APUSH CHP.26 AWYHL
What were the actual effects of the frontier on American society at different stages of its development? What was valuable in Frederick Jackson Turner's frontier thesis, despite its being discredited by subsequent historians.
The "frontier thesis" by Turner said the pioneering process transformed Old World ideas and institutions into American ideas and institutions. Westward pioneering was one of the Americans' proudest achievements. Some have said the the American people were democratized by the movement of the frontier going west to the Pacific Coast. It all happened in less than a century.
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The Indians were subdued due to (1) the railroad, which cut through the heart of the West, (2) the White man's diseases, (3) the extermination of the buffalo, (4) wars, and (5) the loss of their land to White settlement. subdued- quiet and rather reflective or depressed.
What were the major issues in the crucial campaign of 1896? Why did McKinley win, and what were the long-term effects of his victory?
The background to the election of 1896 was one of great economic turmoil and civil strife. The biggest issue at this time was that of the Gold Standard and economic protectionism. McKinley based a large part of his campaign on defending the Gold Standard and protectionism as essential to renewing prosperity. He attacked his rival's ( Bryan ) support of bi-metalism ( Gold and Silver ) as a policy that would devalue the dollar and hurt working people. McKinley's popularity was based on his promises of domestic prosperity and the slogan of delivering " a full dinner pail ". McKinley also gained huge financial assistance from industrialists and bankers ( up to $16 million ) worried about Bryan's populism. By contrast Bryan spent around $500,000 on the whole election. This money allowed McKinley to effectively have others campaign for him (he barely moved while his rival toured the country extensively) and led to crushing victories in the Industrial North and West. Following his crushing election victory McKinley instituted a massive protective tariff and moved towards establishing an entirely gold-backed currency however much of his attention was diverted by the Cuban-American war that broke out in 1898. McKinley is very much seen as a transitional president between a still very much agrarian and rural society ( in it's mind if not in it's reality ) and the urban, heavily industrialized society of 20th century America.
How did whites finally overcome resistance of the Plains Indians, and what happened to the Indians after their resistance ceased?
They killed them and shot the animals they hunted so they starved to death. The survivors were forced onto small areas of land called reservations and the best land was kept for the immigrants Disease. Brutal campaigns, in which men, women, and children were killed. Attrition. Starvation. Assimilation. Many times, Indians were forcibly herded up and sent off to reservations (Trail of Tears, although arguably the most famous, is one of but many).
