2. Overview
Over a century ago historian Frederick People began to plunder the natural
Jackson Turner noted that the western resources of the frontier, in order to fuel
frontier is a feature of the US that made it central governments & voracious world
unique. markets.
The land was where civilization met the When the cities began to mature and
wilderness was distorted and to most was populate, they began to change their wasteful
settled and unsettled land ways.
The North American frontier was not empty The similarities in the conquest and
landscape, it was a borderland where white settlement across frontiers form the
European settlers of confronted indigenous comparison between the two essays in the
peoples, stripped their culture & took their chapter.
land. One is about Billing, Montana, a railroad
The way in which America was exploited by town founded in the 1880’s, and Karaganda,
European conquest was not fundamentally Kazakhstan, a prison settlement erected on
dissimilar to the rest of the world. the soviet frontier in the 1930’s. Pointing out
The settlement of whites: traders, the similarities in events of expansion for
missionaries, miners, ranchers, farmers, these two very dissimilar countries Suggests
railroad builders, and, land speculators began that the American experience was one
to “civilize” the frontier. variation of the common frontier theme of
tragedy and exploitation.
3. Glossary
Indian Societies Under Siege: Gridded Lives:
The United States & Canada Why Montana and Kazakhstan Are Nearly the Same Place
Acculturation & Assimilation- merging an
outside minority into the mainstream population
Collectivization- The Soviet policy of combining
local farms into huge government controlled farms to
Enfranchisement Act (1869)- a law that stimulate Soviet industry.
rapidly assimilated Indians into Canadian society.
Lebensraum- German for room to live, used by Nazi
Reservations were broken up and land was given to
Germany to justify expansion throughout Europe.
the individuals.
Purge Trials- A series of staged trials held in the
Mexican War(1846-1848)- US/MEX war Soviet Union to eliminate opponents of the communist
where the United States took AZ, NM, UT, and CO. regime.
Nez Perce- Indian people of the NW fought Stalin, Joseph (1879-1953) Ruthless leader of
against white expansion. Soviet Union from 1929 until his death. Once in control,
he forcibly collectivized Russia's farms ordered rapid
Sitting Bull- Sioux Indian chief, who United the industrial growth and imprisoned or executed rivals ,or
Sioux Tribes against the US Army. dissidents including millions of ordinary citizens.
Steppe- the long belt of grassland that extends
from eastern Europe, inhabited throughout history
nomadic peoples who raised horses and live stock.
