, the people of America got rid of all of the
outmoded conventions and customs and courageously forged ahead, overcoming countless afflictions
lying ahead. Through this movement, the people of America also obtained an invaluable spiritual
treasure, that is, they had nurtured the spirit of realism, optimism and entrepreneurism. However, as the
population of the West soared and the prospects of statehood for western territories appeared clearer and
clearer, the nation battled over the future of slavery in the West, which later gave rise to the Civil War.
To sum up, the Westward Movement, in the context of the free market economy as well as the territory
expansion, based on the large-scale immigrations, pioneered by the transportation industry, and guided
by the agriculture and animal husbandry, witnessed an accelerated development of America’s social
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economy. As a result of this movement, the east and the west were integrated both politically and
economically, which had enormously boosted the development of the capitalism industrialization in
America and significantly promoted this country’s agricultural revolution, industrial revolution and
knowledge revolution. Nurtured in the Westward Movement, the frontier spirit and the cowboy spirit
that encouraged and urged them to embrace hardships, dare to sacrifice, keep moving ahead in high
spirit when searching for new lands and new fortunes in the wilderness were later became an integral
part of the American Spirit which drives American people to be always bold, optimistic, innovative,
explorative and adventurous in their social development later on. The modernized agriculture, industry
and animal husbandry established in the expanded west lands by American pioneers through decades of
time altogether served as a deciding factor in shaping America into the largest economy in the world. In
conclusion, America would not have been today’s America had American people not undergone the
Westward Movement.
1.2. The Rise and the fall of Cowboys, Chivalries in the Wilderness
The Westward Movement gave rise to an iconic image of America, the cowboy, an animal herder who
tends cattle on ranches, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a variety of other ranch-related
tasks.
As an integral part of the story of the United States of America, the cowboy is a romantic metaphor for
America’s Westward Movement and creation myths. Always portrayed by Hollywood as heroic,
hard-working, hard-riding and free-thinking, the cowboy is inseparable from the American history.
The traditions of the working cowboy were further etched into the minds of the general public with the
development of Wild West Shows7 in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which is dedicated to
showcasing and romanticizing the life of both cowboys and Native Americans especially in the
Westward Movement times. Beginning in the 1920s and continuing to the present day, Western films
made the cowboy lifestyle popular to the general public, in the meantime, persistently stereotyped
images of cowboys, both positive and negative, were formed by them. Sometimes, the cowboy and the
violent gunslinger are often associated with one another in the Western films. On the other hand,
cowboys are portrayed by some actors such as John Wayne to promote positive and admirable values
such as honesty, respect and patriotism. Cowboys in movies were often shown fighting with American
Indians. However, the reality was that, cowboys would be armed against both predators and human
thieves, and often used their guns to drive off people of any race attempting to steal or rustle cattle.
America’s first cowboys actually came from Mexico. Beginning in the 1500s, vaqueros meaning
“cowboys” in Spanish were hired by Spanish ranchers to drive and tend to their livestock between
Mexico and what are now known as New Mexico and Texas. As American traders and settlers coming
from the east expanded westward, different traditions, languages and cultures converged to some degree,
influencing one another. Before the Mexican-American War in 1848, New England merchants who
traveled by ship to California encountered vaqueros of Mexican and Spanish origins, trading
manufactured goods for hides and tallow that were produced from vast cattle ranches. American traders
and settles along what later became known as the Santa Fe Trail8 also had similar contacts with the
vaquero life. They took their cues from the vaquero culture whose influence persisted throughout the
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1800s, borrowing clothing styles and vocabulary and learning how to herd their cattle in similar ways.
Starting with these early encounters and imitating, the lifestyle and language of the vaquero began a
transformation which, combined with English cultures, customs and traditions, produced what became
known in American culture as the "cowboy".
As America continuously built more and more railroads further west to foster the development of
industry, transportation and white settlements that were established in the territories of the Indians, the
cowboy had played a crucial part in this country’s expansion. A lot of cows had been herded by Texas
cowboys in the early 1800s along the Shawnee Trail9 to cattle markets in St. Louis and Kansas City.
Owing to the booming industrialization in the eastern metropolises, a great deal of food was needed to
feed the workforces, which was seen by the western cowboys as a golden business opportunity. They
were thinking of shipping their cattle to the eastern markets to make money, but would need to confront
a great challenge, the poor transportation. At that time, no immediate railroads were available for the
shipment; therefore, they needed to drive their cattle for thousands of miles before they could finally
reach the destinations. In 1866, the first cowboys set out on the journey with their 260,000 cattle, which
was undoubtedly a tough long march. Hunger and cold were the difficulties every cowboy on the
journey had to face, but these did not constitute all of the setbacks on the way. Both people and cattle
could be frequently struck by illness of this or that kind, and due to the condition of no medical
treatment whatsoever, they could die from diseases before they were able to arrive. When travelling
through deserts where plantation of any sort and water were scarce, cattle could fall down one after
another in a very quick fashion because of starvation and thirst. In addition, cowboys had to, from time
to time, stand bandits and Indians who would keep harassing them trying to rob them of their cattle and
other properties. Ranch owners in some places held an unfriendly attitude towards these cowboys,
fearing that transient animals would trample crops and transmit cattle fever to local cattle. They built up
fences against the cowboys and their cattle approaching to their ranches; they even formed groups that
threatened to beat or shoot cattlemen found on their lands so that the cowboys had to detour and travel
longer distances. It was a painstaking journey that claimed a lot of casualties but they did not quit and in
the end, after having lost most of their cattle and crew, established a trail, long and perilous but passable
for cattle. During the 1860s and following the Civil War, the cowboys herded via the Chisholm and
Western Trails towards the new railroads in Kansas, where livestock was then loaded into freight cars
and transported to various markets around the country. While the city dwellers in the east were tucking
into the delicious beef at their kitchen tables, the bravery, persistent and indomitable cowboys in the
west were shedding their sweats and blood to drive their cattle towards east. Within a period less than
two decades, more than six million cows and steers had been herded to the railroads by cowboys. Red
River (1948) is a western film vividly depicting the cattle drive of the cowboys where very typical
difficulties faced by cowboys were presented. The Civil War has impoverished the South, and although
Dunson, the main character of the movie has the biggest cattle ranch in Texas, he's broke because no
one in the South can afford to buy beef. To sell his cows at a much better price, Dunson determines to
start the biggest cattle drive in history, with over 10,000 cows, north to Missouri which is more than
1,000 miles away and could take them about 4 months to get there. Their drive turned out to be very
smooth in the beginning for several weeks. One cowboy even remarks that he doesn’t like the
smoothness. He likes a balance of good and trouble, not just one or the other. Trouble does come though,
when Bunk Kenneally, one of their crew, gets into the supply of sugar. Everyone has been on their best
behavior as far as being quiet, because the cattle are on edge, tired from the month-long drive, with
coyotes milling about. Worries were that the cows would stampede if something spooked them. Bunk
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clumsily knocks over some of the cook pots when he’s getting into the sugar and that’s enough noise to
start a stampede which eventually caused the deaths of 400 cows and a cowboy. 40 days out, with
reduced rations (after one wagon was destroyed in the stampede) and the men increasingly restless,
Dunson reminds them that they all signed on to see it through, like it or not. A lot of other problems
confront the cowboys afterwards – reduced rations, tough weather conditions, internal conflicts, low
morale, high pressure and Indian attacks etc. By overcoming these hardships one by one after losing
many cows and several lives, they eventually managed to drive most of their cattle to the railroad where
these cows were sold at $25 per herd, which is hundreds of times higher than they are in Texas.
Cattle drives had to strike a balance between speed and the weight of the cattle. While cattle could be
driven as far as 25 miles in a single day, they would lose so much weight that they would be hard to sell
when they reached the end of the trail. Usually they were taken shorter distances each day, allowed
periods to rest and graze both at midday and at night. On average, a herd could maintain a healthy
weight moving about 15 miles per day. Such a pace meant that it would take as long as two months to
travel from a home ranch to a railhead. The Chisholm Trail10, for example, was 1,000 miles long.
On average, a single herd of cattle on a long drive (for example, Texas to Kansas railheads) numbered
about 3,000 head. To herd the cattle, a crew of at least 10 cowboys was needed, with three horses per
cowboy. Cowboys worked in shifts to watch the cattle 24 hours a day, herding them in the proper
direction in the daytime and watching them at night to prevent stampedes and deter theft. The crew also
included a cook, who drove a chuck wagon, usually pulled by oxen, and a horse wrangler to take charge
of the remuda, or spare horses. The wrangler on a cattle drive was often a very young cowboy or one of
lower social status, but the cook was a particularly well-respected member of the crew, as not only was
he in charge of the food, he also was in charge of medical supplies and had a working knowledge of
practical medicine.
Texans established trail driving as a regular occupation. In 1836, when Texas was still part of Mexico,
there was a "Beef Trail" to New Orleans. In the 1840s the Tejanos extended their markets northward
into Missouri. The towns of Sedalia, Baxter Springs, Springfield, and St. Louis became principal
markets. During the 1850s, emigration and freighting from the Missouri River westward caused a rise in
demand for oxen. In 1858, the firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell utilized about 40,000 oxen.
Longhorns were trained by the thousands for work oxen.
The gold boom in California in the 1850s also created a demand for beef and provided people with the
cash to pay for it. Thus, though most cattle were obtained locally or from Mexico, very long drives were
attempted. Australians began cattle drives to ports for shipment of beef to San Francisco and, after
freezing methods were developed, all the way to Britain. In 1853 the Italian aristocrat Leonetto Cipriani
undertook a drive from St. Louis to San Francisco along the California Trail; he returned to Europe in
1855 with large profits.
During the American Civil War before the Union seized the Mississippi River in 1863, Texans drove
cattle into the Confederacy for the use of the Confederate Army. In October, 1862 a Union naval patrol
on the southern Mississippi River captured 1,500 head of Longhorns which had been destined for
Confederate military posts in Louisiana. The permanent loss of the main cattle supply after 1863
became a serious blow to the Confederate Army11.
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