The Decline of the West

The Great War, or World War I, ended in 1918 with the Treaty of Paris. It marked the beginning of a new era. During the war, there was a boom in the economy and employment was easy to find. The damage the war caused on the land in Europe was catastrophic; with the trenches and heavy artillery and machinery being used to destroy each other and take cities, it is amazing that there was anything left. Many people, soldiers and civilians, died during the war. After World War I, many countries gained their independence, and many countries suffered severe economic debt due to the expensive war reparations.

Colonial Expansion started as early as the fifteenth century with the European expansion into the Americas. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that was known as new imperialism (notes). During this time, new imperialism sparked the colonial empires expansion and this caused the colonial empires completely take off. These imperialist powers were inspired and motivated to build these colonial empires due to the economic, political and cultural values. These highly industrialized countries were in need of more raw materials like oil, copper, tin, and rubber along with industrial crops and stimulants (notes). Securing these raw materials would fuel their industrialized economies. Due to the domestic markets of Western Europe being full meaning no more increase of profit, these overseas colonies became more profitable. The economy was a large part important in building these colonial empires. In addition, each country wanted to further politically, so that each Western Empire wanted more prestige. This would show the more power and overall national security in competition with other Western countries. Culturally, each country wanted to be the most powerful and believed that their way of life was the greatest. With a strong feeling of cultural superiority, the Europeans felt a moral duty to their countries. This is where nationalism played a role. In many ways, the dominating countries like

For many years historians displayed United States as a country trying to accomplish their Manifest Destiny with the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 without seeking the other half dealing with the Native Americans. For the most part, the West-Ward brought beneficial aspects to American culture through trade, population growth and power. The increase of land lead to the many conflict between how United States government wanted to be organized and the morality level of the American people at the time. The United States learning from all the other big countries and trying to learn how to be just as good as them. The great migration to the West also affected the earth in that how human use the land. Yet, the subject of “if the Westward Expansion

Many assumptions have been made about what the ‘West’ was really like, mostly suggesting that it was some amazing time period when guys might save a damsel in distress. “Don’t you think we spend too much time mythologizing the west? I mean look at how it was. Dirty, violent, & illiterate. It wasn’t an age for heroes, that’s for sure.” (Alexie 224) This quote explains exactly how people who were alive then might have described that time period. It refers to the stereotyping of the west, and how some people glorified it as a land of heroes, but it was not. Sherman Alexie highlighted all the stereotypes, made it clear who brought them about, and discussed how the Natives were represented in the eyes of the white man. The whites believed that the

The West prior to and after the Civil War was largely unpopulated by the white man, the Indians, as a result, dominated the landscape mostly undisturbed. However, this separation came to a halt as legion of white pioneers invaded the great plains, displacing the Indians and “civilizing” the West. With tensions rising, the government attempted to make treaties that gave the Indians designated areas to live. What the government failed to realize was that there wasn’t a primary Indian hierarchy and that the people in charge of upholding these treaters were corrupt. Inability to control the nomadic people and growing anger amongst the Indian ranks lead to many bloody skirmishes between the Indians and the U.S. Army. The Indian’s had a short lived victory at the Battle of Little Big Horn, “Custer’s Last Stand.” Eventually, the U.S. Army forced the Indians to surrender and corralled them into reservations where they silently suffered for generations as the government attempted to assimilate them.

The expansion to the west was considered to be a dead topic in the world of history. However one historian published a novel bringing forward new thoughts and opinions on the subject. Since Turners thesis, published in 1893 not many historians tried to reevaluate the topic of the frontier until Gregory H. Noble. Noble currently a history professor at Georgia Tech University is a very accomplished historian in early American and environmental history. In his novel, American Frontiers: Cultural Encounters and Continental Conquest he embarks on evaluating the expansion of the west in a completely revolutionized approach. Noble was able to revitalize the subject of westward expansion through a non-Turnerian approach, which was looking at the frontier as a variety of multicultural encounters. This was entirely different compared to Turner who viewed the west as a merger between savagery and civilization. Noble appreciates and takes into consideration the encounters with women, children, Hispanics, and Native Americans. However, Noble realizes that the settlement of the west “must be understood as a story of often savage and duplicitous conquest rather than benign settlement.” This benign settlement was settled in a savage way but yet the United States government was unable to self-reflect and realize the true savages are themselves. Noble’s was one of the first historians to mention and defend the Native Americans as people not as undesirables. Although Nobles novel was

The essay fails to address several aspects of the assignment and demonstrates a lack of clear understanding of the concepts and facts. It contains serious flaws.

When the first settlers came to America many years ago, they found freedom and opportunity.  With hard work and determination an average man or woman could be prosperous.  This concept was not only revolutionary in theory, but has proven to be true for many successful individuals. This idea has come to be known as the American Dream. Its foundation was based on good ethics; however, with the passing of time it has become distorted.  The American Dream no longer stands for equal opportunity and hard work; it involves wealth, false happiness, materialistic possessions and high social status.  Individuals who have achieved the materialistic American Dream give the appearance of perfection.  However, for many, their lives are not as ideal

During the beginning of the story, we see the effects of doing the wrong thing and are shown the negatives it has on mike before he stands up against his gang. Mike is miserable and completely torn while being in his gang. He knows that the fights

In the early 19th century, while the rapidly-growing United States expanded into the lower South, white settlers faced what they considered an obstacle. This area was home to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chicasaw and Seminole nations. These Indian nations, in the view of the settlers and many other white Americans, were standing in the way of progress. Eager for land to raise cotton, the settlers pressured the federal government to acquire Indian territory.

West summarizes his writings by discussing the best ways for people to understand the west, and says to do so, one must navigate thru the labyrinth of interconnection factors surrounding western development history such as “people, institutions, weather, ambitions,… and perceptions” to name a few of the ones cited by West. If all of these are therefore considered and the stories they form are analyzed, the results are neither simple nor concise, yet they are very important to peoples understanding of how they relate to the big picture of the west. West concluded this chapter by saying “if we are to find our way to the West, they are the ones we have to listen to. West is referring of course to stories in this quote, and therein lies that final power of the story, for without the story, we will not be able to understand who we were, are becoming, and how those questions affect our relations to those around us as

When the West first made contact with the non-Western world, this was on a basis of trading. As Europeans became further embroiled into the non-West politics, it made trading all the more harder. To keep the flow of trade going, in an easier way, the European countries then began to take over parts of countries, India for example. With China, they made spheres of influence, which, technically was not their colonies, but the European powers still ruled over them. In Africa, many of the European Empires almost literally carved out their colonies, using the Africans to do so—although slavery was seen as immoral and illegal in many of the Empires.

The Collapse of the Western Civilization makes jokes about how wealthy people disregard global warming. However, it takes something very shocking for them to realize what is happening in the environment. One would think wealthy people would be invested in the environment because they have money and would want to invest their money in keeping the environment safe to live in. However, In The Collapse of the Western Civilization, “The loss of pet cats and dogs garnered particular attention among wealthy westerners” (TCOTWC, Pg. 8). This odd consistency surprisingly opens the eyes of the wealthy and begins to make them realize that global warming is an issue.

8th century and particular causes that explain why it was by far the most violent and the most universally significant of these revolutions. The first of the general causes was the social structure of the West. The feudal regime had been weakened step-by-step and had already disappeared in parts of Europe. The increasingly numerous and prosperous elite of wealthy commoners—merchants, manufacturers, and professionals, often called the bourgeoisie—aspired to political power in those countries where it did not already possess it. The peasants, many of whom owned land, had attained an improved standard of living and education and wanted to get rid of the last vestiges of feudalism so as to acquire the full rights of landowners and to be free to increase their holdings. Furthermore, from about 1730, higher standards of living had reduced the mortality rate among adults considerably. This, together with other factors, had led to an increase in the population of Europe unprecedented for several centuries: it doubled between 1715 and 1800. For France, which with 26 million inhabitants in 1789 was the most populated country of Europe, the problem was most acute.

The West uses Orientalism to justify its blatant exploitation of the East. Both Charlotte Smith’s “Beachy Head” and Samuel Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” unveils the West’s desire to exploit the East and define the exploitation by highlighting different dimensions to the desire. “Beachy Head” places economic exploitation at the forefront of the poem while also arguing that an underlying layer of sexual exploitation exists in the West’s desire for the East. The trade rhetoric reveals the West’s view of the East as a prime resource for trade purposes while the less obvious feminine imagery exhibits the sexual dimension to exploitation. Instead of subtly hinting at this sexual layer, “Kubla Khan” overtly references the sensual while also exposing the West’s fear of becoming like the East. The sexual rhetoric depicts the West’s intense sexual desire for the East while the mention of the “savage” side conveys the West’s need to distance itself. Both interpretations of exploitation expose the destructive and corrupt nature of Orientalism and how it advantages the West at the East’s expense.